Indian internet companies have a fake app installation problem

• Fake app installations are creating issue for Internet companies in India.
  
• India has witnessed an 85% increase in fraudulent installs of apps.
  
• The instance of frauds related to mobile app installations in India 1.7 times higher than the global average.

Spam isn’t an entirely new concept, but that doesn’t keep fake app installations from being one the biggest concerns for Internet companies in India. According to reports, the offer of cashback or other added benefits entices users to install and uninstall an app multiple times from different devices and IP addresses.

Paytm, India’s biggest mobile payments company revealed that 20% of the Paytm app downloads are fake. Their definition of fake includes users installing and deleting the app without spending any significant amount of time interacting with it. This results in no returns for the company on cost of acquisition for users to install the app.

In fact, mobile fraud has increased to such an extent that it’s proving to be an obstacle for Indian Internet companies. Despite increasing traffic on their platforms, they require more growth if they’re to survive in the competitive digital space.

Even by global standards, India has 1.7 times higher instances of fraud related to mobile app installations, than the world average. 17% of the total app installations in the country are fake. Not only is that high, it’s the highest in the world.

Sanjay Trisal, country manager of India at AppsFlyer, a mobile analytics firm, told the Economic Times, “India is the number 1 country in terms of organic and inorganic app installs but we have seen an 85% increase in fraudulent installs of apps in the last one year.”

He also thinks that the sheer amount of people online in India might have something to do with it, “While the incentive for fraud in terms of parameters such as money made per click is much higher in other markets, India is an attractive country for fraudsters due to the sheer volume of installs.”