Short-form video consumption to reach 650 mn users in India by 2025

As online video consumption explodes in a mobile-first country, three in four Internet users — or 600 to 650 million Indians — will consume short-form videos by 2025, with active users spending upto 55 to 60 minutes of this per day, a new report showed on Wednesday.

India’s online video user base has scaled to more than 350 million people, growing 24 per cent over 2018 to 2020, nearly twice as fast as markets such as China and Indonesia.

More than 200 million Indians watched short-form videos at least once in 2020, with daily active users spending up to 45 minutes a day on these platforms, according to the report by management consulting firm Bain & Company.

India has more than 50 million users who have created and posted at least one short video.

“Smartphone users spend about 4.8 hours on their devices daily, of which a staggering one hour on average is spent consuming videos,” Bain & Company partner and Vector Solutions Group global leader Arpan Sheth said.

The daily time spent per active user on online videos in the country has simultaneously grown by 60 per cent to 70 per cent over 2018-20.

“Despite this rapid boom, there exists massive headroom for growth — online video user penetration in India is nearly 60 per cent of Internet users, compared with more than 90 per cent in China,” Sheth said, in a statement.

The Indian short-form video market is now occupied by a mix of specialist apps like Moj, Josh, MX TakaTak, Roposo, Zili and global social media/video giants like Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

Among the specialist short video platforms, five platforms — the previously mentioned Moj, MX TakaTak, Josh, Roposo, and Zili — have more than 100 million downloads each.

According to the report, the short-form videos market has taken off over the past two years in India, growing 3.5 times in user base and 12 times in total time spent by all users on SFV platforms.

“However, India’s short video user base has historically been largely men from tier 2 and smaller towns but this is evolving quickly, with the medium gaining traction in metros and among women,” the report noted.

Before the ban, TikTok became the first scale SFV platform in India, with more than 200 million users and 20 million content creators posting at least one video a month.

“Brands are increasingly using short video platforms to reach their target customers. New monetisation models, such as video commerce, livestreaming, and in-app purchases, will become increasingly commonplace in the coming years,” Bain & Company partner and onsumer products, retail, strategy and digital practices in India leader Shyam Unnikrishnan said.

Long-form videos (LFVs), on the other hand, have substantial scale — viewed by 350 million to 400 million users, almost twice as many as penetrated as SFV. LFV is also poised to grow to 600 million to 650 million users in India by 2025.

“This growth will be driven by a steady increase in the Internet user base; access to cheaper, faster data; the introduction of more affordable plans, including the advent of freemium models; and a proliferation of content,” the report noted.