As an important new market for global technology entrepreneurship and innovation, India, with its huge demographic dividend and the unpopular stage of Internet development, has allowed many technology giants and venture capital to see an extremely huge “money prospect”.
1. “The next Chinese market”
In recent years, Indian e-commerce has attracted the attention of e-commerce fields around the world with the title of “the next Chinese market”.
The Indian market has lived up to expectations. With the increase in the penetration rate of smartphones, the launch of 4G networks and the increase in consumer wealth, it is expected that by 2026, the Indian e-commerce market will grow from US$38.5 billion in 2017 to US$200 billion. The International Monetary Fund even compares the Indian economy to a “running elephant” and believes that the Indian economy has the potential to become the source of global economic growth in the next 30 years.
2. India has a huge number of consumers
In terms of population base, we often say that China is the world’s most populous country, but just as this concept is gradually gaining popularity, India’s population is about to catch up with China. In 2018, India’s population exceeded 1.3 billion.
In terms of age distribution, according to the “Indian Internet Finance Report” released by information service company APUS in April 2018, people under 54 years old in India account for 85% of the total population, and the proportion of people aged 0-24 is far higher than that of China. According to IBEM’s analysis of Indian users, the younger generation is the most Internet users in urban and rural India.
From the development history of India, before independence in 1947, India was a British colony. Therefore, Indians have strong English communication skills.
Third, the Internet in India is gradually becoming popular
According to the “Indian Internet Finance Report” released by APUS, India has 460 million Internet users, an Internet penetration rate of 35%, and 300 million smartphone users. Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have vigorously promoted in India, and Indian mobile telecom operators have vigorously reformed traffic and call packages. For example, Reliance Jio entered the market with a free model. The six-month free model allowed Jio to win 108 million users. After the free period ended, 67% (about 70 million) of users were still converted into paying users. In the future, there will be more and more users with smartphones in India, and more and more consumers will prefer mobile consumption, which will lay a good foundation for the development of the Internet. Whether it is the population base, age distribution or language communication, it has created a better consumption environment for India’s e-commerce market.
Fourth, “Made in China” is suitable for India’s consumption level
India’s industrial development and infrastructure are quite backward, which directly leads to them having to import a large number of daily necessities from abroad, from electromechanical products and electrical appliances to toys, rubber and even glass. Among these imported products, Indian consumers are very fond of goods made in China, especially electronic products. Friends who pay attention to the Indian market should know that India is a major exporter of Chinese smartphones, and the top five mobile phone brands in India are basically from China.
Although many Indian products come from abroad, most of them are products with low value. Because India’s consumption level is low, low-priced products will have a relatively large market in India. There are relatively large opportunities for Chinese products with low technology content and labor-intensive to be exported to India, such as household products such as blankets and sheets, kitchen utensils, clocks and watches, and snack foods.
Take canned fruit for example. Canned fruit, which is not very popular in China, has always been the object of Indian consumers’ rush to buy. Although India has a very high fruit production, many poor people cannot afford home appliances, which makes food not fresh and easy to rot, so not everyone can afford to eat fresh fruit. Therefore, this canned fruit, which is not only low in price but also has a strong ability to preserve freshness, has quickly become popular among the Indian people after it flowed into India.