Internet: Primary source of info for 32 percent users

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 19:30 IST
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Bangalore: Thirty two percent active users in India, use Internet as a primary source for information and research, stated the Internet in India (I-Cube) report released by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). This was a considerable jump from just 20 percent in 2001 when the primary drivers of internet traffic were e-mail and chat, said the report released in collaboration with IMRB. With new innovations coming in the content space in the recent years, especially in the form of online ticketing, weblogs, product information and preview sites etc., the year 2006 has seen an impressive 32 percent of the Active Internet Users having Information as their primary application. The growth in the number of users accessing Internet primarily for entertainment has also been impressive though its share continues to hover around 8-10 percent level. The findings are based on a primary survey conducted in early 2006 amongst 16,500 households covering 65,000 individuals across 26 major metros and small towns in India, with additional coverage of 10,000 business and 250 cyber café owners. The survey also declared that in September 2006 there were 37 million internet users in India with 23 million active users. Ever user category is defined as someone who has used the internet at least once and the active users are the ones who access the internet at least once a month. The report showed significant variations by demographic segments. The demographic segments used in the report were School Going Kids, College Going, Young Men, Older, Working Women and Non Working Women. While Email continues to be the most popular application used across almost all segments (except for School Going Kids and College Going), the other applications are catching up fast. The glamour of chat seems to be fading away even amongst the College Going segment, with Information search emerging as the second most prominent reason for surfing Internet. The report also observes that Entertainment as an Internet application is followed quite keenly by the School Going Kids and College Going Students. The availability of Online Gaming applications, Gaming Zones in the cyber cafes, movie trailers online, etc. has fuelled demand for entertainment applications especially in the younger Internet Users. The report further states that the online transactional applications (E-Commerce) are steadily gathering steam. The Young Men, Older Men and Working Women segments are the ones that are using it the most. These segments along with the Non Working Women segment, are also using the emerging applications like jobs and matrimonial in significant numbers. Commenting on the report Dr. Subho Ray, President, IAMAI says, “The growth of information, transaction and entertainment is a sure indicator of the fact that active users are spending quality time on the internet – this is a positive message to content based platforms. It is also a clear indication that while communication tools such as email and chat will bring new users to this medium, mature users will look for more and more content and transactions” Mohan Krishnan, Vice President & General Manager, IMRB International says, “The growing popularity of applications like P2P, preview sites, streaming video and radio as well with the emergence of localized content will further change the Internet dynamics upstaging traditional applications like email and chat.”

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