#6 M&E Research : India gets ready for Digital Future

India Digital Focus

India is growing rapidly, quite literally when we think digital…  India boasts world’s third largest online population and is also the second fastest, having grown by 31% last year.  A recently published report from ComScore “India Digital Focus ” brings interesting facts on India’s overall digital ecosystem and how it compares with other BRIC nations and developed countries in terms of online video consumption, consumer behaviour, popular web properties and role of social networking. The study also brings quantitative analysis on the growing popularity and consumer participation towards Online retail, news, sports, real estate  and travel web sites.

Key highlights from the 2013 India Digital Future in Focus include:

• Indian online population currently ranks as the 3rd largest in the world after China and the U.S is growing rapidly (second only to Brazil)
• With 75 percent of its internet users under the age of 35, India has the youngest skewing online population among BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China).
• Across all age and gender groups, Women between the ages of 35-44 are the heaviest internet users in the Indian market.
• Social networking takes a pound of total Online time share with Facebook as the most popular network ( India has approx. 80 million Facebook users )
• 54 million internet users in India watched online videos on their computer, representing a 27-percent increase over the past year.
• Online retail and real estate segment are currently underdeveloped but present significant opportunities for growth
•  Online video consumption has grown by over 100% in last two years, YouTube remains the most visited site for Online video, followed by Facebook, Yahoo, Dailymotion and Vevo. Local Online streaming platforms have started to mushroom but still lag the reach and resources

Indian consumers are fast adapting to multi platform digital consumption which is expected to grow further as broadband become accessible (faster and cheaper) combined with cheaper smartphones and connected devices.  India with a large and growing digital literate population has its unique challenges but presents immense potential across several developing and underdeveloped (travel, sports, online entertainment, healthcare, communication, government services, education etc.) sectors with windfall opportunities for growth.  India today correctly stands at a threshold of a major digital revolution in making….