1. 12 FE SPECIAL: India’s mobile & Internet landscape w w w. f i n a n c i a l e x p re s s . c o m Friday, August 13, 2010
A WIDER NET
TOP
WEBSITES
Google
46%
Yahoo
11%
The Internet has to spread its wings to encompass the masses in India and enhance availability, Gmail
9%
accessibility and affordability for a start, says a JuxtConsult study on the ‘Indian Online Landscape 2010’ Orkut
6%
Ivinder Gill but among the users, 97% are us-
Popular online activities SMALL music downloading, PC to
D
ing the Internet regularly and mobile sms, videos, movies and Rediff
EEPER, NOT 79% use the net daily In another
. WINDOW screensavers/wallpapers
wider, that’s the words, the pond is not growing,
% Internet users
undertaking
Top website
gaining noticeably. 4%
story of the In- but getting ‘fishier’. Emailing 94 Gmail
51 mn active Internet Ironically, despite the Inter-
ter net in India. Users have increased more in users; 40 mn urban and 11 net’s unmatched possibilities Facebook
Download music 72 Songspk
Existing users are
accessing the net more, but
smaller urban areas (with a pop-
ulation of less than five lakh)
Instant messaging / chat 56 Gtalk/Gmail mn rural as a marketing medium, it
largely remains a window shop
2.4%
not enough new members are and, in fact, account for half of all
Job search 56 Naukri 97% regular users; for Indians. The base of online
PC to Mobile SMS 55 Way2sms 79% use daily Moneycontrol
signing up. urban Internet users. The south- buyers has been hovering
A study by online research er n part of the country Social Networking 54 Orkut
23% access it on around just one in five for the 1%
firm JuxtConsult puts the In- has been found to be more Info search Engine 52 Google past two-three years. It is equally
mobile phones
dian online landscape in per- net-savvy Also, home continues
. Watch Videos 50 YouTube ironical that ownership of credit YouTube
spective. A survey of over 2.5
lakh people in 100 cities and over
to be the largest single place of
access at 53%.
Average number of online activities undertaken per person: 17
Social interactivity
platforms put together
cards among online Indians is
also around one in four for the 1%
1,000 villages in April-May this However, for Internet to reach Source: JUXTconsult past couple of years.
account for 81% of all Blogspot
year on ‘online Indians and their to the masses, factors such as For instance, ‘social inter- communities) and not neces- As for access through mo-
net usage behavior and prefer- availability, accessibility, af- activity’ has been found to be the sarily discussion, debates or
regular internet users
biles, it is essentially an urban 0.8 %
ences’ reflects that Internet has fordability, relevance in day-to- mainline Internet activity, but commenting (blogs, product 53% access Internet phenomenon and that, too, in-
permeated only 10% Indian day life, simpler/less technical it should not be confused with reviews, forums, etc). Social at home volves dual access to the Inter- 160by2
households and only 4.4% Indi- operability and language comfort- ‘social media’. What has gained interactivity platforms put to- net through PCs as well. So even
ans, as two-third households ability need to be addressed. importance is mainly personal gether account for 81% of all if access on mobile phones has 0.7 %
have multiple users. The in- Also, for existing users, con- and professional interaction regular Internet users, which is a 29% readership. Also, the net tripled in the past year, with
*Figures are % of Internet
crease in number of users has nectivity speed and content have
, and sharing (social network- up 13% over last year. However, is increasingly being seen as a 23% users, most of them use users accessing sites
been only 8% over the past year, to be enhanced. ing, professional networking, blogs still lag behind with just medium of entertainment, with computers as well. Source: JUXTconsult
Too good to ring true
Overselling is making the mobile space highly crowded in India, with the high tele-density hiding the real
picture—that of millions of inactive connections, reveals a JuxtConsult survey, ‘India Mobile 2010’
Ivinder Gill in use are between the price range
Service providers of Rs 1,500-3,000. Clearly Indian mo-
,
T
HAT MOBILE use in In- Handset brands bile users are budget buyers and
dia is on a high growth ‘Active’ multiple connections % of total active mobile handsets ‘need-driven’ upgraders at their core.
curve is given, but how Subscribers Subscriptions While a mobile is a communication
(%) (%) All India Urban Rural
‘real’ is mobile growth in (%) (%) (%) medium, it is also a device for en-
India? Not very, if one Airtel 27.7 28.0 tertainment, particularly music.
Nokia 62.2 65.2 59.1
were to consider that despite an Vodafone 15.6 15.3 However, the percentage of Inter-
LG 10.2 10.3 10.0
overall 61% household-level pene- Reliance 15.1 15.0 net users on the mobile is still 4%,
tration, only 26% Indians are active Samsung 9.2 7.7 10.7 despite 16% being Internet users.
IDEA 13.1 13.0
users. These figures, thrown up in Sony Ericsson 3.6 3.2 4.0 Even within this 4%, most of them
BSNL 10.6 10.7
a survey undertaken by online re- Micromax 1.6 1.0 2.3 use other means of accessing the
Tata Teleservices 7.7 7.5
search firm JuxtConsult in April and Motorola 1.6 1.8 1.3 Internet as well and only one in 25
May this year, profiling ‘mobile Aircel 6.9 6.8 mobile users surf the Internet on the
Source: JUXTconsult
phone users in India and their mo- mobile.
bile usage behaviour and prefer-
ences’, tell the story of a high-stake and not on the connection.
game. ‘Overbuying’ by consumers
FOR THE RECORD Interestingly, the study
or overselling by the mobile in- found that more than half
304 mn mobile subscribers,
dustry has resulted in “too many of all multiple active con-
connections from too many opera-
355 mn active connections nection mobile users come
tors chasing too few customers in Average mobile users per from rural areas. It was also
too short a time period”. The sur- household: 2.05; average found that the urban-rural split of
vey covered over 2.5 lakh people in active mobile connections mobile use at both the subscriber
100 cities and over 1,000 villages, level and the active connection
per user: 1.17
Against an exponential growth level comes close to 50:50,
in mobile subscription numbers Household-level penetration against TRAI data that indi-
every year (TRAI’s latest figures peg of mobiles: 61%; individual- cates a 75:25 split at the over-
mobile users in India at over 600 mil- all mobile connections level.
level penetration: 26%
lion, almost 50% more that 400 mil- Thus, given the mass ap-
lion in May 2009), the question of at 50:50 split of mobile use in peal of mobiles, the study
least one in three connections not indicates an eventual shift
urban and rural areas
in active use stares us in the face. toward the hinterland.
With almost two-third mobile When it comes to mo-
using households still being ‘single of mobile phones than to focus on bile handsets, the mass ac-
mobile user’ households, there is still multiple connections and increas- ceptance of mobile phones
a large play area available to in- ing tele-density. For this to happen, is reflected in the fact that
crease the user base and penetration the spotlight must shift on the user almost half of all handsets