Comscore has released the Indian internet statistics and here are the key findings:
- Indian Internet population stands at 22 million
- The Internet penetration in India is only 3%!
- Yahoo! sites lead the pack with 14 million unique visitors in April 2007
- Google’s network has grown 16 per cent between November 2006 and April 2007
- Microsoft has 10.3 million unique visitors in April 2007, while Rediff.com has 7.2 million unique visitors
- Time Warner network (i.e. AOL + HBO + Cartoon network etc) showed a sharp spike of 71.8 per cent to 4 million unique visitors between November and December 2006
- In terms of engagement, Yahoo’s reach is 64 per cent while Google’s is 62 per cent
- Google scores higher in terms of the time spent by visitors on its networks, at almost 4.5 hours per visitor for April 2007, while Y! is at 4.2 hrs.
- On the Microsoft and Rediff.com networks, the time spent per unique visitor in April 2007 is 1.6 hours and 1.4 hours respectively
- In terms of the most visited categories of websites by Indian audiences, ‘Corporate Presence’ websites score the highest with a reach of 73 per cent (for April 2007)
- Search as an activity has gone up by 11 per cent over the six-month period under study, with 14 million users
- Google search predictably leads with almost 12 million users, though Yahoo! search has grown faster than Google during the said period, at about 16 per cent
To summarize –
- Y! is leading the way, but Google is getting traction in the market.
- Bollywood still rules the Indian world (Entertainment’ websites, comprising mainly movies and music, have a reach of 52 per cent)
- Does “Corporate presence” sites mean Indians are checking out corporate sites for job search?
- Govt. site www.nic.in stands at number 9 (has engagement level of 23 minutes per visitor). which basically means Indians are expecting more online/e-gov initiatives from the govt.
Comscore has also released APAC region (which accounts for 1/3rd of World’s Online Population) Internet data and here is a quick summary:
- South Korea has the highest Internet penetration (65%), while India is at the lowest end (3%)
- Yahoo! sites are most popular in the region (but as expected, Google isn’t too far)
- China clearly has the largest online population with 91.5 million people
- South Korea has the most active online population, using the Internet an average of 17.4 days per person
- Indians spend close to 14.7 hours per month (per person).
Source: agencyfaqs (download the report), comscore
Related: JuxtConsult’s India Internet Report.
Ashish Sinha