Mobile advertising remains under-represented in India: Report

As per Opera Mediaworks' 'APAC State of Mobile Advertising' report, India is amongst the top three data consuming countries in the APAC sub-region

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | August 24, 2015

Smartphone use in the Asia Pacific region continues to grow at a pace on par with the rest of the world, with page-view volume on mobile websites and apps approaching global averages, according to the 'APAC State of Mobile Advertising' report from Opera Mediaworks in partnership with the Mobile Marketing Association. The findings in the report are based on Q2 2015 data from 400 million unique users on the Opera Mediaworks platform.

A standout sub-region of APAC: The Power 4

India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, the countries which Opera refers to as the “P4” (Power 4) sub-region, have seen a dramatic 545 per cent increase in smartphone adoption since 2013, making it one of the fastest growing sub-regions in the world.

The P4 countries represent less than half (43 per cent) of the population of Asia, account for less than 30 per cent of regional Internet users – yet over 76 per cent of these users access the Internet via mobile. For India, Opera estimates that 77 per cent of Internet users can access the web via a mobile device.

Android captures majority market share

Mobile growth can largely be attributed to the rapid adoption of Android devices. In the second quarter, the Android operating system took the No. 1 position in market share of impressions served to mobile devices, accounting for more than 60 per cent of traffic in APAC and over 55 per cent in India.

High demand for mobile video

There is high demand for and rapid adoption of mobile video-ad units across the region. The ratio of video-ad impressions served in India is 0.68:1, which is higher than the average across Asia.

“India remains one of the most exciting markets in Asia when it comes to smartphone adoption and rapid shift of consumers to make mobile as primary screen. Mobile advertising, on the other hand, is highly under-represented in India and there is massive opportunity for advertisers to connect with the prime prospects, deliver rich and meaningful experiences at a time and place when it matters the most,” observed Vikas Gulati, Managing Director, Asia, Opera Mediaworks.

Key highlights:

Demographics and behaviour of the average mobile users in India:

• Male users dominate across the region; in India, nine out of 10 mobile users are males
• Indian users are overwhelmingly young; the average user age is under 23. Also, 50 per cent are between 18 and 23 years old
• The most visited mobile sites and apps by users in P4 region are in the Social Networking category. However, Indian users are more drawn to sites and apps that serve Music, Video, Media & Entertainment content, followed by technology content
• The top three countries in the P4 region in terms of data consumption are Vietnam, Indonesia and India. The average data consumption in these countries respectively is around 90, 65 and 60 MB per month

Revenue winners and emerging mobile ad formats:

• Business, Finance & Investing publishers fared well, accounting for 42 per cent of revenue paid to mobile publishers across the P4 region
• In India, social networking sites and apps provided the highest number of impressions for advertisers, followed by News & Information and Sports category. However, the highest eCPMs were earned by News & Information publishers
• The impressions of advertising on communication services are much higher than global average by and as much as 15x higher for revenue

“Opera Mediaworks represents almost 50 per cent of audience share of the market in India. We are making significant investments to grow the ecosystem, share insights on consumer behaviour and trends in mobile content consumption to help marketers better leverage the mobile opportunity,” added Gulati.

According to Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association APAC, “Collaborating with members of the mobile marketing ecosystem has always been the key to building knowledge and capabilities amongst this the region's marketers, and the MMA is very excited to partner with Opera Mediaworks on their State of the Mobile Advertising Report,” He further said, “We believe marketers in Asia are best positioned to be leaders in global mobile innovation, building campaigns that harness the potential of the medium and the mobile audience. Opera's stunning data proves that the future of mobile lies in Asia.”

Click here to view full report.

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