Whatever market your business is working in, understanding your customers is key. The growth of internet use in India is attracting the focus of global brands, as well as changing the way national firms market themselves. The changes have been fast, and today to reach upmarket and professional audiences the internet has to be a core part of the strategy.
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In India the web is now established as a mass market media channel for the wealthy. Email has become a mass market media channel for office workers and professional classes. Mobile (for SMS) is a mass market media channel across many demographics, but while mobile use is very high, mobile devices and the web will not properly converge until late 2010. The main changes in internet access have happened in the last five years and the internet has become an essential part of office life, and plays a key role in many homes. The number of people with access continues to rise, but so too does the time they spend online. Broadband access is growing fast, but the number of home connections lags behind comparable markets; however although the number of connections is low, a large number of people in high-end demographics have access. Significant infrastructure problems remain, creating a high cost for access compared to average wage rates.
The massive Indian market is changing fast. Internet access is mainstreaming among professionals and the use of mobile is intensifying. The pace of change continues to be rapid with digital channels constantly growing in volume and strength. More people spend more time online in India every year, and the digital tools and sites they use play an ever-growing role in their lives. Smart marketers keep on top of the scale of change and ensure their marketing strategies and touchpoints mirror where the consumer is spending their time. These notes give a sense of the scale of change we’ve seen so far and implies the scale of what is coming.
A great way to get a taste of internet use today in India. This package from Webwide World by a British journalist Steve Saunders collects the views of business people and NGOs proactively using the internet today.
Whatever market your business is working in, understanding your customers is key. It's about getting the right message to them at the right time and the right way.
The growth of internet use in India is attracting the focus of global brands, as well as national firms looking for more effective ways to reach upmarket and professional audiences. As online commerce and internet audiences accelerate, the web is moving to the centre of the retail and information culture in key demographic groups.
To support our clients and partners we've collated together research that provides a snapshot of the online economy in India today, and there is a supporting online resources page.
Developing digital strategies for content, commerce and communications in India demands a strong understanding of the role the web, email and social media play in people's changing media mix. If you find the notes useful then add your comments in the supporting pages.
Low, but high concentrations among professional classes
Internet access growth started accelerating in 2002 and both the web and email have now mainstreamed as both a consumer and business tool. Use is skewed massively towards specific up-market demographics and professional classes that have access as part of their working lives. The twenty something professionals are graduating college with internet access part of their personal landscape so a clear cohort effect is in play – as this group ages they replace the older generation where internet access is more patchy and the behaviour, on the whole, less engrained. Email has become an important business tool for both domestic and international firms, and the ability to overcome the geographic challenges of such a large country have made it a quick replacement for fax services. However it’s not just about work, the web is proving itself as both an entertainment and business media platform with many strong entertainment sites in sport and news traceable back to origins in the mid nineties. The strong home-grown content industry in India, complemented by a strong IT sectors in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi have fuelled internet development. In terms of international access, there is strong use of UK and US websites as well as international sports websites.
Rapid growth as broadband replaces narrowband connections
India is undergoing the switch to broadband before many people even experienced narrowband, but the pace is slow because of the challenges of the telecommunication infrastructure. India will be a broadband internet country and a wireless internet country eventually, but until 2011 it will be a slow process as the exchanges get upgraded and local businesses wrestle with connection challenges.
The internet advertising industry remains young in India and behaves in a similar way to the Western European internet advertising industry 5-8 years earlier. The sector is dominated by financial services, IT/mobile and recruitment, with consumer package goods and motoring accounting for only small shares of the national online advertising market. However Indian consumers have experienced web advertising from the start of their use of the web so there is greater acceptance than in some of the Western European markets at a similar stage in their growth. The market is nationally driven with extra campaigns coming from global brands, but most of the budget confined to national businesses. However, negative perceptions about advertising remain and on the whole national media have been sluggish to provide online services comparable in quality to those in the UK and USA.
