India leads world in downloads of social apps: App Annie report

In the last four years, video streaming has completely transformed the social media landscape and has created a second-generation social economy. In its report, titled, ‘The Evolution of Social Media Apps’, App Annie estimates that consumers will spend $6.78 billion via social apps and 548 billion hours live streaming in social apps this year. The reports reveals that despite early adopter status, social apps are still in high demand, with 4.7 billion downloads in H1 2021 alone.

As per the report, Asia was the largest region for downloads of social apps in H1 2021 at 60% of the market. India is the top market by a factor of 5x, followed by the US, Indonesia, Brazil and China. Time spent on social apps in India has boomed over the last three and a half years and the country ranks second after China. However, the gap between India and China has shrunk from 115% in 2018 to 7% in H1 2021.

As per the report, consumers are shifting to a video-first social experience that favours content creators. YouTube, Facebook and Whatsapp dominate the time spent charts, with YouTube remaining the leader in the streaming, social, photo and video space due to both depth and breadth of engagement. However, TikTok is fast catching up and has, in fact, surpassed YouTube in key markets like the US and UK.