WHY INDIAN SOCIAL MEDIA HASN'T SCALED

BY PUNEET KUMAR ARORA & JAYDEEP MUKHERJEE

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Past ventures, such as Hike and Koo, failed to gain lasting traction. The reasons lie in a mix of limited scalability, inconsistent funding, weak advertising ecosystems, and an overreliance on imitation rather than innovation.

With the government stepping up its push for atmanirbharta (self-reliance) in the digital space, creating sustainable homegrown social media platforms remains an uphill task.

SOCIAL SCALE OF

THE estimated 5.5 billion people using social media globally, about 491 million consumers are in India, making it the world's second-largest market after China.

The widespread availability of affordable smartphones, low data tariffs, and the rapid rollout of high-speed 4G and 5G networks have enabled millions of Indians to come online and join social platforms.

Estimates suggest that Indian users spend an average of 2 hours and 26 minutes daily on social media, higher than in several major markets such as the US (2 hours and 18 minutes), China (1 hour and 56 minutes), and the UK (1 hour and 49 minutes).

For platforms looking to build scale in India, the opportunity is clear: a vast, active, and deeply engaged user base. Moreover, with India's total internet population now approaching one billion, a significant segment of users can still be brought onto social media, representing a largely untapped growth opportunity.

NETWORK NEXUS