The US was the top spending market for AVOD in 2019

Top five countries by AVoD expenditure ($ million)
Ranking Country 2019
1 USA 7,998
2 China 6,777
3 United Kingdom 1,620
4 Japan 1,611 4
5 India 632 5

Source:  Digital TV Research, quoted in Advanced Television, 1st June 2020

WhatsApp has 400m MAUs in India

"Messaging service WhatsApp has been in the middle of a number of controversies since last year, ranging from the proliferation of fake news to storing data locally, even as it looks to expand into digital payments.
These controversies come at a time when its parent company Facebook, which also owns Instagram and Messenger, has been under scrutiny across the world over privacy of user data, and also agreed to pay a $5-billion fine to US regulators earlier this week. But even as it tackles these challenges, WhatsApp is bullish on prospects in India as it revealed that it has 400 million monthly active users here out of a global base of 1.5 billion."

Source:  Economic Times, 26th July 2019

18.6m people in India watched an IPL game live on Hotstar

"Indian video streaming giant Hotstar, owned by Disney, today set a new global benchmark for the number of people an OTT service can draw to a live event.
Some 18.6 million users simultaneously tuned into Hotstar’s website and app to watch the deciding game of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament. The streaming giant, which competes with Netflix  and Amazon in India, broke its own “global best” 10.3 million concurrent views milestone that it set last year."

Source:  Techcrunch, 12th May 2019

Over 120m smartphones were sold in India in 2017

"About 124m smartphones were sold in India last year, according to IDC, making it the world’s third-biggest market. Sales were galvanised by disruptive new entrant Reliance Jio, with a mobile data price war making smartphones more appealing than ever.
Jio has made its own contribution to onshore manufacturing, selling more than 40m units of the $20 JioPhone — a basic “feature phone” targeted at lower-income Indians."
Source:  Financial Times, 31st July 2018

Chinese brands account for more than half of smartphone sales in India

"Chinese mobile phone brands are booming in India, for the first time ever making up more than half – 51 percent – of new devices in the world’s second largest smartphone market.
Meanwhile, Indian brands dropped below 20 percent market share of shipments in November, according to Counterpoint Research, plummeting from 40 percent in early 2016.
Local brands have been facing increasingly stiff competition from Chinese brands that are affordable.
Counterpoint research analyst Karn Chauhan says most Chinese brands are in the US$75-200 price segment. As per market share data for the September quarter, Xiaomi has pushed out local players and now dominates this segment, along with Samsung. Those budget phones have seen a growth of over 45 percent in the past year.
The biggest gainers were China’s Vivo and Gionee, making mid-range – US$250-450 – phones, a segment that soared by over 150 percent."

Source:  Tech in Asia, 4th January 2017

14 billion WhatsApp messages were sent exchanged India on on New Year's Eve

"Fourteen billion Whatsapp messages were exchanged in India on New Year’s Eve, making it an all-time high from the country, the firm said on Friday.
Not just that, 32 percent of those messages were in the form of some sort of media: Whatsapp’s 160 million monthly active Indian users sent 3.1 billion images, 700 million GIFs, and 610 million videos.
Facebook-owned Whatsapp has made SMS in India all but redundant. Farmers to school students to businessmen use the service to communicate. Many in India use the English script to communicate in various Indian languages, so language is no barrier. Whatsapp also has local language support in the country."
Source:  Tech in Asia, 6th January 2017

India has overtaken the US to become the world's second largest online population

"India has overtaken the United States to become the world's second largest Internet market, with 333 million users, trailing China's 721 million. But a new report released today by the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development also confirms that just six nations – including China and India – together account for 55% of the total global population still offline, because of the sheer size of their populations.
While Internet access is approaching saturation in richer nations, connectivity is still not advancing fast enough to help bridge development gaps in areas like education and health care for those in poorer parts of the world, according to the 2016 edition of The State of Broadband report.
Globally, an estimated 3.9 billion people are not using the Internet. But the Commission's new report estimates that, between them, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria account for 55% of all unconnected people, while 20 countries – including the US – account for a full 75% of those not using the Internet. These findings suggest that targeted efforts in just a few key markets could help enormously in redressing the gaping 'digital divide' between those who are online and those still offline."
Source:  Press release from the ITU, 15th September 2016

97% of smartphone in India use Android

"Apple’s smartphone marketshare has halved from 4 percent to just 2 percent in India during the past year. Apple iOS will need to reduce iPhone pricing to cheaper levels, attract more operator subsidies and enlarge its retail presence through Apple stores or online channels if it wants to regrow significantly in the future.
Total smartphone shipments in India grew a healthy 19 percent annually from 25.8 million units in Q2 2015 to 30.7 million in Q2 2016. India is currently the world’s third largest smartphone market, after China and the US. India is growing quickly due to low smartphone penetration rates, an expanding middle class with more disposable income, and intense competition among major vendors, retailers and operators.
Android shipped 29.8 million smartphones in India in Q2 2016, growing an impressive 28 percent annually from 23.2 million units in Q2 2015. Android maintained first position across India with a record 97 percent OS share for the quarter, up from 90 percent a year ago."
Source:  Next Big What, 5th August 2016

Mobile ad blocker users by country

Source:  Mobile Ad Blocking report from PageFair, June 2016

More than 300,000 a week log on to Google's free wifi in Indian railway stations

"Guwahati station, the gateway to India’s easternmost states, has just became the 15th train station in India to offer our free, high-speed Wi-Fi service. The other stations that have just come online include Allahabad, Jaipur, Patna and Ujjain Junction, following quickly on the heels of the nine stations announced last month.
 As the network has expanded, the number of people logging in has as well – we’re thrilled that more than 300,000 people are now using this high-speed Wi-Fi each week."

