India will experience internet IPO bonanza in next decade

Just like China did a few years back, it seems that every segment of India's mobile internet market has opportunities waiting to be claimed. For those who are eyeing the Indian market, the biggest concern is: “How big exactly is the opportunity with India’s internet market?”

Cheetah Data, a global mobile big data analytics platform that surveys every change in the Android market, has conducted a research into this topic. Cheetah Data found that India’s 3G/4G user base has reached 400 million in 2017, which means the country’s mobile internet market is in a stage of rapid development. In China, revenues from mobile device users at Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba surpassed those from personal computer (PC) users in 2013, 2015 and 2016, respectively, during which China’s 3G/4G users also broke through the 400 million mark.

There is a bigger gap between the average incomes of low-income families in India and China, as compared to the income gap between Indian and Chinese affluent. Therefore, the incomes of Chinese and Indian internet users are not showing the five-fold gap of the two countries’ GDP per capita; there will be a gap of less than two-fold by 2025. Overall, whether India’s internet user base is made up of people with real purchasing power will be affected by the progress of urbanisation, GDP growth and target user incomes. It is estimated that over time, the size of India’s market will grow steadily and reach one-third to half of China’s by 2025. Cheetah Data also believes that India will experience an internet IPO bonanza in the next decade. Therefore, now is a good time to invest in India’s internet.