Reverie’s Digital Indian Language Report, Issue #2 Is Out!

Introducing Reverie’s Digital Indian Language Report, Issue #2!

The Indian language internet space has been expanding constantly. The size of the Indian internet user base has grown to nearly 500 million people. That’s half a billion internet users in India alone.

India, as we all know, is an extremely diverse country. The Indian internet is also an expression of how diverse the country is.

Most Indian internet users do not use the internet in English. They prefer using their own language online. They form the Indian language internet user base.

In general, however, companies are still yet to wake up to this new reality. Most apps and services on the Indian internet are not designed with the Indian language user in mind.

Diving Into The Indian Language Internet

At Reverie, what we do revolves around bringing the internet to the average Indian, by breaking the language barrier. Part of this journey involves understanding this user base better, what their pain points are, and how they interact with the larger digital ecosystem. As always, understanding and analysing this highly diverse, great mass of internet users remains a challenging, yet exciting task.

In November 2017, we released the first edition of our Digital Indian Language Report, an overview of mobile usage habits among Indian language internet users. Since then, the field of language technology has continued to see changes, growth, and new developments.

Digital Indian Language Report, Issue #1

In the first edition of the Digital Indian Language Report (available here), we focused on consumer insights and usage behavior. We examined how Indian language internet users interact with the digital ecosystem, with insights grouped based on language of choice.

In this, the second edition of the Digital Indian Language Report, we will be taking a closer look at the Indian language internet and its users, while also focusing on the larger digital ecosystem – In addition to consumer insights, we examine business perspectives on taking advantage of these insights and how to utilize them and build around them as a company. Advances in technology, primarily driven by AI and voice technology, are also discussed.

Some Key Takeaways From The Report

• Consumer Insights – Some languages show a higher level of user engagement than others, with Marathi, Bengali, and Telugu at the top of the list. 7 of the top 25 used apps are messaging and social media apps. Research shows that 22% of these users use high end mobile devices costing over ₹11,000, displaying in clear terms their purchasing power.
• Business Perspectives – The emergence of this Indian language user base brings with it many questions. Reverie’s report includes perspectives on building for the Indian language internet user, seeing them as a consumer rather than just a user. It includes perspectives from seasoned professionals with experience in the field. These perspectives on the report’s insights can be leveraged to building engaging language experiences for users.
• Emerging Language Tech – A look at the emerging tech in the language technology space, and how new developments are changing the face of the field. This section also covers how each step of the user journey corresponds to a different set of tools in the overall language tech stack.

Find out more about the Indian language internet in our report.