Mobile

App
Growth
Trends
2021

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 1

Preface The acceleration of India’s digital transformation is
astonishing and enchanting at the same time. Now,
people no more require a face-to-face interaction with
businesses to carry on with their everyday tasks.
The new and more efficient products and services have replaced their previous
incarnations. What was called “e-commerce” not so long ago now stands for just
“shopping”, while “online banking” has become simply “banking”.

With the rise of Gaming, Fintech, Edtech, peer-to-peer Social Media, etc — robust digital
identity verification has become more important than ever. Being a key factor for the
success of any digital platform, online identity verification constantly evolves and adapts to
the needs of different markets around the world.

Truecaller partners with businesses & startups to enable a seamless verification experience
to their users with our verification SDK solution while helping them improve the user funnel
for Mobile Apps.

Over the past few years, we have grown and have seen the mobile app market leapfrog.
This report leverages Truecaller SDK’s insights to help Enterprises and Startups take a deep
dive into the growth trends of 2021 around app adoption and usage pattern and draw
inferences to build for the next phase of growth.

Truecaller SDK enables businesses & startups to

power a seamless verification experience and
helps them improve the user funnel for native
Mobile Apps.

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 2

 Top Adoption1 Category

Top Adoption & 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Growth Category in
e-Commerce Social & Content B2B Tools EdTech Fantasy

2021 Platforms Gaming Apps

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Healthcare & Job Portals Auto Marketplaces OTT FinTech

Job portals were back in Fitness & OEM

action which saw a growth

of 386%. Top Growth2 Category

The second wave of COVID-19 made 2021 an year of Job Portals 386%
many ups and downs.
Social & Content platforms 291%
Categories like Urban Commute saw a decline of
7.87% inflicted by the second wave.
Utility & Super Apps 216%
Movies & Events listings
191%
eCommerce 189%
Fantasy & Sports 171%
Automarket & OEM 152%
Gaming & Streaming 146%
Healthcare & Fitness 141%

1
Adoption: Adoption is a situation in which users use a platform that helps them
to fulfill a specific need.
2
Growth: Increase in usage and adoption by new/existing users
Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 3
Demographics
Growth Across Cities

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

212% 215% 29%

411%
392%
377%
362%
347%

301%
267%
248% 245% 240% 235% 235%
230%
205%
194%

Mangalore
Bengaluru

New Delhi

Guwahati
Ludhiana

Kolhapur
Chennai

Puruliya

Howrah

Phillaur
Kolkata

Ambad
Bhopal
Nashik
Pune

Top Tier 1 Cities Top Tier 2 Cities Top Tier 3 Cities

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 4

Top Adoption Category Analysis 2021

e-Commerce Social & Content platforms B2B Tools EdTech

Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra Maharashtra & Rajasthan UP, Bihar & Maharashtra
8:00 - 10:00 pm 7:00 - 11:00 pm 11:00 am - 2:00 pm 7:00 - 9:00 pm

▲Sunday | ▼Monday ▲Sunday | ▼Monday ▲Tuesday | ▼Sunday ▲Wednesday | ▼Sunday

Fantasy Gaming Apps Healthcare & Fitness Job Portals Auto Marketplaces & OEM
Rajasthan & MP Maharashtra & Delhi Maharashtra & Delhi Delhi & Maharashtra
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm 11:00 - 2:00 pm 7:00 - 9:00 pm

▲Sunday | ▼Tuesday ▲Friday | ▼Sunday ▲Tuesday | ▼Sunday ▲Sunday | ▼Monday

OTT FinTech
Maharashtra & MP Maharashtra & Andhra Pradesh Top Markets
12:00 - 4:00 pm 11:00 am - 2:00 pm Primary Engagement Time (IST)
▲Sunday | ▼Monday ▲Tuesday | ▼Sunday
High/Low Growth Days

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 55

The Dominance of
Fantasy Gaming Apps 469.0%
Growth
IPL 2nd half + World cup
In 2021, IPL couldn’t make it big in the fantasy apps
during the initial phase in April-May due to the
second wave of COVID-19. However, the second half of
the year saw a jump in traffic by 469% in September,
October and November, driven by the second leg of
IPL and ICC T20 World Cup.

The growth was consistent across all the 3 tiers of

cities averaging more than 400% growth in IPL 2nd
half & ICC T20 World Cup.

2021 was the year of Jan 21 Feb 21 Mar 21 Apr 21 May 21 Jun 21 Jul 21 Aug 21 Sep 21 Oct 21 Nov 21 Dec 21

Fantasy Gaming apps!

