Source: Sensor Tower

The Signal: Speaking of apps, the app intelligence firm Sensor Tower recently released its Q4 2019 industry overview, which is full of interesting takeaways.

One stat worth highlighting is the absolute dominance of Google Play Store app downloads by India.

For Q4 2019, India saw ~4.8B Google Play app downloads. This figure nearly matched the combined Google Play downloads for the next 4 highest-ranked countries, (Brazil, US, Indonesia, and Russia), which had ~5.6B downloads.

There are a few noteworthy things to say about India’s impressive app download figures:

  • The figure was static YoY (e.g., zero growth from 2018)
  • Google Play Stores make 10x less per device than the iPhone App Store 
  • India has been flooded with low-end Android devices on the back of a massive $50B subsidy from telecom Reliance Jio. Launched by India’s richest man (Mukesh Ambani), Jio provided free calls and cheap data plans in an effort to become India’s largest telecom player (which it has). Future Google Play Store growth in India may slow due to fewer new customers and/or rising prices.