Yahoo's first ever Mobile Developer Meet held in India

At Yahoo’s first-ever Mobile Developer Meetups in India, held in Gurgaon and Bangalore this week, over 350 app developers gathered to know more about the state of the app nation in India – insights into apps and their usage, emerging growth categories and device adoption trends.

The Flurry team from Yahoo presented on the State of the App Nation in India – an analysis backed by data gleaned from over 700,000 apps and 1.8 billion devices from across the world, and the 42,000 apps and 82 million devices from India, that use Flurry.

The trends (see more detailed insights from Flurry below) show Asia and India leading the phablet revolution. The phablet is the fastest growing mobile device globally, with growth in India outpacing growth in the US – 38% of user sessions in India are on phablets vs 21% in the US, as measured by Flurry.

India is also remarkable as a market for the diversification of apps, when it comes to usage. App use is shifting from entertainment to more functional categories that are utilitarian and enhance productivity  – personalization and news & reading are currently the fastest growing app categories in India.

The move from e-commerce to m-commerce is accelerating – with Indians engaging with their mobile shopping apps almost round the clock. In a quirky difference, unlike other Asian markets, mealtimes are a ‘no mobile shopping’ time for Indian users.

Gaming remains one of the most engaged categories. Users in India love action and arcade games, mirroring the trend across Asia, though we outpace the US and Asia in our love for casual games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run.

At the meetups, developers were introduced to the Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite, which is a set of tools designed to help them measure, advertise, monetize and improve their mobile apps. The suite includes five key offerings, Flurry Analytics with Explorer, Flurry Pulse, Yahoo App Publishing,  Yahoo Search in Apps, and Yahoo App Marketing. It is powered by technology and data from Yahoo and Flurry.

A panel discussion at the Bangalore meetup explored ways for app developers to grow mobile audiences. TitledMobile Growth Hacking, it saw participation from panelists Alok Kejriwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Games2win; John Paul, CEO Plackal; Saran Chatterjee, Business and Product Leader (Formerly with Flipkart and Yahoo) and Ravi Vyas - Head Customer Development & Marketing at Moengage.

Key Insights and Trends from Flurry: State of the App Nation in India

(All data as measured by Flurry YoY, May 2014 - 2015)

India’s app usage grew 131% YoY, outpacing growth in Asia and globally. The Asian app usage grew 77% during the same period.

Asia and India are leading the phablet revolution:

• The phablet is the fastest growing mobile device globally, with growth in India outpacing growth in the US – 38% of user sessions in India are on phablets vs 21% in the US, as measured by Flurry.
• 42% of user sessions in Asia are on phablets vs 31% globally
• Phablet users in Asia engage in apps 78% more than the average smartphone users in Asia.

Diversification of apps: App categories seeing the fastest growth in India

The top 3 app growth categories in India are personalization (such as Android launchers like Aviate and Hola), followed by News & Reading and Photography.

• Personalization apps grew 533% YoY
• News and Reading apps grew 311% YoY
• Photography apps grew 178% YoY

Asia and India are driving shift from e-commerce to m-commerce

• App users in Asia spent 19% of their total app time on Shopping and Lifestyle apps, a category which is second only to gaming in Asia.
• Indian mobile shoppers shop almost round the clock, from 9 am to 1 am in the night, breaking only during lunch and dinner. Shopping on apps peaks between 9 pm and midnight in India.

Gaming remains one of the most engaged categories in Asia and India

App users in Asia spend 25% of their total app time on Gaming apps

• Users in India love Action and Arcade games, mirroring the trend across Asia, though we outpace the US and Asia in our love for Casual games (like Subway Surfers and Temple Run).
• Action and Arcade games account for 39% of gaming sessions in India
• Casual games represent 32% of gaming sessions here