India might be one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, but it is yet to develop a healthy ecosystem of quality Freemium App/Game development.
I did a quick analysis of the Top 100 Apps in Google Play Store (India) and Apple App Store (India) and found that “Made in India” Apps fare poorly in Paid & Grossing App categories.
Not even a single game from India in Top 100 Free Apps
The situation is similar for iOS too – just 1 game out of top 100 free apps comes from India (that’s Dead Among Us by Rolocule)
iOS has less gaming Apps under grossing than Android in India
Conclusion: Indian app developers have not yet cracked the app monetization formula. It’s directly dependent on the app quality & its ability to lure customers to pay. We have a long way to go.
Gaming in India is even more dismal which is quite evident from the graph above.
Few reasons IMO
- Indians themselves are not big consumers of Freemium/Paid Apps & digital goods, hence the culture is missing.
- We have some great talent, but risk taking abilities are low. They end up working with big companies.
- Payment ecosystem and intention to pay for digital goods could be another reason.
- Over-reliance on Ad-driven models plus advertising being a relatively easy to crack model didn’t encourage alternate revenue streams.
- Indians love free stuff ☺
