Smartphones have surpassed traditional electronics for a growing share of Indian consumers, with 23 per cent now relying only on mobile devices to consume content.
The latest figures from Kantar’s Media Compass report for Q1 2025 mark a significant rise from 15 per cent in the same quarter of 2023, highlighting rapid growth in mobile media consumption driven by growing affordability and mobile internet access, Bloomberg reported.
The survey, covering 87,000 respondents, found the trend most prominent among lower income and rural male users.
Puneet Avasthi, director at Kantar’s Insights Division, South Asia, explained that these audiences were previously “media dark” due to the cost of televisions and multiple OTT subscriptions. Many consumers are bypassing TVs entirely, turning to mobile as their sole medium to access media content.
India’s vast base of mobile internet users, driven by affordable handsets and mobile tariffs as low as $4, have made the country a prime target for digital strategies by companies like Meta, Netflix, and Amazon, the publication noted. For example, Netflix offers a mobile-only plan for ₹149 ($1.72), aimed directly at this growing user segment.
In addition, mobile phones now account for 78.6 per cent of India’s internet traffic, above China’s 62.8 per cent and the US at 43.1 per cent, according to research from PrioriData.
The report also found that digital connectivity is supporting the growth of e-commerce. Online marketplaces like Flipkart and Meesho are increasingly expanding into smaller towns, offering affordable products to rural consumers. Digital platforms enable “a very wide basket of categories” to reach rural markets at the click of a button, Avasthi noted.
The report also flagged connected TVs as a rising segment, with 35 million users added in Q1 2025. Meanwhile, satellite internet services are set to expand in the country following the recent regulatory approval for Starlink.