45% of top 1,000 Instagram influencers in India are women: ClanConnect.ai report

Rounding up the year 2020, ClanConnect.ai, an AI-driven influencer marketing platform, has listed the top 1,000 Instagram influencers in India. Mapping its own data over the past year, the tech-driven platform that matches brands with the right influencers has presented insights from across verticals, including entertainment, lifestyle, sports and more.

At the outset of the research, ClanConnect.ai found that 63% of India’s leading Instagram influencers operate in the entertainment category, while its subsets – sports, lifestyle, cinema and actors – gained the maximum traction in 2020.

According to the data mapped, power couple Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma are enjoying royalty status as influencers. Cricket sensation Kohli has the highest followers at 83.7 million and actor Anushka boasts of the greatest engagement rate in the country, surpassing even PM Narendra Modi. Others on the list of top 10 Instagram influencers are Shraddha Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Neha Kakkar, Jaqueline Fernandez, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif.

Among numerous findings, the platform found that a majority of the top 1,000 influencers in India comprised women. In fact, women rule the top 1K Instagram influencers and beat men by almost 50% more in numbers. The total unduplicated reach of all women Instagram influencers was found to be a whopping 1,700 million, while that of men was 1,200 million. While both men and women drive 82% quality engagement, men drive a slightly better engagement rate at 5% as compared to 4% for women.

As women rule as Instagram influencers in India, ClanConnect.ai delved deeper to find the top 10 female Insta-stars of 2020. While Shraddha Kapoor bagged the title of most popular female Instagram influencer with 57.2 million followers, Deepika Padukone followed with 52.4 million. Neha Kakkar, betting big on her brilliant wedding Reels, posts and anthem, emerged as the fourth largest female Instagram influencer in India. Again, Anushka Sharma drives the highest engagement at 6.7% with 3% being the average for the top 10 female influencers. The cumulative reach for the top 10 female influencers was clocked at 452 million, with the quality audience being 388 million at 84% average.

In the male influencer category, Virat Kohli is ahead of his counterparts on the top 10 list with 83.7 million followers. Surprisingly, however, he was beaten in terms of engagement by MS Dhoni who boasts an engagement rate of 10.98% as opposed to Kohli’s 1.84%. With 50 million followers, PM Narendra Modi is the second most popular Instagram influencer in India, with Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, Hrithik Roshan, MS Dhoni, Shahid Kapoor, and Kapil Sharma topping the charts. It is worth noting that the top two male influencers do not hail from Bollywood.

Closely studying the engagement metrics of each category, the platform found that food influencers enjoy the highest quality engagement at 88% while education, finance and career influencers cumulatively receive 85%. As far as the most engaging influencers are concerned, the list was topped by Ronit Ashra (32.92%), Dhanashree (24.69%), and Ratan Tata (22.83%).

Sagar Pushp, Co-Founder and CEO, ClanConnect, said, “At ClanConnect.ai, our overarching aim is to match the right influencers to brands to help the latter gain maximum ROI from their influencer campaigns. Our top 1,000 Instagram influencer list is an extension of this goal and will help brands identify the most relevant influencers who are best suited to their specific campaigns in terms of their follower base, engagement metrics, and content category. We hope all Indian brands leverage our exhaustive list and get the most out of each campaign.”