THE score thus far: Sunny Leone - 3 lakh, Sachin Tendulkar - 1 lakh. Adult entertainment star Sunny Leone is ruling India's mobile screens with her official mobile app which is far more popular than the official app of the recently-retired cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar.
Within a month of its launch, Leone's free-to-download app is seeing 10,000-12,000 downloads daily and has already crossed 3 lakh downloads. Also free, Sachin Tendulkar's app on the other hand, was launched in November last year, and is being downloaded about 3,000 times a day. It has totalled 1 lakh downloads so far.
Both celebrity apps were released by top Indian free video-on-demand mobile TV service, the Gurgaon-based ZengaTV. The service generates 300 million video views a month, mostly from its 19 million unique users in India. It has exclusive digital rights for both celebrities.
Those who download the Leone app expecting to view hardcore adult content, of the type that she has become famous for, will be disappointed. In keeping with Indian laws, the app will provide legitimate, above-board material — her interviews, movie videos ("Sunny Leone on Tamil movie set in Thailand"), travel blogs ("Sunny Leone in Hawaii") and social media content, all integrated into one app.
The popularity of the two apps illustrates a larger change: Indians are turning into some of the world's most ravenous consumers of digital content even as the country's smartphone user base rockets. In the last two years, action on mobile screens has doubled as compared to live TV screens as users watch content on-the-go at their own free time, say reports.
There is more growth around the corner. Later this year, India will become the world's second largest base of internet users, crossing 300 million users, driven mostly through cellphone access, overtaking the United States and second only to China.