Youth spend over 120 minutes daily on social media; women dominate shopping apps: Inside India’s digital landscape

Amid rising use of social media across the world, a report highlighted that urban Indian young adults are spending more than 120 minutes on social media each day. According to a joint report by VTION and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), urban Indian youth, aged between 18 and 24 years, are using social media significantly more than the overall social media average of 97.9 minutes daily.

The report studied digital consumption patterns in urban India, which vary sharply across age groups and genders. It added that while social media is largely dominated by the younger users, the entertainment category is led by consumers aged 35 and above. The older demographic spends an average of 77.2 minutes per day on entertainment platforms, making it one of the highest-engagement digital categories.

The report also revealed that female users spend more time in e-commerce and quick commerce platforms compared to males. Among users aged 18-24, female engagement is 47 per cent higher than that of their male counterparts.

“Audience share measures the first. Time spent measures the second. In Urban India's highest time-spent categories, those two numbers point in different directions - and the direction of deeper engagement consistently belongs to female users,” the report read.

According to the data, females consistently demonstrate higher levels of interaction across key digital categories, 42 per cent higher than males. Women aged 25-34 living in megacities spend an average of 35.2 minutes per day on e-commerce and quick commerce applications, compared to 24.8 minutes for men in the same age group.

The gender-based engagement advantage is also reflected in platform-specific data. Quick commerce platform Blinkit has a female audience share of 57 per cent, while e-commerce platforms Meesho and Myntra report female user shares of 61 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively.

“Any brief that targets ‘e-commerce shoppers’ without female-first planning is mis-aimed,” the report said.
Meanwhile, messaging platforms continue to be a major part of daily digital life, with users spending an average of 58.6 minutes per day. The report also highlights the rapid growth of emerging categories. Loan and credit applications recorded a 30 per cent increase in monthly active users, while artificial intelligence applications registered growth exceeding 100 per cent, underlining the expanding influence of AI-powered tools in India’s digital ecosystem.