Panel Discussion: App cos see more adoption from small towns

Digital apps like Stack Overflow, Wattpad and Headspace are seeing increased adoption in India, especially in small towns such as Mysore and Ludhiana, panelists at the App Economy: Creating new Categories said on Saturday. They were speaking at the sixth edition of The Economic Times Global Business Summit in New Delhi. “The mobile internet has completely changed the game because it is free, connected, is real-time and global,” said Allan Lau, co-founder and CEO, Wattpad. More people crave local content and the rise of the internet is helping publishers share their local stories, which was not possible earlier due to the economic constraints of the TV and the movie industry, he added. Wattpad, a platform that has stories by some of the most popular Indian writers, has around three million monthly users in the country. A couple of years ago, the most popular story on India on the platform, was one written by a Filipino living in New Zealand, Lau said.