Email and information remain the strongest reasons people go online in India, but the use of video has grown rapidly in the past few years and will continue to do so, following trends from Western Europe. National broadcasters as well as the BBC and YouTube have all been early beneficiaries of online video viewing from India. The role of social media is growing rapidly with over 60m people having profiles on social networking sites. This will accelerate through to 2012 by which time internet access should have broadened and social media become a standard element of web use with the vast majority of regular users having at least one social media profile. Blogging and RSS use also prove to be significantly high at present; this will continue, but relative to other tools, blogging’s share of voice will decline throughout to 2010.
Understanding how audiences use the internet in India
For people with access, it’s a major part of their daily or weekly schedule. The internet is a gateway to world knowledge as well as a massive platform for national media and documentation. Once people start using the internet their behaviour changes permanently and already in India over two thirds of people with access use it several times a week or more. Work audiences account for significant amounts of the online total population. Access from internet cafes remains extremely high, averaging 30% on working days
There are around 300m mobile users in India (2008: 286million accounts). 92% of mobile subscribers are on pre-paid connection and remaining 8% on post-paid terms according to the IAMIA research of 2008. The Indian telecommunications market has tremendous growth opportunities – and according to IAMIA is set to exceed 500 million by 2010. Value added services - SMS, Hello Tunes, Music on Demand and Airtel Live - contributed to about 9.5% of the total revenues of the segment and SMS alone accounted for 4.1% of the total revenue in the market according to Go Broadband (2009).
The role of search is similar to most developed internet markets, although there is a lack of accurate data due to challenges in researching the market size effectively. Search is the largest segment of the online advertising industry in most countries and search engine advertising is rapidly growing in India, roughly doubling in size each year. Search engine optimisation is believed to be a massive part of the marketing mix in India but remains unquantified. Product development among search engines will now increase, given India’s accelerating status as an internet economy.
In 2009 Google ran heavyweight print advertising campaigns in India to draw people into the search engine for specific types of search. It’s a really interesting move from Google, but no surprise for the world’s biggest online brand to be heading offline - here's why...
The Government of India Ministry of Tourism wanted to promote India as the destination of choice among international travellers from the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The marketing strategy, which went beyond the traditional media mix, integrated online marketing so the Ministry could reach the increasing number of people who research their holiday destinations online. The Ministry understood the need for an interactive and engaging campaign to ensure message retention, as tourists choose international holiday decisions months ahead of actual travel dates.
In India the web is now established as a mass market media channel for the wealthy. Email has become a mass market media channel for office workers and professional classes. Mobile (for SMS) is a mass market media channel across many demographics, but while mobile use is very high, mobile devices and the web will not properly converge until late 2010. The main changes in internet access have happened in the last five years and the internet has become an essential part of office life, and plays a key role in many homes. The number of people with access continues to rise, but so too does the time they spend online. Broadband access is growing fast, but the number of home connections lags behind comparable markets; however although the number of connections is low, a large number of people in high-end demographics have access. Significant infrastructure problems remain, creating a high cost for access compared to average wage rates.
The massive Indian market is changing fast. Internet access is mainstreaming among professionals and the use of mobile is intensifying. The pace of change continues to be rapid with digital channels constantly growing in volume and strength. More people spend more time online in India every year, and the digital tools and sites they use play an ever-growing role in their lives. Smart marketers keep on top of the scale of change and ensure their marketing strategies and touchpoints mirror where the consumer is spending their time. These notes give a sense of the scale of change we’ve seen so far and implies the scale of what is coming.
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In 2009 Google ran heavyweight print advertising campaigns in India to draw people into the search engine for specific types of search. It’s a really interesting move from Google, but no surprise for the world’s biggest online brand to be heading offline - here's why...
The Government of India Ministry of Tourism wanted to promote India as the destination of choice among international travellers from the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The marketing strategy, which went beyond the traditional media mix, integrated online marketing so the Ministry could reach the increasing number of people who research their holiday destinations online. The Ministry understood the need for an interactive and engaging campaign to ensure message retention, as tourists choose international holiday decisions months ahead of actual travel dates.