Amazon India shoots past Flipkart as the most downloaded mobile app

Amazon in India has surpassed Flipkart as the most downloaded mobile app on Google and Apple app stores during the first quarter of the current calendar year, data from leading app data tracker App Annie shows.

Another web and app analytics firm SimilarWeb, which collected data for the last 28 days, also pegs Amazon ahead of Flipkart in app downloads, indicating that the former has been able to sustain the momentum even into the second and third quarters.

The Times of India newspaper also did a survey on Tuesday and Wednesday for the top downloaded apps in India on Google Play Store, where Amazon.in was at the No. 11 spot on both days, ahead of Flipkart, which was at No. 17 spot on Tuesday and No. 16 on Wednesday.

This may come as a blow to Flipkart, which lost its lead to Amazon India in web app last year, and the gap in this space has also widened since then. A SimilarWeb report that included the combined traffic on the desktop and mobile web and released on Tuesday listed Amazon India at 128 among the top 300 websites globally. Flipkart was placed at 223. The scores are calculated based on the number of unique visitors and the number of page views, in order to demonstrate both quantity and quality of the site.

The fact that Flipkart has reduced its sale events and advertisements on media may have contributed to the dip in downloads, even as Amazon continues to spend money on media. In terms of sales also, Amazon is steadily inching closer to Flipkart, and may surpass in near future.

However, Amazon still trails Flipkart in monthly active users on the mobile app, the App Annie data shows. SimilarWeb also finds Flipkart to be ahead of Amazon in active app usage. While 4.5 percent of Flipkart users launched the app every day, only 2.7 percent of Amazon users did so daily. Consumers also spend more time on the Flipkart app (8.25 minutes per session) than on Amazon (6.2 minutes). But if the recent app download trends continue, the gap in usage may shrink faster than we know.