A 3rd of the Internet users in India have installed some kind of Anti-Virus on their phones — what does that say about them as consumers? Is it a way to improve device performance? Do they use these because a phone is shared amongst multiple users? Or does the trend simply reflect what we know — for most Indians a smartphone represents a major investment — one they want to protect?
It depends on what kind of product you focus on. A lot of users download these apps in an attempt to boost phone performance. Essentially if you’re too lazy to clean your own cache, these apps will do it for you. It makes sense, for a lot of people the smartphones is a beast of its own, they want to use for the things they know how to use it for and then ‘my nephew told me to click on this button whenever my phone gets slow’.
Some of these products like cheetah mobiles Security Master go beyond just boosting phone performance & providing Anti-Virus. They cover more seemingly mundane aspects like Safe VPNs to connect to WiFi hotspots and locks to prevent other people from seeing which apps you use (this is a theme that repeats itself in many sectors, people share phones but don’t want to share apps). There’s even a clever little feature that takes a photo of anyone who inputs a wrong code while trying to unlock the phone.
Here’s a look at some of the leading players in this space:
This is a crowded space. Our own radar picked up more than 60 players worth covering.
For the sake of brevity (and engagement), we chose to focus on the top few. Most of these products are downloaded with the aim of improving phone performance rather than protection. Despite the large number of installs (globally) that many of these companies have garnered, this is still a market with room to grow. Especially in India, where most consumers will buy low end phones that look good (have large screens) and then search for artificial ways to enhance performance.
Thanks for your time,
Ashish
- Team KG
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You can reach me on ashish@kalagato.com
