Mobile games and applications in India are expected to be a Rs 2,700-crore market by 2016,driven by strong smartphone growth and expanding 3G user-base,a report by Avendus Capital said today. The digital content market in India has been sub-scale due to large-scale piracy. Mobile Internet is opening the doors for large-scale monetisation of digital content through paid apps which is expected to grow to become a Rs 2,000-crore market in the next 3-4 years, Avendus Capital executive director and head (Digital Media and Technology) Ashish Bhinde said. According to the report,smartphone users in India are expected to grow to 67 million this year and 382 million by 2016. Similarly,3G subscriptions are also expected to rise from 11 million in 2011 to 56 million this year and touch 266 million by 2016,it added. More than 50 per cent of mobile Internet traffic and paid content revenues come from smartphones. Google Play and Apple App store revenues are expected to cross Rs 800 crore by 2016. The number of smartphone users in India was only 36 million as of March 2013,while the number of Internet-supported mobile devices stands at 431 million,the report said.
