The India Online study helps in understanding the status and net usage behavior and preferences of online Indians. It not only provides the most recent estimates on the Internet user-ship, growth and penetration in India but also gives a highly ‘insightful’ understanding of the current net usage behavior and preferences of various types of online Indians.

1. India Online 2008

2. Main Report
India Online 2008
Main Report

3. India Online 2008
© copyright JuxtConsult

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5. India Online 2008
Table of content
India Online 2008 ......................................................... 1
India Online 2008 Reports ............................................... 2
Methodology ............................................................... 4
Executive Summary ...................................................... 9
Estimation of Internet Users in India .................................12
Key Findings ..............................................................18
Detailed Findings:
Reading the Graphs & Tables ..........................................35
Demographic Profile ....................................................37
Socio-Economic Profile .................................................46
Economic Profile.........................................................51
Net Usage Status.........................................................56
Net Usage Dynamics.....................................................68
Preferred Net Activities ................................................91
Most Used Websites ................................................... 101
Most Used Offline Media Brands..................................... 146
Offline Brands Recalled .............................................. 155
Segment Wise Detailed Tables ...................................... 158
Appendix ................................................................ 277

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India Online 2008
In our endeavor to keep improving the quality of our India Online study,
this year we have extended its coverage beyond just urban India and
measured and profiled internet usage in the rural India as well. This
makes the India Online 2008 estimates of Internet user-ship, as well of
its growth and penetration in India, probably one of the most
comprehensive in the country.
Other improvements made in the study this year involve enhanced
coverage of information, especially in the areas of usage from cyber
cafés, usage of vernacular language websites and website preferences
for 4 new online activity categories, namely, professional networking,
sharing pictures, sharing videos and buying/renting movie CD/DVDs
online.
Like in the previous years, we conducted two large-scale ‘primary’
surveys this year as well - one offline and one online. The offline or
‘land survey’ was done to identify the internet users and non-users in
the population. Information collected from this survey was used to
estimate Internet user-ship and its growth and penetration in India.
The online survey was done to capture the detailed net usage
dynamics, behavior and preferences from the actual internet users
while they were online. Information collected from this survey was
used to gain ‘insightful’ understanding of current net usage behavior
and preferences of various kinds of online Indians.
The land survey was conducted in March-April 2008 and both its
coverage area and sample sizes were significantly higher this year. The
extended ‘coverage area’ of the land survey meant including the 5,000
to 20,000 population size towns also (making the survey representative
of all possible urban town classes in India) and a representative
coverage of rural areas within 15 km distance from these towns. The
extended ‘sample sizes’ meant an addition of 2,000 more respondent
households in the urban areas and 4,000 new respondent households in
the rural areas, taking the total household sample count of land survey
to over 16,000.
The ‘online’ survey was conducted almost in parallel in April 2008
collecting more than 15,000 in-depth and usable responses for final
analysis and reporting.
The key information included in the various reports cover the
demographic and socio-economic profiles of the net users, their
household asset ownerships, place of accessing internet, net usage
dynamics, online activities undertaken, website preferences, online
buying behavior and spends, response to online marketing stimuli and
much more.
In sum, what you get in India Online 2008 reports is an insightful
understanding of online Indians as ‘consumers’ and not just faceless net
users, including their brand (website) preferences for 26 highly popular
online activities.
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India Online 2008
Reports
Main Report
Overall Status and Usage of Internet in India
User Segment Supplementary Reports
Women on the net
Youth on the net (teenagers and young adults)
Urban versus Rural net users
Net users by their socio-economic (SEC) profile
Net users by place of access (homes, place of work, cyber cafes)
Net users by type of connection (broadband, dial-up, etc.)
Net users by city type (metros, urban uptowns, emerging towns,
rest of the towns)
Net users by town population size (10 lakhs plus, 5-10 lakhs, 1-5
lakhs, Below 1 lakh)
Students on the net
Corporate employees on the net
IT professionals on the net
Heavy online spenders on the net
Bloggers on the net
Car owners on the net
Two-wheeler owners on the net
Mobile phone owners on the net
Credit card owners on the net
Net users as financial investors
Vernacular language net users
Category Supplementary Reports: (Comparative Profiling of
Top 5 Websites)
Online shopping
Emailing
Instant messaging / chatting
Job search
Matrimony
Info search – English
Travel booking
Social networking
Professional networking
Friendship / dating
Sharing pictures
Sharing videos
Online news
Financial info/news
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9. India Online 2008
Online share trading
Net telephony
Cinema content
Buy / rent movie CD/ DVD
Sports content
Online music
Online games
Online real estate
Mobile content download
Astrology
Online education / learning
Vernacular language content (by popular Indian languages)
Note- All supplement reports are subject to sufficiency of sample
responses. Demographic segment wise details by gender, age, SEC
classification, region and place of net access are included in each of
the reports as appendix tables.
