Delhi-based market research and consulting specialists JuxtConsult have just released their study: “India Online Landscape 2011” charting, online Indians and their Net Usage Behavior and Preferences. We bring you the key findings as bullet points:
‘Active’ Internet users in India stand at 65 million ( 28% from 51 million last year).
61 million ‘regular’ users (46 million urban users, 16 million rural users).Internet reaches 29 million Indian households (avg. users per household up marginally at 2.23).Covers 11.3% of all Indian households and 5.4% of all Indians (13% urban, 2% rural).Over 4 in 5 are ‘daily’ users. Daily users’ base grew faster, at 33% . (‘Active’ internet users = who have used the internet ‘in last one year’, ‘Regular’ internet users = use internet ‘at least once a month’).
Access: Mobile Internet yet to take off:
Access up from all places (average. place of access up at 2.23 from 1.76). ‘Home’ is the single largest place of access (58%), and the most preferred place of access (43%). Only ‘Home’ and ‘transit’ show growth in usage on ‘preferred place’ basis . Growth largely ‘PC’ driven (access on mobile phones still only among 1 in 4 internet user). Mobile adding only ‘depth of usage’ (8 out of 10 mobile internet users are ‘dual’ users, ‘only mobile’ based usage a lowly 3% - 1.8 million users). Connection speeds of internet usage has picked up noticeably from all places of access (indicating that a good proportion of existing users have been ‘upgrading’ their connection speeds)
Shopping and networking activities:
Online search for products (especially non-travel products) up significantly, making ‘shopping’ the 2nd most popular online activity (at 85%) after emailing. Social and professional networking also gained user-ship further (reaching 61% and 48% usage). Usage of all ‘social media’ platforms put together inched up to 86%. Job search, cinema ticket booking and reading product reviews are other activities that gained users. Downloading screensavers/wallpapers, online trading in shares and watching videos showed the most decline in usage. User-ship of ‘local language’ content gained only marginally (+2%) to reach 29%.
Google, Facebook dominate Google continues to dominate the online landscape – Google, Gmail, Gtalk and Youtube are the most used websites for 19 distinct online activities (compared to 24 activities last year). Facebook emerges as the leader in 6 distinct verticals (including online games and even professional networking) . For the rest of the verticals, it is the ‘specialized’ players who lead or dominate user preferences (Naukri, IRCTC, Ebay, 99acre, Moneycontrol, Sharekhan, Bharatmatrimony, Toorentz, Songspk, ESPNStar, etc).
Online buying: 4 out of 5 internet users ‘shop’ online (search or buy online), translating into a 50 million strong online consumer base. 17 million of these ‘online shoppers’ (or 29% of all internet users), also ‘buy’ online - 70% from 10 million last year. Online buyers of ‘non-travel’ products (13.5 million) outnumber ‘travel’ ones (8.6 million). Most bought ‘non-travel’ products were mobile phones & accessories (56%), computer hardware and consumer electronics (35% each) and movie tickets (30%). Most bought ‘travel’ products were train tickets (83%) and air tickets (58%).
Household heads are top netsumers
Almost 2/3rd of all internet users are ‘employed’ (up by 7%), and 71% of the employed ones ‘head’ of their households . 2/3rd of online Indians belong to SEC A,B and C, with claimed ‘average’ monthly family income of `18,720; 1 in 4 have a credit card. Female user-ship ‘inch’ up further at 27% (but ‘housewives’ segment declines). ‘25-35 years’ user segment grows further as the ‘single largest’ online age group
Internet lifestyle 9 out of 10 ‘home’ and ‘office’ based online Indians log on to the net ‘daily’. Almost half of all ‘home based’ net users are ‘heavy users’ of internet (spending >2 hours a day on weekdays). Less than 1 in 3 of them spend that kind time on other media. Net surfing is among top 3 favorite ‘indoor entertainment’ for 3 out of 4 of them. 9 out of 10 of them (86%) use some ‘social media’ (networking, communities, blogs, tweets, reviews). ‘Listening to music’, ‘cinema’ (largely Indian) and ‘gaming’ are their biggest hobbies.
Methodology: Findings on ‘net usage dynamics’, ‘online activities undertaken’, ‘website preferences’ and ‘consumption and lifestyle preferences’ are based on an online survey conducted between Mar-Mid June 2011 among 12,425 ‘active’ internet users from Juxt’s own online panel of 180,000+ internet users. Quarterly updates will also have 10,000+ sample per quarter
This year’s annual land survey was conducted between Apr-Mid June 2011 to profile and estimate ‘internet users’ in India. The survey covered ‘towns’ and ‘villages’ of all population strata in all the mainland states and union territories in India (covering all the key, and 80 of the total 88 regions in India as per latest classification by NSSO)
A companion story on this portal reports on Juxt’s findings in the India Mobile phone arena: http://www.indiatechonline.com/juxtconsult-india-mobile-phones-study-2011-545.php
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http://www.juxtconsult.com Aug 25 2011