Facebook has dominated the social media scene in India for the entire 2011 with now over 41 million Indian Facebook users, which is >50% penetration of India’s online population.
63% of Facebook users from India are <24 years old!
73% of Facebook users from India are male!
Facebook also dominates the referral traffic generation in India. To know more, click here.
Youth continue to dominate Internet usage in India with more than 75% of Internet users being youngsters that include Young men (27%), School and College going students (48%).
Interestingly, its the School Going kids who have started using internet more than they’ve ever had in the past decade.
While this growth is attributed by some to the increase in e-learning services and school assignments being posted online, our contention is that this generation of children were born into homes (most urban Indian households) that already owned computers.
As of September 2011, there will be 112 million claimed Internet users: 88 million from urban cities and 24 million from rural villages. This implies a growth of around 13% from last year.
Metros vs. Non-metros, Internet Usage, March 2011
By December 2011, it is expected that there will be 121 million claimed Internet users in India. Of these, 80% are active internet users (i.e., using the Internet at least once a month.
The top 8 metros contibuting 28.5 million internet users in total are – Mumbai, Delhi+ NCR, Kolkatta, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune.
However, what is interesting is that smaller towns and non-metros put together contribute more than 30 million internet users in India.
75% people in India still have trust in traditional forms of advertising but trust in consumer opinions posted online is almost on par at 74%. Personal recommendations and editorial content remain the most trusted (90%~). Globally the picture has already changed with consumer opinions posted online much ahead of traditional ads in terms of consumer trust and presumably India will soon go the same way.
Although brand websites score highly amongst Internet consumers, the survey shows that other forms of digital advertising are trusted less than ads appearing in traditional media such as TV, billboards, radio, magazines, and newspapers.
Text ads on mobile phones (43%), online banner ads (46%), online video ads (50%) and ads in search engine results (50%) are the forms of advertising least likely to elicit a degree of trust.
Source: Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey April 2009 / Base: Indian Respondents
In this context, it becomes very important to track consumer opinions online, especially in the case of experiential brands like hotels and airlines, which are not only high search categories but also categories in which the purchase decision making and even the “buying” itself has largely moved online.
Its the season for ‘cause driven‘ campaigns for brands rather than a consumerist style. While it was thought that brands would communicate about their products or company or their vision, we see an emerging trend where ‘people’s’ visions and common causes are becoming message vehicles to convey the brand message.
‘Causes‘ have become an innovative route to subliminal branding. Irrespective of what brands sell, in the metaphoric sense, they seem to want to find common ground with their customers, intermediaries and such. So what better than to connect with the audience’s causes… hope being a key in these troubled times. Case in point the Coke “hope” campaign
Some of the campaigns we are seeing in India along the same lines:
So what’s causing this phenomenon? This is what I speculate:
1. Economic meltdown is affecting all of us and brands need to remain connected. Hence messages of hope, rising, spark etc.
2. Brands wanting to be a part of people’s lives rather than people being part of brand culture
3. Brands identifying with Causes is a great way of being seen as doing good and getting the mind share
4. Most importantly, causes lend themselves to social media…else what can a brand talk or say on a facebook page???
So now traditional CSR budgets will involve subliminal branding. Perhaps thats where the spends will increase.
Internet usage in India was estimated at between 71 and 81 million in 2009. These are by any standards very conservative estimates and in any case, the numbers are growing exponentially and will leap-frog thanks to the increased access via 2G and 3G services from mobile operators.
According to IAMAI’s I-Cube 2009, at least 72% of this online population is young! 44% are students – both male and female and an additional 28% are young men in the 21-25 year age bracket.
87% are active users, accessing the internet more than once a week. In fact, almost half the users show heavy usage, accessing the internet 4-6 times a week with average usage being 15.7 hours per week.
80% use the internet to search for information! Therefore, insights derived from search analytics and listening to brand conversations in social media become key in understanding the attitudes, perceptions and changing behaviours of this new consumer.
