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Global lockdowns owing to the coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in smartphone usage with many apps experiencing huge spikes in new downloads. However, according to recent numbers released by online platform Apptopia as analyzed by TechCrunch , daily downloads for many popular apps in India have either taken a dip or remained stagnant during the lockdown.
Daily downloads for multiple popular apps including TikTok, WhatsApp, Truecaller, Helo, Vmate, Facebook, Google Pay, and Paytm have either remained stagnant or have reduced in the last three months as per Apptopia report.
Short video platform TikTok, for instance, had 20.2 million downloads in India in a 31-day period ending April 12 as compared to 21.6 million downloads in January. During this time, Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp’s downloads were reduced to 12 million from 17 million. Streaming platform Hotstar saw a dip in download to 3 million from its previous 9.8 million downloads.
Dip in revenue
Apart from downloads, the revenue for apps offering in-app purchases has also plummeted amid lockdown. Apps have also witnessed a dip in ad revenue.
Facebook’s Alex Schultz, VP of Analytics, and Jay Parikh, VP of Engineering in a blog post last month had said that the social media giant’s revenue had taken a major hit despite a major increase in usage and time spent across its social media platforms in light of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Online dating app Tinder amassed an in-app revenue of $319,102 in India from March 13 to April 12 down from $547,103 in January. Netflix’s in-app revenue dropped to $192,154 from $285,562 during this period. LinkedIn and YouTube also witnessed a fall in revenue, the report said.
The only app that seems to be fairing relatively well is the recently rebranded Disney+Hotstar whose revenue increased to $329,675 from $173,253 post its launch. Disney last week had announced that it had amassed 8 million paid subscribers for its Dinsey+Hotstar app launched on April 3.
Surge in new Apps’ downloads
Meanwhile, there has been an increase in downloads for offbeat apps including up and coming coronavirus tracking apps. Government’s recently launched COVID-19 tracker app Aarogya Setu is currently topping the app store chart in India with more than 780,000 downloads a day, TechCrunch reported. Prior to the launch of Aarogya Setu, video-conferencing app Zoom had made its way to the top of the “top free apps” list on Google PlayStore in India.
Gaming app Ludo King has seen a surge in daily downloads to over 450,000 in India in recent days as compared to 150,000 downloads in early February. Another India-based gaming platform Paytm First Games last week announced that it had seen a 200 per cent increase in its user base in the last one month.
According to a recent report released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India and Nielsen, the average time spent on smartphones per user have gone up by 6.2 per cent amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown which has now been extended up to May 3.
app, Facebook, TikTok, lockdown
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