Glance added 40mn new active users as it targets TV screens, global markets

InMobi-owned live lock screen infotainment platform Glance added over 40 million new active users to its service between Q1 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, according to a Counterpoint Research market survey sponsored by Glance. Now with 183 million active users on the platform, Glance saw an increase of over 30% year-on-year (YoY) in its user base, as it reaches out to more markets and device form factors.

Glance offers lock screen content services to reach out to users. It has a range of offerings that today include access to mobile gaming, live shopping and more, and is offered as a preinstalled service on most smartphone brands today.

The survey added that Glance today has partnerships with most smartphone vendors in India, including Xiaomi, Samsung, Realme, Oppo and Vivo – which are the top five smartphone sellers in India by market share. The lock screen service by Glance comes preinstalled in smartphones made by the aforementioned companies, and are enabled by default – therefore adding heavily to its active user base in line with the growth in sales of smartphones in India.

Arushi Chawla, research analyst at Counterpoint, said that the company’s focus on offering a live video ecommerce platform has helped its overall growth. Through its subsidiary platform Roposo, Glance operates the live ecommerce platform that allows users to broadcast live – and viewers to purchase these products during a live session.

Last month, Yashashvi Takallapalli, vice-president of gaming for Glance, told Mint that alongside its existing e-commerce offerings, the company is looking to reach out to more international markets such as South-east Asia and Latin America, to rope in more users on to its platform. He also said that the company is focusing on expanding to other device platforms to expand its user base as well.

In April this year, Glance announced that it is partnering with smart television brands to offer its infotainment services on TV lock screens as well. During the announcement, Piyush Shah, co-founder of InMobi, said that the company will look to offer Glance as a preinstalled service on smart TVs – akin to how Xiaomi’s custom Patchwall OS layer works on Android TVs.

The company said that it aims to capture a 30% share of the smart TV market, with an estimated market size of over 80 million smart TVs in India right now.