Bango has gathered 10 must know facts about the nation’s thriving mobile market. Bango technology opens up online payment to the mobile mass market. Internet goliaths that want to reach everyone use the Bango Payment Platform to achieve universal scale. Bango is the winning choice for offering carrier billing and other alternative payment methods to every customer, through one, global platform. For more information, contact sales@bango.com Follow us on twitter: @bangodotcom

1. © 2016 Bango plc
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Ten things you need to know about the Indian mobile market
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2. Introduction
• Bango successfully launched the first ever Google Play DCB integration in India with Idea
Cellular
• India’s smartphone market is still in its infancy- many still unaware of the influence and digital
culture
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3. 1: India accounts for 20% of the world’s mobile phone
subscribers
• New data from GSMA states that India will be the fastest growing mobile market in the world
between now and the year 2020
• Bango enter the market at an early stage of development
• India is home to 20% of all mobile phone subscribers with a further half a billion new
smartphone users expected in the next 3 years.
• The market has limitations in terms of infrastructure, especially with regards to mobile data
coverage, broadband links and payment options.
• This marks a huge opportunity, especially for Bango, where the market has been entered at an
early stage.
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4. 2: Smartphones are finally taking the nation by storm
• The need for more mobile phone data, power and features is ever present across all regions,
with the Indian market being no exception. Consumer needs have changed at an unexpectedly
fast rate.
• The rapid adoption of smartphones has led to unexpected demand for high powered devices
which exceed the manufacturing infrastructure of India.
• India bucked the trends of the global smartphone market- worldwide growth saw a decline in
sales in 2016, where India saw a 29% increase in sales, 22% ahead of market average.
• While the need for high-end smartphones continues to excel, lower-end mobile phone sales
have hit a steady decline, with sales down 32% in 2016.
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5. 3: India’s mobile market now bigger than the US
• Q3 2015 forecast India to overtake the USA by 2017
– By Q1 2016, India had surpassed the USA with 15% market growth in Q4
• Established markets stabilising, India still an emerging market
– “India will grow nearly five times faster than the world’s largest smartphone market China, where
growth has decelerated.”
• Chinese manufacturers rushing to establish in India
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6. 4: Smartphones are the dominant point-of-entry to the Internet
• Smartphones are proving to be a primary device for enabling the digital world in the region. Not
only are over half of internet users solely mobile, nearly 60% of users accessed the internet for
the first time on their mobile phones.
• “For hundreds of millions of people, mobile phones are not just their first computer but their first
electrical device of any kind”.
– Benedict Evans, Mobile Venture Capitalis
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7. 5: 4G still only reaches <1% of the population, but has huge
potential
• While countries such as China are looking ahead to 5G and beyond, India’s adoption of 4G is
only just coming into fruition. Morgan Stanley estimates 4G smartphones will account for 75%
of 170 million shipments to India by the end of 2016, even though 4G currently has less than
1% subscriber penetration in the country.
• This shift is mostly due to the Prime Minister’s tech-savvy plans for the country, issuing
legislation to roll out 4G networks to established areas and enable access to those with no
routes towards mobile internet. While the country’s mobile economy is still in its infancy, the
scale of adoption for developed services such as 4G is massive.
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8. 6: Android has a >90% market share
• Android completely dominates the mobile OS market in India, with a market share of over 90%
according to IDC. This market share is largely down to the accessibility of Android devices, with
a low entry-level cost for smartphones compared to other devices currently in the space.
• However, Android devices will have to grow with the market and adapt fast, with Apple’s
seemingly intent rapid expansion in the Indian market. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently
outlined Apple’s focus on India and plans for the country, including carrier billing and the launch
of Apple Pay.
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9. 7: Games dominate the digital content market
• Fuelled by growing smartphone penetration and the evolving mobile payment infrastructure
landscape, the Indian mobile gaming industry, currently estimated at $200 million, is all set to
breach the billion-dollar mark to reach $3 billion by 2019 according to a recentstudy.
• A report released in 2015 estimated that India’s market for mobile commerce would expand
from $2 billion in 2014 to $19 billion by 2019.
• “Mobile gaming has taken off in India with 2.5 billion game downloads over the last 12 months.
Of the 20 apps that are downloaded by smartphone users within the first month of purchase,
five are games.”
– Amit Khanduja, CEO Reliance Games
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10. 8: Apps are becoming intrinsic to Indian culture
• Having full access to the range of apps on the Google Play store is vital for the development of
India’s smartphone revolution. Studies into Indian users’ app behaviour found that
“relationships with them has turned from occasional use into a real dependency.”
• 58% of smartphone users in India believe apps truly benefit their lives
• 77% have up to 30 apps on their smartphone.
• With such a high proportion of Indian mobile users being so app reliant, Bango’s carrier billing
partnership with Idea Cellular and Google Play will enable users to enjoy the complete app
store experience.
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11. 9: App store content revenue only running at 15% of its current
potential
• India currently has only 19 million credit card users amongst its 1.3 billion population.
– This limits the purchase of apps substantially below customer demand.
• “We limit ourselves only to these credit cards and these limitations have easily taken it down to
fifteen percent of what our revenue should be”
– Indian mobile industry expert Saurabh Aggarwal.
• Just before the launch of Google Play DCB in India with Bango, Saurabh stated, “We think that
there will be an instant increase in users as soon as this happens.”
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12. 10: Carrier billing has been outlined as the perfect solution
• Carrier billing as a payment solution is perfect to disrupt the entire Indian mobile sector,
enabling the 97% of users without a payment option for app stores the opportunity to engage
for the first time.
• Payment methods such as credit card can’t be used to create a frictionless experience that
meets the accelerated demand for digital content.
• DCB consumers don’t have to provide layers of security as is the case of debit/credit card or
net banking, making DCB the safest and fastest mass payment method. Bango is proud to
bring a much-needed service to India’s most popular app store
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13. Conclusion
• India’s mobile market is an anomaly of sorts – already reaching massive heights, but nowhere
near hitting saturation.
• Bango is delighted to have launched the first Google Play carrier billing route into the country,
enabling millions of people to interact fully with app store content, a large majority of which are
gaining access for the first time.
• For a more in-depth look at the points made here, check out the Bango Blog:
https://blog.bango.com/2016/06/02/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-indias-mobile-market/
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14. Contact sales@bango.com for more information
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