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Methodology
Like last year, this year again we conducted both a ‘land’ survey and an
‘online’ survey separately.
The focus of the land survey was on identifying the internet users and
non-users in the population, capture their demographic and household
profile, and thereby estimate the size of the internet user base in
India. The focus of the online survey was on capturing the internet
user’s net usage details while they are online, and thereby understand
their current net usage behavior and preference patterns. The two
surveys had some common questions on demographic profiles and net
usage behavior to help us link up the two sets of data at the data
processing stage.
The land survey
This year’s land survey was conducted and completed between early-
March and early-April 2008. The objective of the land survey was two
fold.
The first objective was to help us estimate the internet user-ship in
both urban and rural areas of India, as with a land survey we could
cover both the user and non-user population of the internet in a
representative way. The second objective was to derive relevant
demographic ‘multipliers’ from this survey which could then be applied
to the internet usage data collected from the online survey to make
that data representative of the entire internet using population in India
and not just of those who are more likely to participate in an online
survey.
In order to derive more comprehensive and authentic estimates of the
current user-ship of Internet in India, and draw out an even more
representative internet usage behavior patterns in the study, this year
we further broadened the scope of our land survey by:
Increasing the household sample base in the urban areas to 12,500
(from 10,000 last year) and the coverage of the number of cities to
40 (from 31 last year). The distribution of these 40 cities was done
ensuring a good spread across the 4 regions of the country and
covering all ‘urban town classes’ as defined in the census (right
down to 5,000-20,000 population size towns). The list of the 40
selected towns and their regional and town class distribution is
displayed in Table 1.
Further, to better capture the internet usage across all types of
socio-economic classes (SEC) in urban Indian, we allocated equal
sample quota among the 5 broad socio-economic classes A, B, C, D
and E across various zones within a town, and then across the town
classes and regions. To correct for and put back the real
representation of the socio-economic classes (and not equal
representation) during the data processing stage, we incorporated
the appropriate SEC ‘weights’ derived from the actual urban
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population statistics from authentic govt. Sources (National Sample
Survey Organization and Census of India).
Care was taken that all relevant classes of towns with population
size right down to 5,000 individuals were covered and surveyed
across each of the 4 regions of the country. Within a city, 5
geographical locations were chosen, one each in the north, south,
east, west and central parts of the city. From each location within
a city an equal number of households from the five socio-economic
classes A, B, C, D, and E were surveyed.
Lastly, we added another 4,000 household sample base from the
rural areas. This sample collection was spread across 160 villages, 4
villages each around the 40 urban towns surveyed. The 4 villages
were selected as 2 villages each on either side of the town within 8-
15 km distance. The villages were selected as the first 2 villages
within 8-15 km distance before entering the town limits while
approaching the town and the first 2 villages within 8-15 km
distance after the town limits while leaving the town.
These enhancements and refinements in the sampling methodology
ensured that this year we get an even better representation of various
types of internet users both in urban as well as rural India.