Growth During IPL Overall Growth 2021

Tier 1 ▲ 487% Tier 1 ▲ 313%
Tier 2 ▲ 470% Tier 2 ▲ 333%
Tier 3 ▲ 457% Tier 3 ▲ 77%

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 66

e-Commerce
2021 Dussehra+ Pre-Diwali H2 2021
Revolution Continues ▲189% ▲74% ▲185%
H2 2021- 75% of total traffic in 2021
e-Commerce apps tend to offer many festive deals/ & 185% more than H1 2021
sales during the month of October (Dussehra + Pre-
Diwali), and we correspondingly observed 74% more Festive
traffic to e-Commerce apps during this time in 2021. Season

Overall, 2021 saw an

increase of 189% in traffic
compared to 2020!

Jan 21 Feb 21 Mar 21 Apr 21 May 21 Jun 21 Jul 21 Aug 21 Sep 21 Oct 21 Nov 21 Dec 21

Growth During Overall

Festive Season Growth 2021
Tier 1 ▲ 73% Tier 1 ▲ 311%
Tier 2 ▲ 75% Tier 2 ▲ 346%
Tier 3 ▲ 74% Tier 3 ▲ 92%

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 7

Job Portals are Back
in Action 108% Growth

Job Portals saw a 108% growth in their traffic during

the second half of 2021. Interestingly, Tier 2 cities
were the key growth market compared to prominent
Tier 1 cities. The numbers also indicate that post the
second wave of COVID-19, confidence is back in the
job markets.

*The aforementioned point is validated by the latest

Naukri JobSpeak Report, according to which India’s
job market surpassed the pre-pandemic levels and
achieved a 19% uptick vs Oct ’19. The country’s premier
index was trending at 2523 in October 2021, recording Jan 21 Feb 21 Mar 21 Apr 21 May 21 Jun 21 Jul 21 Aug 21 Sep 21 Oct 21 Nov 21
43% year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth Vs October 2020.

Job Portals saw a 108% Growth During H2

growth in their traffic during Tier 1 ▲ 98%
the second half of 2021. Tier 2 ▲ 122%
Tier 3 ▲ 110%

*Reference- https://www.naukri.com/blog/understanding-hiring-trends-with-naukri-jobspeak-report-june-2021/

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 8

Social & Content
Apps
292% Growth
New Year’s Eve
Festival days see a jump
Christmas
of 10-12% in their traffic Diwali
compared to other days in Independence Day
a year. Friendship Day

Social continued the trend from 2020 and retained

the #2 category for overall adoption, and overall
growth of 292% from previous years.
Jan 21 Feb 21 Mar 21 Apr 21 May 21 Jun 21 Jul 21 Aug 21 Sep 21 Oct 21 Nov 21 Dec 21
The second half of 2021 with festivities saw a jump
of 10-12% traffic compared to other days in a year.
Interestingly 2021 also saw Tier 2 cities gaining
incredible growth and closely combating with Tier 1 Growth in 2021
cities.
Tier 1 ▲ 689%
Tier 2 ▲ 624%
Tier 3 ▲ 115%

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 99

Travel and Hospitality
The Travel and Hospitality industry saw a downtrend Travel & ticketing apps saw ~42% drop in user traffic during the covid second wave period
during the Covid impacted months. However, it
gradually got back to pace towards the end of Q3 -42% drop
and Q4. in usage

Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities gained momentum in the usage Second wave
of Travel and Hospitality platforms post the pandemic
months, indicating users’ increased confidence and
propensity to travel.

Jan 21 Feb 21 Mar 21 Apr 21 May 21 Jun 21 Jul 21 Aug 21 Sep 21 Oct 21 Nov 21 Dec 21

Growth in 2021
Tier 1 ▲ 212%
Tier 2 ▲ 216%
Tier 3 ▲ 29%

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 10

Methodology

Truecaller SDK solution is a free offering by Truecaller to allow existing Truecaller

users to use their profile for easy verification on 3rd party apps and websites in a
consented manner. To date, Truecaller SDK is now being used by 1000s of businesses
and developers across categories to verify and onboard their users globally.
The trends, insights and opinions mentioned here in the report are based on aggregated analysis done independently
on user verifications trends happening via Truecaller SDK. We do not claim to have identified and covered every single
business operational during the said period under the scope of this report. This is a on a best efforts basis. No personal/
sensitive user information or any PII has been used in the analysis done to present the insights as part of this report.

Disclaimer: The content of this document is for general informational purposes only. Truecaller makes no representation
or warranty whatsoever including as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of the information contained in this
document. Truecaller disclaims all warranties including of accuracy, completeness, merchantability or fitness for a
particular purpose with respect to any information contained in this document. Truecaller is not acting as your advisor,
agent or fiduciary and no legal relationship between you and Truecaller shall be created by virtue of the information
contained in this document. Any information contained in the document, and any opinions and estimates by Truecaller
therein, should be regarded as indicative, preliminary and for illustrative purposes only. Any mark or other intellectual
property contained in the document belongs to its respective owner.

Definitions

Category: Specific segment wherein a business that operates in an industry.

Adoption: Adoption is a situation in which users use a platform that helps them to fulfill a specific need.

Growth: Increase in usage and adoption by new/existing users

Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 11

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Mobile App Growth Trends 2021 12