According to figures from industry group FICCI and consultants EY, out of about 185 million users of ad-supported and ad-free applications in India last year, only an estimated 7.5 million users paid for the audio streaming services
Apple entered a new tab deal with the second largest telecom company in India, which will provide much-needed support for the iPhone maker in the content market, which lags behind companies like Spotify and Walt Disney.
The largest technology company in the USA plans to increase its revenue globally by offering free music and video streaming to the 281 million customers of Bharti Airtel, other than providing services like apps, payments, and media.
With this deal, Apple is likely to expect an increase in Apple TV+ users and Apple Music users in the country where it has long emphasised manufacturing to diversify its supply chain outside China.
Although Apple has a large number of iPhones from India, its devices only account for 6% of the country’s 690 million smartphones, down from roughly 2% in 2019, according to the statistics shown by Counterpoint Research.
According to Nitesh Kripalani, the former CEO of Amazon Prime Video in India, the move reflects Apple’s goals for India. This strategy is a time-tested way to surge into the market that is significant to it.
Since 2019, Apple has offered free Apple Music for Verizon mobile data plans. Additionally, starting in May, Comcast will be able to get Apple TV+ through a new tab streaming bundle.
In India, Wynk music app users who had premium accounts on Airtel will have access to Apple Music now since Wynk will eventually close.
Airtel gives access to an ad-free version of Wynk to its 7 million subscribers, but only a small portion of postpaid users use them, says a telecom industry source who wished to stay anonymous since the figures are confidential.
Outside of regular business hours, neither Apple nor Airtel wishes to respond to requests for comment.
Apple Music is more suitable to the Indian market compared to the primarily English Apple TV+ with content from Bollywood and regional language songs, though its collection is less compared to Spotify, according to co-founder of Counterpoint Neil Shah.
An anonymous source from the music industry said that 200,000 users use Apple Music, 500,000 use Wynk, 1.4 million use Gaana and 3 million paid users use Spotify in India. They refused to be identified since they are not authorized to share the estimates publicly.
Outside of regular business hours, Spotify or Gaana didn’t respond to requests to comment.
According to figures from industry group FICCI and consultants EY, out of about 185 million users of ad-supported and ad-free applications in India last year, only an estimated 7.5 million users paid for the audio streaming services.
According to telecom industry insider, Airtel would pay Apple a per-user free significantly lower than the $1.20 per month that is currently charged in India for Apple TV+ and Apple Music.
As it looks to close Wynk and use Apple Music to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty, it will save millions of rupees for licensing in return, says another telecom source.
Airtel realized that its strength is in distribution rather than content creation, says the source on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to discuss the matter.
Apple is a small competitor in the Indian video streaming market. Counterpoint estimates that it has less than a million users. With over 38 million users, Disney + Hotstar is leading the market, while the estimates state that Netflix will launch a new tab with around 10 million.
Netflix has repeatedly stated that its target is to reach 100 million users, without providing a fixed time limit, suggesting the market’s potential.
Apple TV+ is well known for its original series like The Morning Show and Slow Horses competitors like Netflix and Disney offer more Hindi content with actors from British and regional language films.
A new tab is opened by Reliance Industries and Disney. The most popular sport in India, cricket is now streaming on JioCinema. The two businesses are combining their Indian media assets to form the nation’s largest entertainment firm.
According to a second telecom source, Airtel, which is just behind Reliance Jio in terms of its survivors, plans to give packages with multiple months of free access to Apple TV+
Although many homes will have access to Apple TV+ growth can be delayed since its offerings are still not optimized locally, says Shah of Counterpoint.