2021 — The Year That Transformed The Internet Space!

Season’s greetings from all of us at RedSeer to you and your family. The year 2021 will be remembered as a year like none other.

While we have humbly achieved milestones in steering some of the big names to their IPO listings and getting recognized by Fortune, India’s 40 under 40, we acknowledge the challenges that the year has put all of us through.

As they say,?when the going gets tough, the tough get going, our resilience has made us emerge stronger and that reflects in some sectors that have done wonderfully well this year. Some are still emerging but the trends look promising. And there are a few wild cards that got seeded in the chaos of covid. Let’s take a look and see how this year has transformed the Internet space for good.

1.?eHealth Defined The Future Of Healthcare. Took The Role Of Saviour In 2021

Starting from e-consultations and tests at home to online purchase of medicine, e-health offerings solved many of the hassles we faced in 2021. We shed light on a few insights on the industry and what would potentially drive the industry going forward. Have a look at the full report! Read More...

2.?E-Grocery Became The Norm

We noticed that e-grocery saw massive adoption during the pandemic. The essential-centric grocery market grew at a lightning 70%+ pace last year and is expected to keep up with the health pace and grow 8-times in size in the next 5 years. Read More...

3.?Short Form Content Witnessed?A Growth Spurt

After the ban on TikTok, India’s short-form space took a massive setback but emerged stronger and is set to be the second biggest segment in terms of time spent in the next year after Internet mammoths like Facebook and Google. The market is expected to see a 3x growth in users in the next 5 years in India. This space, although more recent when compared to social media and other platforms, clocked over 200 million users in March’21 which shows the strong momentum of the segment. Read More...

4. Social Commerce Changed Paradigm With D2C Hinging On It

Although under the umbrella of eCommerce, social commerce brought in a new paradigm with communities coming together, resellers finding a platform, indigenous products coming to the forefront and much more. The sector has massively grown in a short span of time with various players betting on different strategies. Going forward, this sector will create many opportunities for the resellers who many a time find it difficult to position themselves on horizontal platforms among other global brands. Read More...

5. Quick Commerce Took Off?In 2021, Pioneering The Next Generation Of Delivery

It seems like the Q-commerce industry was on a roll in 2021! If you are an ardent follower of the e-commerce industry, you know that quick commerce (Q-commerce) was the natural evolution that was inevitable at one point. But, the timing of the domestic startups to strengthen their quick commerce offerings, couldn’t have been better. With the strike of the pandemic, we have witnessed the significance of quick commerce. In fact, our research showed that Q-commerce is estimated at USD $~0.3 Bn in CY2021 and is expected to grow 10-15x in the next 5 years, to become $5 billion by 2025! Read More...

6.?Festival Shopping - Hijacked The Mood With A Promising Uptick In Sales

In 2021, the overall online shopper base grew by ~20% compared to 2020 with Tier II contributing to ~61% of all shoppers. Overall, the Online Festive Sales of 2021 saw 23% YoY sales growth in 2021, in line with our predictions. The festive sales this year proved that brands and sellers selling online have reason to be bullish about the future of online sales – with increased adoption in Tier-II cities and newer customers coming online for the first time. We called the numbers, and we were right! For more on this, Read More here...

7. WealthTech Emerged As A Torchbearer: How People Managed Their Finances Better

WealthTech gathered plenty of attention. Over the years, we have seen the changing dynamics of consumer behaviour. In the last few years, the younger generations started adopting digital services to solve the different hassles. But, wealthtech was one such segment which started building the right offerings even before the demand and rather created its own market after developing the right products which is seeing a significant upsurge today. Read More...

8. India Gets IPO Ready, And We Handheld Them In Their Journey!

As online platforms see more adoption and increase in new users, they are clocking better unit economics. This is adding on to their stability and making them set for IPOs. A number of notable start-ups are planning to go public in the near future. We at RedSeer are proud to have had the privilege of getting to be a part of these internet start-ups’ journey, starting right from their seed funding and going all the way to their IPO and beyond.

9. Gaming - Not A Hobby Anymore, Players Are Serious And Ready To Pay

With the rise of online gaming, more so post-Covid, newer games and genres have appeared in the business. Driven by a healthy diversity of monetization mechanics, India first content and increasing propensity to pay, the gaming market matures and evolves to the next level, making it an exciting space to watch. Have a look at our reports on the Gaming market! Read More here...

10. Gated Communities Built Their Use Case With Better Services During Covid, Attracting High Earners And Eventually High Spenders Online

India’s gated communities are turning out to be major forerunners of digital adoption, with current online spending of close to $200 billion. It is estimated that this number will increase to a whopping $500 billion by 2026. Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, gate management platforms went out of their way to accommodate community needs. The mushrooming of gated communities and their spending power will spur more innovations—and competition—in this sector, making this an exciting space to watch. Read More...

With all these trends and more, we can say that 2021 truly was an incredible year!?

We expect 2022 to build on the explosion of internet-enabled growth in the consumer space. The possibility of the return on new waves of Covid may dampen sentiments, but the momentum of innovation in the consumer internet space is robust. India is undoubtedly amidst a digital revolution and we are here to witness the journey.