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Harsh Dwivedi
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Medial • 2d
Why Subscriptions and Micro-payments are the Future of Monetization in India and not Ads India now has over 800 million internet users, making it one of the largest internet user-base on Earth. We are close to US and China in this but nowhere close to ad revenue. Meta for example. In 2024, it had in $160 billion in ad revenue. Less than 1.5% of that came from India, despite being its largest market by users. The average Indian user is worth maybe $5–$10 annually, compared to $100+ per user in the US. We’re a value conscious nation where CPMs are low, advertisers are cautious, and user behaviour is different. Which is exactly why Indian apps are ditching the Western ad playbook and building for ₹10-at-a-time monetization. Some examples: KukuFM monetized > 2M users with subscriptions (Rs 499/3 months and other plans/microtransactions) PocketFM (more on micro transactions than subscriptions), pay per episode Eloelo (virtual gifting creator economy) ShareChat & Moj moved from ads to in-app tools and gifting The Indian internet isn’t too cheap to monetize, it just monetizes differently with mass microtransactions. Low ARPU × Massive DAUs × High Retention Trying to replicate Western ad models here is impossible. Advertising in India is a game of scale, and not even the giants win. But subscriptions and micropayments are a game of depth. They’re culturally aligned, economically suited, and much more controllable. The future of monetization in India doesn’t look like that. It looks like ₹10 from 10 million people. Over and over again.
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