India’s expanding urban population is driving growth in the country’s online market. Indians now spend an average of 4.95 hours per day on phone apps, marking 3.1% growth over 2023. Moreover, Indian consumers spent a staggering 1.1 trillion hours engaged on digital platforms last year. On recent earnings calls, e-commerce and quick-commerce providers have also noted an uptick in advertising on their services. Digital advertising as a percentage of total advertising has been taking share over the last few years with the segment generating 108% of total ad growth in India’s 1.28 trillion INR advertising market (0.38% of GDP). In 2024, for the second consecutive year, digital advertising surpassed offline advertising. The consultancy EY forecasts 7.5% annual growth in Indian advertising through 2027, driven largely by digital ads.
Source: FICCI, EY, April 2025