India now has 81 million Internet users of which nearly 75 percent are from the four main cities of

Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

Men within the age group 18-35 still constitute 76 percent of all users, and 52 percent of all users
are active ecommerce participants who spent an average of $2 100 for online transactions in 2009.

Tech2 explains its arithmetic, basing its assumptions on Internet gambler target demographics of:

• Age 18-35-(76 percent of all users)

• Male (86 percent of all users)
• Active Ecommerce User (Spending $2 500 a year)
• Bachelor Degree (90 percent of all users)
Most Popular News Websites in India
by Anand on December 15th, 2009 Share on

According to Comscore, nearly 16 million Indians accessed news online in the month of October
2009, which is a 37% growth from October 2008. The most surprising inclusion in the list is New York
Times at number 2, ahead of the locally popular Times Of India. Here are the top ten in the list and
the monthly uniques

1. Yahoo News : 4.1 million

2. NY Times : 3.8 million
3. The Times Of India : 2.6 million
4. OneIndia.in : 2.3 million
5. The Hindu Group : 1.5 million
6. The Indian Express : 1.2 million
7. HT Media : 1.1 million
8. NDTV : 1.1 million
9. BBC : 992,000
10. The Economic Times : 820,000

Mobile Internet Users in India

by Anand on January 11th, 2010

Despite the terrific growth rate in adoption of mobile phones, mobile internet has not exactly taken
off in India so far. A research report by IAMAI reveals this fact in numbers. The numbers are for
September 2009

Mobile Subscriber base : 471 million

Mobile phones that are capable of accessing internet : 127 million
Ever used mobile internet : 12 million
Active users of mobile internet : 2 million

How Active Are Indian Internet Users? by Anand on September 1st, 2009

The numbers may not be proportionate to the population, but the Indian users are very
highly engaging:

The number of broadband subscribers : 6.8 million

The number of Active Internet users in 2009 : 54 million (login at least once a month)
Growth forecast in active internet users in 2010 : 34%
Facebook grew 156% in India in the past 12 months
Indians are among the top 10 on Twitter

Internet & Mobile Access in India

 India currently has around 50-60 million internet users and 7.4 million broadband
connections. - DNA
 With nearly 440 million subscribers, mobile phones cover nearly 40% of the country’s
population. - IAMAI
 India has an active internet user base of about 3.3 million, according to the IAMAI. The
report is based on primary survey covering 20,000 Households, 90,000 individuals, 1000
SMEs and 500 cyber cafes countrywide. - Economic Times
 The number of people in Asia Pacific who have access to the internet grew by 22 percent
during the period September 2008 to September 2009. China led the region with a 31
percent growth followed by Japan (18 percent) and India (17 percent)[4]. - Visa Asia
 The government has planned to expand broadband coverage to connect every gram
panchayat to broadband network by May 2012. – CIOL
 While the world’s tele-density as on December 31, 2008 stands at 78.11 per cent, India’s
tele-density, as on October 31, 2009 is 44.87 per cent. the rural tele-density in the country is
18.97 per cent. - CIOL
 By 2010 we expect there to be over 600 million mobile broadband subscribers, rising to 900
million by 2012 and the vast majority, will be served by advanced networks such as HSPA
(High Speed Packet Access) and LTE (Long Time Evolution). - Hindu
 India has the lowest average of 11 hours per user, ComScore also said, below the regional
average of 16.9 hours - MB
 The report by DtecNet that is based on tracking illegal downloading IP addresses on P2P
(Peer to Peer) networks, showed that from April to September 2009, India was among the
top 10 countries in the world with the largest number of illegal P2P activities. – Economic
Times

Social Networking in India

 It’s also one of the most cost- effective channels that offers a reach of around 23.5 million
active SNS population (figure according to Sept: comScore report),” – The Indian

