Online Media, Mobile Apps and Gaming Options for Indians with High Speed Internet Access
The Indian telecom space has witnessed a strong growth in the last few years and Indian consumers enjoy one of the lowest costs for 4G mobile internet across the world. The network connectivity and speed is comparable to developed nations but the data is available at much lower prices in India. This has led to a strong growth in consumption of online media, video streaming content and online games among Indian audiences. Many entertainment content companies have moved to online platforms or their native apps to provide content to the ever growing Indian consumer base.
Online gaming has picked up pace in recent years and as per reports of big consultancy firms, this growth is expected to continue in the future as well. India has a vast and young consumer base that is highly enticing for online gaming companies. In recent times, many products have been launched in the local market, keeping the Indian audience in mind.
Indians have always been interested in cricket but other sports are also picking up pace in the new formats of the game. Pro Kabbadi League is one such example where the popular game of Kabbadi has been transformed into a league format with 12 regional teams.
While Indians love sports, betting on the outcomes of sports events is also highly popular across the nation. However, most of the betting was happening in offline networks in the past. This situation is changing fast with online sports betting in recent years. Online sports-betting offers a much safer environment with higher transparency. The platforms operating in India are managed by companies headquartered in Europe or North America. These platforms offer very interesting and high quality casino games and sports betting on major sports events. Indian bettors can check out detailed reviews about real money casino sites and place their bets on different casino games with high payouts.
As per the data available on Google Play Store and Apple’s app store, social media and gaming applications have witnessed a strong growth during COVID-19 pandemic. The growth in traffic for online media platforms, music and video streaming has been impressive mainly because people were locked at home with limited options for entertainment.
People are now comfortable communicating with each other on social platforms and video conferencing apps like Zoom. With high speed connectivity, the growth in online services is expected to remain robust even in the future.
Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have earmarked major spending on content targeting Indian audiences. There have been deals with Indian media companies to create shows for these platforms. While Netflix and Amazon Prime are the major players, there have been some local apps as well like MX Player, Hotstar, SonyLIV, Voot and Shemaroo that have managed to take some market share in this fast growing segment.
Gaming applications like PUBG, Fortnite, Call of Duty and Battlelands are also gaining popularity among Indian youth. However, the Indian government banned PUBG and social media app Tik-Tok due to their connection with China.
Digital entertainment segment has a strong future in India. High-quality, regional content has a high retention rate in the Indian market. As per PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the Indian market registered a CAGR of 11.5% during the five years till 2018. The report predicts that the market and spending on content is expected to remain robust in this region.
