New report finds digitisation could open up a market worth $39 billion for India

Rising digitisation will unlock a potential $39 billion worth of export opportunities for Indian businesses in select verticals by 2022 -- up from $16 billion in 2017, a Google-KPMG report said on Thursday.

The verticals that provide high-potential export opportunities are travel, media and entertainment, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), consumer brands and real estate, said the report titled, "Indian Brands Going Global: A $39 billion opportunity".

"Rising global connectivity is opening up new opportunities for businesses to expand internationally. There is a huge international growth opportunity for select verticals and we wanted to capture that through this report," said Shalini Girish, Director-Marketing Solutions, Google India.

Asia-Pacific is one of the most attractive regions for expansion by Indian players -- with China, Malaysia and Indonesia as key target countries. Digitally mature geographies such as the US and UK are other lucrative geographies which can be tapped through digital channels, the report outlined.

"With 'Market Finder' tool, businesses can get access to all the resources they need to find the right market for their products and services, translate their websites and ad text, find new customers with relevant online ads", Girish said.

For travel, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East are the broad focus markets with UAE, Indonesia as very high potential markets for Indian online travel agencies. For the media and entertainment vertical, markets like the US, the UK, the UAE and mobile-first markets like Brazil are extremely lucrative for video consumption.

In music, growing markets like South East Asia, Malaysia and the Philippines offer new opportunities for the players. The industry is set to grow at a CAGR of 37 per cent to $3.46 billion by 2022 from a $0.71 billion in 2017.

The India real estate market offers superior long-term returns, the opportunity for realtors from the NRI customers is expected to grow from $11.5 billion in 2017 to $25.7 billion in 2022. "Indian real estate developers could tap into the NRI and high net worth individual (HNI) customer base by leveraging technology and digital platforms," the report said.

Asia-Pacific is the focus region for consumer brands -- the fastest-growing region in apparel and consumer durables. "China, Vietnam and Indonesia are rapidly growing jewellery markets. Consumer brand market in select retail verticals is expected to grow from $1.5 billion to $2.64 billion by 2022.

"Geographically, the share of developing economies in global trade is on the rise. This presents a compelling case for Indian Businesses to 'Look East' for growth," said Sreedhar Prasad, Partner and Head, Consumer Markets & Internet Business Advisory, KPMG India.