Online advertising in India

 Online advertising is expected to account for Rs1,800 crore in revenues by 2015 - DNA
 online video advertising industry is currently generating revenues of Rs 40-60 crore, and is
expected to touch Rs 200 crore by 2012 - DNA
 Education and Print medias ad spent on Online Display Advertisements are expected to grow
at the rate of 76%, followed by automobile sector which is expected to show the second
highest growth rate (46%) with increase in the product launches and emergence of Internet
as the effective medium to target youth. - IAMAI
 The online display advertising industry in India grew to INR 3250 Million in FY 2008-09 with
the growth rate of 38%. The study is an exhaustive market research on Indian Online Display
Advertisement Market. Based on the primary research conducted in this study, it is expected
that the industry will grow at a lower rate at 32% and will grow to INR 4300 Million FY 2009-
10.- IAMAI

Nielson Upper Middle and Rich in India Survey 2009

Nielsen has just declared results of its Upper Middle and Rich (UMAR) survey. The survey covered
more than 18,250 individuals across 35 Indian metros. The survey has identified three segments of
affluence from lifestyle and consumer durables mapping and estimates that there are 2.5 million
population belonging to urban rich segments in India.
2.2 million belong to the Upper Middle segment (owning a car and a computer)
0.2 million households belong to the Upper-Upper Middle segment (owners of a car, computer and
LCD television).
The Rich segment (owners of a car, computer and LCD television, and have holidayed abroad)
consists of about 0.1 million households.
Interestingly most of people belonging to this group are heavy users of internet.The key highlight of
this survey are:
Half of the targeted consumers are schooled in English
English is the preferred language for newspapers however the television programmes watched are
more in regional languages.
Nine in ten affluent individuals own a house; three-quarters have a fully automated washing
machine; and nearly two in five affluent individuals have a home theatre and modular kitchen.
Media Reach:
98 per cent of the individuals watch TV;
70 per cent read English dailies;
67 per cent watch movies outside home;
55 per cent use the internet at home;
54 per cent listen to the radio;
while 38 per cent and 10 per cent read magazines and English business dailies, respectively.

Recession:
 40-50 per cent of the respondents saying that their expenditure on travel, luxury
accessories, fuel, vehicle usage, branded garments and consumer durables has seen no
change. However, spending on luxury accessories and vacations, compared to other items,
has reduced due to recession.
 Lifestyle:
Fine dining is high among this section of the society, with eight in ten individuals going out
for meals often.
 Shopping is also a fad. Nine in ten prefer to shop at modern retail stores – articles of interest
include footwear, jewellery, handbags, sunglasses, cosmetics, fragrances, pens and watches.
 Respondents are found visiting gymnasiums, spas and beauty parlours, with three in ten
visiting a parlour or spa once a month.
 The survey ranks Delhi, Bengaluru, Greater Mumbai and Chennai as the most affluent cities
in India, followed by Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, respectively.

Orkut Key Trends and usage Insights

 Orkut is India's largest site and according to Comscore Orkut is the number one web
property in India with over 17 million active users that comprise 48% of India’s online
population and so is the best place to mine for user trends and with a recent effort to
increase buzz Google has released an Orkut zeitgeist and some media coverage. From the
coverage there are some key insights about Orkut itself to take away
 Orkut is getting a lot of mobile usage and owners of Mid Range Phones ( Rs5000-Rs15000)
are heavy users of Orkut on phone and they use it to scrap others.
 The Orkut user base is primarily between 18-30, mostly students from colleges. So primary
usage does come during weekdays when they go to cybercafes. There is the office
population but it isn’t as much as those from cybercafes and homes.
  Most of the users are English speakers and the transliteration tool has not really served the
purpose of getting regional language speakers on the net.
 Regional Communities like Tollywood perform better than Bollywood which denotes that
orkut and hence internet penetration is more in South India than in North India
 Most high schools, reality shows have communities and active discussions.
 Stock market based communities are increasingly becoming popular in small towns.
 Everyone loves to 'scrap' but 'photo' sharing and comments are the new fad.
 Rahul and Neha are the most popular names on orkut
 Women and Men meet half way for 'chats’. Women care more for Horoscopes
 Citizen journalism is very active on Orkut with lots of self-help and NGO groups being formed
on Orkut
 Additionally Top Communities on Orkut are
o "StYlIsH PeOpLe"
o "India"
o "Chocolate"
o "MTV & still more MTV!"
There are a few things to take away from this Astrology, movies (regional specifically), Fashion,
stocks are the themes on which you can find lots of users on orkut and they are the ones that can be
targeted. Office usage is limited mostly because of widespread Orkut ban in offices and that means
that for wider e commerce purposes Orkut is not the best place to advertise since you are more
likely to find college students on Orkut.
(based on medianama interview and orkut zeitigist)