Source:  Google India Blog, 12th May 2016

Smartphone ownership around the world

Source:  Pew Research Centre, 22nd February 2016
(So many stats in the full report!)

Flipkart is the first Indian app to hit 50m installs on Android

"Flipkart has become the first Indian app to cross the 50 million installs landmark on Google Android Play Store. This landmark was crossed in the first week of February 2016.
The Flipkart app, which is also among the highest rated Indian shopping app on Google Play, is the first Indian app across all genres including popular ones like communication, social, entertainment, to cross the 50 million install benchmark. Android phones are the most dominant operating system in smartphones with over 85% of the total smartphone base in India."

Source;  Next Big What, 19th February 2016

Time spent with media per day in India

Source:  Data from TNS, reported by Next Big What, 20th November 2015

Indian ecommerce site Flipkart sold $200m worth of mobile phones in its 5 day Big Billion Days sale

"Flipkart, the country's largest online retailer and marketplace, sold more than $200 million worth of mobile phones during the five-day Big Billion Days sale, with most consumers demanding 4G-backed devices, a top executive said.
Mobile phones made up two-thirds of the $300 million worth of products purchased by consumers during the sale, which started on October 13. Flipkart sold 250 mobile phones every minute, of which 190 were 4G phones, during the five days, chief business officer said.
"Today, three of four phones, which we sell on Flipkart are 4G phones," said Nagori. "About 80 per cent of sale of mobile phones that happened during Big Billion Days were actually 4G phones. Overall, 80 per cent of the phones sold would be under Rs 10,000 range." "

Source:  Economic Times, 26th October 2015

A Digital Snapshot of India

Digital, Social & Mobile in India in 2015 from We Are Social Singapore

25% of smartphones shipped in India are locally made

"Smartphone shipments in India grew by 24.8% Q-o-Q during the April-June 2015 at 24.41 million units according CMR Research. The biggest standout in the report was the growing share of locally manufactured/assembled mobile handsets which went up to 24.8% during Q2 from 19.9% during Q1 2015. This is expected to further rise with the long list of device vendors now exploring local manufacturing. Xiaomi recently launched its first made-in-India smartphone, the Redmi 2 Prime while Chinese rival Lenovo with daughter brand Motorola are too looking at beginning manufacturing in the country. Chinese brands contribution to smartphone sales in India grew by 97% year-on-year during Q2 2015 against 48% for Indian brands. Still, Samsung continued to lead the mobile device market with a 20.6% share, Micromax took the 2nd spot which Intex took 3rd place."
Source:  Next Big What, 20th August 2015

Nearly half the smartphones shipped in India cost under $100

"While both China and India offer a huge consumer base, there are few differences between the two markets including:
In the latest quarter, almost one-fifth of the smartphones sold in China were sub-US$100, while in India almost 50% of all smartphones shipped during the same period were in this price segment;
Apple has 19 Apple Stores in China at present, whereas India doesn’t have an Apple Store;
The high-end Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge had a small contribution to the total Samsung smartphone sales in India, but a considerably larger contribution in China;
Unlike China, we don’t expect the Indian consumer to make a quick switch to the smartphone, and vendors should keep in mind that they are here for the long haul."
Source:  Press release from IDC, 11th August 2015

Xiaomi sold 1m phones in India in 5 months

In dec, we reached a major milestone - 1 mn phones sold in India! Thank u for your love and support. @MiIndiaOfficial pic.twitter.com/LSXijujP87
— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) December 25, 2014

Eight of the top ten smartphone vendors in China are Chinese

"In Q2 2014, the world’s largest smart phone market, mainland China, accounted for 37% of global shipments – some 108.5 million units. Of the top five vendors in China this quarter, all but one were local companies. And perhaps more impressively, that home-grown success continues in the top 10, where eight vendors were Chinese. In little over a year, Xiaomi has risen from being a niche player to become the leading smart phone vendor in the world’s largest market, overtaking Samsung in volume terms in Q2. Xiaomi took a 14% share in China, on the back of 240% year-on-year growth. With Lenovo, Yulong, Huawei, BBK, ZTE, OPPO and K-Touch, the eight Chinese vendors in the top 10 together accounted for a total of 70.7 million units and a 65% market share. Samsung and Apple, the only international vendors in the top 10, together accounted for shipments of 20.0 million units, representing 18% of the overall smart phone market in China."
Source:  Data from Canalys, reported in a press release, 4th August 2014
Note - The full press release has data on other markets too

Digital & Mobile in India

Social, Digital & Mobile in India 2014 from We Are Social Singapore