Back

What’s On(line) India — 2017?

Mar 27, 2017 2 MIN

What’s On(line) India — 2017?

This is an update on a blog from 2011 titled What’s On(line) India? I wrote that blog about a year after I moved back from US and compared the online services that were available in India to the ones in the US. I had identified a few areas where the services had just launched in India and a few more where we did not have an equivalent service in India.

I was curious to check how things have changed in India and so did a refresh of that table.


Some observations:

Most categories popular in the US are all available in India and with reasonably good options

There are a few categories (particularly in O2O) that were non-existent (or very early) in 2011 that have quickly evolved in both US and in India and have got to reasonable scale. These categories are highlighted in green.

The categories that are driven by subscriptions or purely digital revenue (e.g. Movie rentals) are still early in India — particularly since subscription businesses are yet to catch the Indian consumers favor.

Most of these products/services are still getting traction mostly from the top of the Indian consumption pyramid

With the growing smartphone penetration and growing income levels, we can expect some of these products/services to trickle down to the next layer of Indian consumption — what Goldman Sachs calls the Urban Mass


The above list is by no means exhaustive. Curious to hear what products/services you would love to order from your mobile or your computer that you are not able to yet in India.

Note: Blog also posted here