It’s an exciting time to be an app developer in India. The majority of Indian internet users are going online primarily via their smartphones and this number is growing at a phenomenal rate. In fact, there are now more people using Android devices in India than in the US and people in India install more than a Billion apps every month from Google Play. Many local developers are already seizing this opportunity and building useful, popular, locally relevant content.
When Tushar Vashisht, the founder of one of India’s most popular apps, set out to solve a uniquely Indian health problem he had no idea just how successful his health and fitness app, HealthifyMe would become. Tushar identified that while millions of Indian people are currently at risk or suffering from heart disease and diabetes, they still didn't have access to widely available, easy to use calorie counting and wellness tools that fit an Indian diet. HealthifyMe provides nutritional content and access to fitness, diet and lifestyle coaches from all over the country to almost three hundred million people in India. Today, it is one of India’s highest rated apps on Google Play.
It was when Abhiraj Bhal was at his wits end searching for a carpenter to get work done at his house that the idea of UrbanClap took shape. The largely disorganized home services sector in India has millions of talented professionals that are disconnected from the consumers who need their services. UrbanClap bridged this gap by building a technology stack that connects the two in a scalable and uniquely Indian way: an app that simply and effectively relies on referrals to get the word out.
For over 160 years, the Indian railways have been a primary mover for millions in our country. But the task of serving these numbers over such a vast network has lead to unique challenges: how far is my train? On which platform will it arrive? Where will my specific bogey be located? Manish Rathi of RailYatri built a solution based on reliable train-centric data, aiming to help make that trip so much easier. The RailYatri team even integrated information such as hospitals en route, as well as delivering packaged milk for children and infants on those long journeys.
India is a country of 22 official languages, brought to life in over 700 different dialects. There are thousands of mobile-first internet users going online each day, and the vast majority are non-English speakers. To help people find high quality local-language news, Virendra Gupta started NewsHunt (now DailyHunt): a news reading app that collects content from local-language newspapers and makes it available across smartphones from entry-level devices onwards.
At Google Play we are committed to helping Indian developers of all sizes build successful, locally relevant businesses. A lot of what we do is support developers imaginations and make Android consumers aware of the amazing new experiences our developers are creating.
The number of apps installed in India has grown by a 150% every year. And it doesn't stop there. Indian consumer spend on apps and games is accelerating at a rapid pace as well, tripling in just the past year alone. Indian developers are building useful, engaging apps to address the needs of Indian people.
As a way to help more developers build locally relevant apps that deliver the best performance across a range of connection speeds, data plans, and devices, just last year at Google i/o 2016 we announced the Build for Billions guidelines to help developers overcome challenges such as varying network connectivity, device specifications and high data costs.
The Build for Billions Playbook is a step by step guide for developers to learn about the features, tools, and best practices to get apps ready to meet the needs of billions of Android users, globally.
App Excellence Summit: Announcing the Made for India program
In India we are taking the Build for Billions initiative forward. Today in Bangalore, Google Play brought together over 700 Indian app and games developers at our first ever App Excellence Summit where we shared tips and tools to help developers create the best quality, locally relevant Android apps.
To help developers using these principles get their content in front of the right consumers, just today we’ve announced our new “Made for India” program. Starting now, Indian developers can apply for the chance to have apps that are specifically optimized for the Indian market showcased on the Google Play store in India for a period of time. All they have to do is apply at: g.co/play/madeforindia*
Viewing the event
For those who are unable to attend the summit in person, but keen to learn more, we’ve made sure you can see the entire event here so you do not miss out on all the exciting India specific content and announcements.
Posted By Purnima Kochikar, Director, Business Development, Games & Apps Google Play
