Sri Mandir, an innovative Hindu devotional application produced by AppsForBharat, which is sweeping the world with a new wave of digital devotion. With approximately 3.5 million monthly active users, the app has quickly become a go-to platform for millions seeking to engage with their faith online. For many reasons, some of them technical, others cultural, Sri Mandir took off almost immediately as a platform to deepen spiritual practices. Today, it serves as a hub for nearly 90,000 learners from countries outside of India.
Since its launch, Sri Mandir has achieved a remarkable milestone of over 40 million downloads. This astonishing number highlights the increasing demand in digital religious spaces, especially from the Indian diaspora. Revamped for the digital age, the app helps devotees to undertake online aartis with convenience and ease. Equally important, it allows temples to hugely increase their revenues by as much as 15-25%, according to reports.
The app’s mid six-month retention hovers at over 55%, a promising sign that users are finding value in the app’s features. Sri Mandir has a unique talent for crossing geographical divides. It provides access to more than 1.2 million devotees to real-time live darshan and pooja from over 70 temples across India.
Diving deeper into Sri Mandir’s average revenue per user (ARPU) gives us a closer look at its domestic versus international performance. Compare that to the Average Revenue per User in India of ₹600-800 ARPU or $7-9. Overseas, it goes up to about ₹7,000, or about $81. This variation emphasizes the importance of the app’s ability to adapt to different user demographics.
In fact, the app’s userbase in the United States is exhibiting a truly stunning trend. Half of users engage in both digital prayer and virtual giving. In India, this overlap is as much as 20% to 25%, illustrating the awesome scope and crossover of the app’s unique usage and cultural relevance. Sri Mandir increases temples’ digital accessibility by taking a cut from their income. They usually charge a hefty 20 to 25% commission.
Sri Mandir hopes to grow its temple network to 500 by year’s end. This ambitious goal puts them right in line for even more growth. By early 2025 the app’s annual revenue run rate had already exceeded $12 million. This remarkable figure speaks to the platform’s success in monetizing the new digital devotion.
Sri Mandir has been able to support itself financially through its international presence. Interestingly enough, 20% of its revenue is generated from the Indian diaspora settled in the USA, UK, UAE, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The app’s real reach and success stems from a growing wave of religious-oriented technology startups taking root and flourishing around the world.
“Religious tech startups are increasingly gaining prominence globally, especially in economies like India, owing to the importance of culture and religion among the demographic,” stated a spokesperson from Tracxn. All this growth is supercharged by rapid increase in internet penetration, digital payments, and growing adoption of e-commerce marketplace, particularly in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. We should all be looking forward to seeing this expansion industry grow even more in the coming months.”
Prashant Sachan remarked on the app’s engagement levels: “The app has been retentive and primary because these transactions are something that the user will do throughout the year, multiple times a year.” This understanding, based on persistent user research, underscores the ways that users are always looking for new ways to connect spiritually with Sri Mandir.