The 40 cities where the land survey was conducted (together with 4
villages each around them) and the size of the sample data collected
from each of these cities are as follows:
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Table 1: Detailed sample base distribution of the land survey
Urban Sample Rural Sample Total Sample
Region City City Class
Size Size Size
Kanpur (UP) 10 lakh + 386 100 486
Ludhiana (Pun) 10 lakh + 299 100 399
Allahabad (UP) 5 lakh – 10 lakh 300 104 404
Ajmer (UP) 1 lakh – 5 lakh 300 100 400
Bhadohi (UP) 50 K – 1 lakh 351 100 451
North
Muradnagar (UP) 50 K – 1 lakh 300 100 400
Sohna (Har) 20 K – 50 K 307 100 407
Patna (Bih) 10 lakh + 400 100 500
Phillaur (Pun) 20 K – 50 K 303 104 407
Kishangarh (Raj) 5 K – 20 K 300 95 395
Mumbai (Mah) 10 lakh + 249 100 349
Ahmedabad (Guj) 10 lakh + 400 102 502
Pune (Mah) 10 lakh + 397 99 496
Rajkot (Guj) 5 lakh – 10 lakh 300 100 400
Dewas (MP) 1 lakh – 5 lakh 304 97 401
West
Hinganghat (Mah) 50 K – 1 lakh 295 99 394
Mhowgaon (MP) 20 K – 50 K 300 100 400
Katol (Mah) 20 K – 50 K 298 103 401
Ghogha (Guj) 5 K – 20 K 300 100 400
Bhaurasa (MP) 5 K – 20 K 285 66 351
Kolkata (WB) 10 lakh + 288 100 388
Guwahati (Ass) 5 lakh – 10 lakh 300 100 400
Bhubneshwar (Ori) 5 lakh – 10 lakh 300 97 397
Raniganj (WB) 1 lakh – 5 lakh 304 101 405
East Bhatapara (Chat) 50 K – 1 lakh 300 100 400
Dimapur (Nag) 50 K – 1 lakh 305 118 423
Champa (Chat) 20 K – 50 K 300 100 400
Baliari (Jha) 5 K – 20 K 300 82 382
Khusrupur (Bih) 5 K – 20 K 300 99 399
Chennai (TN) 10 lakh + 299 100 399
Bangalore (Kar) 10 lakh + 400 100 500
Hyderabad (AP) 10 lakh + 400 118 518
Vizag (AP) 10 lakh + 400 100 500
South Mysore (Kar) 5 lakh – 10 lakh 300 100 400
Kozhikode (Ker) 1 lakh – 5 lakh 295 100 395
Nellore (AP) 1 lakh – 5 lakh 249 84 333
Cheruvannur (Ker) 50 K – 1 lakh 301 95 396
Edapaddi (TN) 20 K – 50 K 192 83 275
Pallavakam 5 K – 20 K 300 100 400
Total 12,507 3,946 16,453
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To check for both the ‘regular’ as well as ‘occasional’ usage of the
Internet, at each of the 16,000 households contacted it was queried:
If any member of the household use the Internet ‘at all’ from
anywhere (home or any location outside)? And
If any member of the household use the Internet ‘at least once a
month’ from anywhere (home or any location outside)?
Some further questions related to the specifics of demographic profile
of the head of the household, their knowledge of English, computer
usage, and asset ownership of the household were also asked from the
respondent. The usage of computer and internet was separately
checked for each member of the household from the respondent.
The above information about the ‘head of the household’, especially
their education and occupation profile (thereby identifying their socio-
economic or SEC classification) together with the town size class,
region and type of house lived in case of rural respondents were used to
‘link up’ to the similar authentic Government of India data to estimate
the Internet user-ship as well as to generate the appropriate
‘multipliers’ that were later to be applied to the data collected from
the online survey.
The online survey
This year’s online survey was conducted and completed between end-
March and early-May 2008. The objective of the online survey was to
collect ‘in-depth’ information on the internet usage patterns and other
media usage patterns among the various types of net users.
This year, the online survey was conducted using the ‘contextual
search’ based survey ad campaign on Google (AdSense) and
JuxtConsult’s own online consumer panel (www.getcounted.net). As
eventually the individual level demographic ‘multipliers’ of the internet
users, as ingenerated from the ‘land’ survey, were to be applied to
make the data collected online representative of the entire online
population in India, the data collected online did not necessarily had to
be representative per se. We just needed to ensure (and we did) that
enough samples were collected ‘online’ for each of the 60 combinations
of the demographic parameters from the urban sample (4 zone X 3 town
classes X 5 SEC classes) and 20 combinations of the demographic
parameters from the rural sample (4 zone X 5 SEC classes) on which the
‘multipliers’ derived from the land survey was being applied to.
The online survey was conducted using an e-questionnaire segmented
into three sections. The questionnaire was pre-tested and timed to take
approximately 15-20 minutes for a respondent to complete depending
on the speed of comprehension and answering of the questions. The
questionnaire was structured and designed to reduce the level of
‘respondent fatigue’ to an extent that was practically possible.
In this year’s study, the information area coverage (in the online
questionnaire) was also enhanced and fine tuned somewhat to keep
abreast with the changing and evolving Indian online space. The net
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usage behavior and preferences of new phenomena like professional
networking, sharing pictures, sharing videos and language content
checking were also included.
In the online questionnaire, a response format of ‘clicking’ a single or
multiple options among the various given options was used for most
questions. For each of these questions it was also possible for a
respondent to answer ‘none’ or ‘any other’. However, wherever the
respondents were asked to give preferences for websites or brand
names, only a text box was provided for them to type the name on
their own (or type ‘none’ if not applicable). This was done to ensure
that all such recall and actual usage preference responses were
solicited ‘unprompted’.
