short video apps: Indian short-form video platforms generate $100 million in ad spends in FY24: Redseer report

Bouncing back from the post-pandemic lull, Indian short-form video (SFV) platforms generated $90-100 million in advertising revenue in FY24, cornering 1-1.5% of the overall spending on digital advertisements in the country, Redseer Strategy Consultants said in a report.

According to the report, SFV platforms have crossed $200 million in revenue, with headroom for growth via monetisation including influencer marketing and virtual tipping.

The SFV market engages close to 250 million monthly users, and since the ban on China’s TikTok in mid-2020, Indian players have seen their daily active user tally more than triple. Over 63% of this engagement is driven by tier-II and tier-III regions.

“More and more brands are seeing these platforms as a channel to reach out to users of tier-II cities and beyond, regional language speakers. Additionally, awareness of Indian platforms has grown in the advertising community. The users are highly engaged and content quality is also improving,” Mukesh Kumar, associate partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, told ET.

He added that the Indian short-video space is still in its infancy. “The ad revenue of the global players will be much higher than the 1.5% of the SFV platforms, because they have a global evolved product. But the key differentiating proposition is that these platforms are able to provide a differentiated user base, more engaged with the platforms’ influencer community etc, which delivers better branding,” he said.

Indian short-video platforms like Moj and Chingari experienced a surge in popularity during the pandemic. With lockdowns in place, users turned to these platforms for entertainment and social interaction. But this success was short-lived. Global platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels dominated the market due to their large user bases and advanced features.

Daily active users and monthly active user tally remains flat since 2021-end, but the engagement has grown, Kumar said.Estimated to grow at 40–45% annually, influencer marketing is likely to reach $3-4 billion by FY29, as per the report. The rising popularity of micro- and macro-influencers is a key driver of this trend. Virtual tipping is also gaining traction, especially among audiences engaging in live streaming, projected to reach $700-800 million by FY29.