mHealth Landscape in India

Mobile phones have come a long way from being just a communication device. As smartphones now are known for their numerous utilities, one that we want to highlight is mHealth. mHealth is defined as “the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, personal digital assistants and the wireless infrastructure.”

The mHealth landscape in India has been rapidly growing over the past few years. India has an internet penetration rate of 36% and an active mobile user base of 451M. Over 99% of users in urban and rural parts of India use their phones to gain access to the internet. This provides mobile advertisers with a big opportunity to market their mHealth app to a large market with increasing access to cheap data.  

According to research from Adjust and Facebook, Health apps had the 6th highest growth score across app verticals in India for 2020.

Source: The Mobile App Growth Report 2021, Adjust & Facebook

The main drivers of healthcare apps in India are an increasing focus on patient-centric care, advancement of latest technologies, and the adaptation of new business models. The healthcare app market is expected to reach INR (Indian rupees) 200B by 2025, and will expand with a compound annual growth rate or CAGR of around 36% from 2020 to 2025.

According to Business Wire, the demand for healthcare apps is anticipated to increase even more because of the better services it can offer compared to the inadequacies of the existing healthcare system. Wellness management, appointment scheduling, and chronic disease management apps are expected to gain more users over the years.

COVID-19 has accelerated a major change in the structure of the healthcare system in India, and new healthcare technologies deployed to try to help combat COVID-19 are widely adopted by the population. Several new mHealth apps have been developed by the government to aid in digital contract tracing, public service announcements, quarantine compliance, and data gathering for national statistics of COVID-19. 

Pompika Gautam, Aarki’s Sr. Account Executive in India, sat down with Pankaj Tewary, Digital Marketer at mFine, at Programmatic Connect Digital to discuss how their mHealth app’s marketing strategies have evolved during the pandemic. He noted that there was an increase in users because most people wanted to socially distance. Through the app, users can consult with their doctors in the safety of their own homes. He explained that programmatic advertising proved to be the best channel for them to market their app, as it helped them garner high intent users. Programmatic’s transparency means better data management, which helps them greatly in scaling mFine. You can watch the full interview below: 

With the new advancements in technology, the potential for innovations in mHealth apps are limitless. As India’s mobile users are increasing, there is a huge opportunity for you to level up your mHealth app through programmatic, and to maximize your capability to acquire and retain new users.  

With Aarki, you can have the most effective strategy for your next mHealth app mobile programmatic campaign. Our success in this vertical and market mean we understand what makes for a successful campaign for mHealth apps in India. If you would like to know more about our services, drop us a message here.