Google Research: Role of Internet on Financial Products Sold in India

A study was conducted by Google and research firm Netpop Research to get a fix on how Indian
consumers use the internet and other traditional sources before buying financial
products/services.The study was conducted amongst users who had purchased a product from
banking services, home loans, personal loans, credit cards, investments, insurance policies and
remittances in the last six months.
Google India records 70 million searches every month for financial products
8 out of every 10 consumers use at least one internet source before buying a financial product.
Around 70% of the consumers compare costs during such research ( That I can verify since Rupeetalk
the company I work for is focused on this concept and has seen some explosive growth )
The use of search engines has been pretty high — 92% for home loans, 89% for credit card enquiries,
84% before seeking a banking service, an insurance product or a remittance, 83% for personal loans
and 75% before making an investment in a fixed deposit, mutual fund, equitylinked financial
products.
The study also reveals a consumer uses nearly 15 information sources before buying a product like
home loan. And nine of these are internet-based information sources.
Majority of internet financial purchasers in India are educated males between the age of 30 and 35 .
The study said reputation of the financial brand plays a vital role in the final purchase decision. And
herein, trust and company reputation have emerged as key reasons, much ahead of factors such as
rate, customer service and past experience.
What Influences Consumers to go for Online Research:
About 62 per cent of the respondents went online for further product information, after they had
come to know about the products from their friends.
Nearly 58 per cent and 52 per cent respondents went online for further research after they became
aware about the financial products through TV and print ads respectively. Only 22 per cent
respondents were influenced by radio ads to explore the products online.
While 47 per cent respondents had used consumer reviews, 41 per cent respondents relied on social
networking sites and 29 per cent relied on blogs to get information about the products.
Research: India Online Report 2009 Juxt Consult
JuxtConsult is back with its India Online report and this time it expanded its sample size to 135,000
individuals across 40 cities and 480 villages to estimate the Internet user base in India It has also
backed it up with an online survey of 12,500 people for finding out the net usage preferences.Key
Points of the report are:

 ‘All’ internet users down at 47 million (39 million urban, 8 million rural)
 Drop of 6% from last year (lapse of around 3 mn occasional users)
 Just 10% growth in ‘regular’ users base*, reaching 38.5 mn (33 mn urban)
 +3.5 mn regular ‘urban’ users over last year, +0.4 mn regular ‘rural’ users
 28% growth in ‘daily’ internet users (+7 mn in last 1 year to reach 32 mn)

Internet Access Point:

 Exclusive cybercafé user base shrink to become just 6% of all internet users
 Office continues to be the place from where internet is accessed the most
 Still only 4 mn internet users access it through mobile phones
 Demographics of Indian Internet Users
 Only 13% of existing internet users prefer to read in English
 4 out of 5 online Indian are in the ‘prime’ of their life (19-35 years) half of them belong to
SEC ‘A’ and ‘B’)
 Half of all internet users are employed.
 Their Average monthly income is 3.2 times national avg.

Top 10 Online Activity:

Job search 72%
Instant messaging/chatting 68%
Check general news 63%
Dating/Friendship 56%
Check sports (other than cricket) 53%
Check cricket content/score 53%
English info search engine 50%
Matrimonial search 50%
Listen/stream music online 49%
Download music 48%

Top 10 Sites:
Google 35%
Yahoo 25%
Gmail 11%
Orkut 7%
Rediff 4%
Indiatimes 1%
Moneycontrol 0.7%
Hotmail 0.6%
Youtube 0.5%
Sify 0.5%