Tanushree Basuroy
Research expert covering India
Social media usage in India - statistics & facts
India embraced the internet with open arms, and its digital population has been growing rapidly in the past decade with crossing 600 million active internet users . What started with simple email correspondences, has expanded to a digital universe with social networking platforms by tech giants like Meta and X becoming a part of everyday life for millions of Indians.
As data packs got cheaper and the internet became more accessible, more Indians adopted the digital lifestyle. At the same time, smartphones became the primary screen for Indian customers. As a gregarious country, Indians love their social networking apps. The average Indian spent nearly two and half hours a day on social media.
The evolution of short-form video apps increased the already large base of Indian social media consumption. This grew even more during the COVID-19 lockdown period in the country. The average user for this category spent about 45 minutes a day on these platforms. With the banning of TikTok along with other Chinese apps in 2020 however, this niche market was occupied by a fragmented mix of domestic and global players.
The rapid growth in internet users across the country, along with the uptake of marketplaces among social platforms boosted digital advertising and marketing. In recent years, social media advertising accompanied by a booming influencer market have reformed Indian advertising practices.
Humble beginnings powered by affordable data
Orkut was one of the first, big social networking websites in the country, owned by Google and named after the employee who created it. In 2008, it was one of the most visited websites in the country until its closing was announced in 2014. Not that this stopped Indians from keeping socializing virtually – the country simply transitioned to Facebook. As of 2022, India had the highest number of Facebook users across the globe. Furthermore, Indians adopted Meta’s other platforms as well.As data packs got cheaper and the internet became more accessible, more Indians adopted the digital lifestyle. At the same time, smartphones became the primary screen for Indian customers. As a gregarious country, Indians love their social networking apps. The average Indian spent nearly two and half hours a day on social media.
Video consumption drives social media usage
Apart from social networking apps, video sharing platforms, specifically YouTube was widely popular in India. YouTube consumption sky-rocketed with the Indian Premier League streaming matches in 2010 with over two billion views per day. It comes as no surprise that this doubled with each season of the IPL thereafter. Around the same time, Indian music record label, T-Series, was slowly but steadfastly making its way on YouTube by sharing old Bollywood and indie-pop music. The content took off and T-Series was the most viewed and subscribed YouTube channel in the world.The evolution of short-form video apps increased the already large base of Indian social media consumption. This grew even more during the COVID-19 lockdown period in the country. The average user for this category spent about 45 minutes a day on these platforms. With the banning of TikTok along with other Chinese apps in 2020 however, this niche market was occupied by a fragmented mix of domestic and global players.
The rapid growth in internet users across the country, along with the uptake of marketplaces among social platforms boosted digital advertising and marketing. In recent years, social media advertising accompanied by a booming influencer market have reformed Indian advertising practices.
