93% Indians experience mobile video streaming frustrations: Penthera

Penthera, a New York-based company that makes software for video streaming companies to solve mobile viewing issues such as buffering, has released a study about the state of mobile streaming in India. 

Mobile video viewing in India is skyrocketing. In 2019, consumers in India spent 80 per cent more sessions in video entertainment apps than they did in 2017 (while the global average was only 50 per cent). Despite this growth, a new study reveals that almost half of viewers in India experience a delay of 5 seconds or more after they hit the play button. 

Penthera worked with a third party research firm to gather valuable data about the state of the mobile video experience in India, querying hundreds of users around the country about their behaviours and frustrations when streaming. 

According to the study, while 88 per cent of users in India stream mobile video at least weekly, 93 per cent say they experience streaming frustrations when they watch. Meanwhile, downloading videos is becoming a popular way to circumvent these streaming issues. 

Key findings: 

• 93% of Indians have experienced streaming frustrations, including the video taking too long to start (56%), the video re-buffering (49%), and the advertisements being annoying (38%). 

• 43% of viewers in India download mobile videos daily and 34% download weekly (while in the US only 11% download daily and 16% download weekly). 

• A download feature is crucial for viewers in India: 80% say they expect a service to offer downloading capabilities and 84% would pay extra for the feature.

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