Bengaluru, Feb 12 (IANS): Tier 2 cities and beyond has been the key behind explosive app growth in the country and rural India is the next big pivot for app growth in 2022, a new report has shown.

The quest for app installs became intense with the share of non-organic installs rising from 8.3 per cent to almost 70 per cent of total installs (from 2020 to 2021), according to data from SaaS mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform AppsFlyer.

With 83 per cent of non-organic installs stemming from non-metro cities, adopting a focused regional strategy will be the promising next step for new user growth, the report said.

"The New Bharat that lives within Tier-II cities and beyond has been key behind India's explosive app growth. With an impressive spike in markets other than India's top cities over the last year, these New Bharat users are now actively contributing to India's mobile-first economy," said Sanjay Trisal, General Manager of INSEA/ANZ, AppsFlyer.

This growth is here to stay as India reaches a billion mobile users, he added.

The share of paying non-organic users saw a significant increase (47 per cent), coinciding with lockdowns in several key states during the second wave, indicating that in-app purchases tend to be seasonal or event-driven.

Rural India demonstrates a promising opportunity for app marketers (particularly in finance, gaming, news, shopping, utilities and entertainment) with the surge in rural mobile-first users while overall share of non-organic installs of India's largest metropolitan cities dipped.

Categories like travel (4.65 per cent) and Food and Drink (2.51 per cent) are more popular on iOS, while finance, health, fitness and shopping also have higher-than-average usage among iOS users.

Due to its hyper-growth, the food and drink sector suffered heavily from mobile and fraud with a 37.43 per cent fraud rate followed by travel, entertainment and finance, the report said.