India spends only one percent on online advertising

Bangalore: A country, whose internet subscriber base has reached at about 50 million including 5.25 million users having broadband access, and 350 million people have a mobile phone in hand, a good number of them equipped with latest technologies, still showing less interest in spending money to reach people online. Only one to one-and-half percent of the total advertising spend is presently going to online advertising segment in India, while U.S. and U.K are spending eight to nine percent and six to eight percent respectively.

"With the next generation communication applications like WiMaX and Web 3.0 are all set to make their impact in Indian market, the country is showing great potential in online advertising scenario," said Viraj Malik, CEO, Percept Knorigin, an online internet advertising agency. "Advertising practice in India is inefficient today, almost 98 percent spend does not have accountability," Malik opined. According to him, the money spend in the online marketing segment in India is expected to increase by three to four percent in three years.

Malik urges the online advertising agencies to come up with innovative applications to exploit the high potential in the segment, highlighting the Google's introduction of text advertisement. "Entrepreneurs who are about to put feet in this segment should have innovative thoughts to deal with the users in the country, who spend about six hours with internet in a week," he added.