Covid-19 — Google Trends and App downloads
Lockdown in India started on the 25th Mar’2020. The 3 phases of the lockdown have been as follows:
- Phase 1: 25 March 2020–14 April 2020
- Phase 2: 15 April 2020–3 May 2020
- Phase 3: 4 May 2020 — present
(scheduled to end on 17 May 2020)
While a few businesses have been hit hard, it has been a period of great growth for ed-tech, gaming, and OTT (internet-only businesses) apart from ops heavy businesses like grocery.
I have tried to analyze the Google trends (4th Apr — 4th May) and app downloads results (25th March — 4th May) below.
Ed Tech Firms in consideration; Byjus, Unacademy, Vedantu, and Toppr
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Unacademy and Vedantu have grown very aggressively in the COVID period as reflected in the Google Trends as well as Android App downloads. Android app downloads numbers show that Vedantu and Unacademy have grown and Byjus has degrown in the same period. Although the correct metric to track here would paying subscribers, minutes of video consumption etc. but those data points are internal to the company and not shared publicly.
Downloads and search trends for Toppr has been flat during the same period.
Gaming Companies; Dream11, Mobile Premium League (MPL)
Gaming apps run off play store on the android platform since Play Store doesn’t allow real money gaming. For the purpose of the downloads analysis, I have taken iOS downloads into consideration. While Dream11 is a fantasy app hit hard by the lockdown, MPL which is a casual gaming app has grown aggressively.
iOS app installs for MPL have grown by over 5x from about 2500 daily installs at the end of March to 12500+ at the end of April. This is pretty impressive growth. However, the correct metrics to measure the growth of gaming apps would be on engagement metrics like Playing DAU (Playing Users/DAU), Games Played, etc.
Grocery Companies; Grofers, Big Basket
The moment our Hon’ble Prime Miniter of India announced the lockdown, people rushed to the nearby Kirana stores to hoard stuff. However, the govt. gave a clarification later that grocery services will be open with social distancing and other guidelines as stated by the Govt.
The two largest players; Grofers and Big Basket got tremendous growth as shown by the search trends and app downloads. However, the orders on the two platforms have grown by over 50%–75% in the COVID period (source: blogs).
The correct metric to measure growth for grocery platforms would be increased in orders, ARPU which should have gone up too etc.
