There is a clear India pricing strategy that every foreign company now reliably follows. But it's not as straightforward as simple discounting. It's a form of deep discounting, justified by a localised and limited premium feature set.
TL:DR - In India, don't start with free. Start with sachet pricing, deliver immediate value, and build from there.
The product that an Indian experiences vs an American on the starter plan of the same app looks very different in most cases (Better features than the free version but slightly worse than the full premium).
Which means the starting prices of popular services like ChatGPT, YouTube, Spotify and Netflix are consistently lower in India, well below even US prices adjusted for purchasing parity, mainly to get us to try the real product once. There are a few reasons for this.
Indians need extensive social proof before trying something new. Once they try something free, they quickly form habits around it. They're extremely resistant to changing established free behaviours into paid ones.
Indians are also very reluctant to start off with a paid trial (unlike US) and free versions often leave a bad impression that makes conversion more difficult. Which is why the traditional freemium playbook has failed here.
Though Indians are hesitant to pay upfront, they're willing to subscribe at the right price point.
The market has learned this lesson. Indian content companies have successfully bypassed freemium entirely, launching with paid-only models at sachet prices (Rs 50-100/month). This sets payment expectations from day one, rather than trying to extract money from users accustomed to free access. It's a win-win.
It's becoming easier to acquire paying customers at low price points than to convert free users later. The willingness to pay exists at the bottom of the market. You just need to ask for it immediately, not eventually. Indian companies have learnt this and the lessons are being passed onto the OpenAIs of the world.
As you climb the pricing ladder, India discounts disappear. We pay global prices once we experience real value. Once hooked on free, we rarely convert.