Adjust, a measurement and analytics company, and data.ai, mobile intelligence platform unveiled a joint report titled ‘Diwali Decoded: India Festive Report 2023’, delving into the trends of mobile apps during the Diwali season in India. The report showcases the increases in app installs and session lengths across all verticals that have been analysed as compared to the previous year. For example, shopping app installs and sessions during Diwali week (October 22 – 26) were 47% and 14% higher than the 2022 average, respectively. Additionally, food & drink app revenue events were 38% above the yearly average during Diwali week.
Recent data reveals that mobile apps have become the preferred choice for Indian consumers, with 46% utilising them for learning, 79% for exploration, and a substantial 78% for making purchases, particularly during this festive period.
“Analysing app users’ behaviour during Diwali, we’ve seen fascinating app usage trends, across various verticals, that mobile marketers can utilise to inform their upcoming holiday campaign strategies. The Indian mobile app market is on an upward trajectory, and we recommend marketers localise and personalise their messaging to best reach their target audiences during this festive time,” April Tayson, regional vice president, APAC, Adjust, said.
As per the report, India has generated $1.6 billion in revenue in 2022.
“Demand for mobile apps and games is on the rise in India. In 2022 alone, we saw nearly 29 billion downloads, up 8% year over year. Holiday periods like Diwali can represent powerful times to reach and engage consumers on the device they always have with them: their phones. But it’s a highly competitive time, and brands need to know the lay of the land in order to benchmark and plan effectively for the Diwali 2023 holiday period,” Lexi Sydow, corporate marketing director, data.ai, said.
The report is based on an in-depth analysis of Adjust’s more than 2,500 apps and the total dataset of all apps tracked by Adjust, with a focus on verticals such as shopping, fintech, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, and food & drink from September 2022 to November 2022. The analysis is based on data.ai’s proprietary App IQ and Game IQ taxonomy — digital taxonomy for mobile apps with over 850,000 apps classified across 316 subgenres — across the e-commerce, gaming, fintech, social, travel, health & fitness, food and drink, entertainment, OTT, and photo and video editing categories.
Fintech user revenue events dipped during Diwali 2022, down 28% on Lakshmi Puja. This drop was attributed to symbolic money preservation in homes during the festival. Fintech app instals also saw a significant 28% decline on Lakshmi Puja compared to other analysed periods (September 18-November 26). However, two weeks post-Diwali, revenue events surged, marking a 35% increase over the 2022 average.
Travel app sessions surged, peaking one week before Diwali at 16% above the 2022 average. The majority of instals and sessions concentrated in the four weeks preceding Diwali, with weekdays contributing 36% and 32%, respectively. Marketers are advised to seize this opportunity by investing in pre-Diwali deal campaigns, incorporating festive-themed messaging to capture the seasonal mood and engage users.