Close to 30% of Indian smartphone users are now active on Glance, finds Counterpoint Research Study

• Glance's active user base reaches 163 million in India.
• The active users base grew by 8% QoQ in Q3 2021.
• Two-third of the active users came from the $100- $250 price band.

London, San Diego, Buenos Aires, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul – December 27, 2021

Lockscreen content platform Glance recorded 163 million active users as of Q3 2021, according to Counterpoint Research’s Quarterly Mobile Application Tracker. Glance's active user base experienced consistent growth since its inception. Its active user base, which now consists of 30% of India’s smartphone users, grew by 8% QoQ in Q3 of 2021.

Glance enables its users to access a wide range of content, including live interactive content, on their smartphone lockscreens. This content is curated from the top publishers and developers in India across categories such as sports, current affairs, fashion, travel, food, commerce, and entertainment.

Commenting on the development, Research Analyst Arushi Chawla said, “The lockscreen is the most visited real-estate on a smartphone. It is the first screen users see every time when unlocking their smartphone. Being present on this surface, Glance makes content discovery frictionless and improves the opt-in rate for interactive broadcasting, compared to any other in-app event features that require users to login. Glance’s recent foray into LIVE, interactive content has also helped it to differentiate itself as a platform and has helped boost its user engagement levels.”

Chawla added “As per our estimates, about a billion smartphones will be sold in next five years in India, which brings a huge opportunity for a content platform to expand using Hardware as a Distribution (HaaD) model. Being a multi-lingual, pre-installed application in many leading smartphone OEMs, it serves as a gateway to the latest content for many first-time smartphone users.”

Exhibit: Glance Active User Base, Q1 to Q3 2021

Source: Counterpoint Research Quarterly Mobile Application Tracker, Q3 2021

Glance’s active presence is highly prominent in the $100- $250 price segment. Where about two-third of the active users came from this price band. Upper-mid-and-affordable premium ($250 and above) also consists of about 20% of the Glance active userbase.

Glance continues to strengthen engaging ways to create stickiness on the platform. With the launch of Glance LIVE, and a rise in interactive, real-time content, Glance is progressively bringing newness in content delivery. Content from Roposo’s top creators onto the Glance lockscreen platform has increased the content uniqueness as well.

India is a price-sensitive and highly competitive market for OEMs. In many cases, it directly affects their operating margin and ability to maintain their market position. As the market dynamics are moving from hardware-level competition to providing an overall holistic experience, most of the OEM’s strategy will concentrate on maximizing the customer’s lifetime value. In such a scenario long-term loyalty and value creation will depend on providing differentiating over-the-top services. Content will certainly play a key role in developing brand stickiness.

Commenting on this, Senior Research Analyst Pavel Naiya said, “Glance has created a unique positioning by pioneering the use of lockscreen as an asset for content discovery and by launching live, interactive content. With more OEMs looking to build deeper, more long-term content strategies for users, the presence of a content platform like Glance on devices can add great value. Glance can also be deeper integrated as a feature or can be added as an additional system update to optimize its performance as the consumer preference evolves.”

Over the past year, Glance has expanded its user base beyond India and is currently also available on devices across Southeast Asia.

Methodology

Glance’s mobile application presence is calculated from our panel database of over a million smartphone active users. Model-level Glance penetration data and active user ratio were extrapolated to our monthly smartphone installed base data using various parameters such as brand, model, and price band to predict Glance’s active user base. We expect the results to have a statistical precision of +/- 5% at the confidence interval of 90%.

This is a sponsored survey to better understand the brand’s presence in the Indian smartphone market.

Background

Counterpoint Technology Market Research All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, we disclaim all warranties as to the accuracy and completeness of this report. Counterpoint shall have no liability for errors, omissions, or inadequacies in the information contained and any direct/indirect damages. All opinions and estimates herein are subject to change without notice.

Analyst Contacts

Arushi Chawla

Pavel Naiya

Counterpoint Research