Further, to enlist complete and sincere responses, an incentive of a
significant cash prize was also announced for one selected respondent
to be given at the end of the survey.
Over 15,875 unduplicated, complete and clean responses were
collected from the online survey campaign in about 4 weeks time. All
these usable responses after data cleaning were then collated,
crosschecked and processed for tabulation and analysis. While doing the
tabulation, any errors and spelling mistakes in typing of the brand
names, etc. By the respondents were carefully checked and corrected.
Finally, the appropriate weights (multipliers) as derived from the land
survey were incorporated into the usable online survey responses to
make them ‘representative’ of the entire urban online population. This
ensured that online survey findings are ‘representative’ of the entire
urban online population and not just of those who are ‘more likely’ to
fill up an online surveys (because of factors like convenience of access,
regularity of usage, attractiveness of the incentive prize offered for
filling the survey, etc.).
The net result was the compilation of the latest, highly authentic and
representative database on the Internet habits and website preferences
of online Indians. This database was then used for making ‘insightful’
analysis and conclusions as contained in the various reports of the India
Online 2008 study.
Note – Because of a deeper and more robust coverage of internet usage
among the smaller towns (down to 5,000 population town classes) as
well as inclusion of the internet users from the rural areas, this year’s
data at the overall India level is not directly comparable to that of the
last year. Last year’s findings represented only the urban online Indians
up to town size of 20,000 individual population.
Yet, to report trends and changes over the last year, while ensuring
that we almost compare only apples to apples, we have compared last
year’s urban data with that of this year’s urban data only.
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Executive Summary
Online user base touching 50 million in India, 1 in 5 users coming
from rural areas. The total base of internet users in India stands at
49.4 million currently. 82% of online Indians come from the urban areas
and 18% from the rural areas. At these levels, the penetration of
internet stands at 4.5% of the total population of India.
Within the total base of online Indians, 71% are ‘regular’ internet users
(defined as those internet users who use the internet at least once a
month), and 57% are ‘daily’ net users (effectively 28.2 million daily
internet users).
A year of ‘healthy’ growth in urban user base. The overall internet
using population in urban India grew by 33% during April 2007 - April
2008 (as compared to 28% in the previous year). More importantly, the
added new users are as many ‘regular’ internet users as the
‘occasional’ ones. (4.86 million and 5.16 million respectively).
The bulk of regular internet users come from the non-metro towns.
After inclusion of the ‘rural’ internet users only 30% of all regular
internet users came from the top 8 metro cities. The tier 3 and tier 4
smaller towns and rural areas account for the bulk 52% of the regular
online Indian population.
Yet, almost 70% of the regular internet users continue to constitute
what is perceived as the ‘urban consuming class’ (SEC ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’).
Internet user base is increasingly skewing towards the ‘younger’
India. The proportion of ‘under 25’ years age group net users have
grown into the ‘majority’ now, accounting for 52% of the total internet
user base in Indian. At 44% the 19-24 year age band emerges as the
‘single largest’ age group of regular internet users this year.
Online Indians represent the ‘masses’ as well as the ‘classes’. Though
55% of all regular internet users have monthly household income of less
than Rs.10,000, automobile ownership among them is as high as 64%.
51% of them work as ‘salaried’ employees in the corporate world and
52% of them have taken up a ‘loan’ of some kind. 72% of them have
personal computers or laptops at home.
‘Home’ emerges as the most preferred place of accessing internet.
Almost half of the regular internet users (46%) access the net from
more than one place of access. On multiple access, place of work still
continues to be the single largest place for accessing internet at 60%.
However when it comes to the ‘single most preferred’ place of
accessing internet, 41.2% prefer to access the net from home, just
marginally higher than 40.6% preferring to do so from the place of
work.
The ‘peak usage’ time bands come out as 9 a.m. To 12 noon at office, 6
p.m. To 9 p.m. At cyber cafes and 9 p.m. To 12 midnight at homes.
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Net is the ‘dominant’ medium in the homes of online Indians. Almost
9 out of 10 regular internet users accessing the net from home or place
of work do so ‘daily’ (though only 33% of cyber café based internet
users access the net on daily basis). More importantly, Internet users
who access the net from home tend to be relatively ‘heavier’ users of
the internet as compared to the ‘offline’ mediums (TV, newspaper and
radio). Regular internet users tend to be the lightest users of radio,
followed by newspaper and then TV.
Social interactivity and entertainment related content are the most
popular online. On an average an online Indian undertakes over 15
activities online. Communication and social interactivity activities
(emailing, instant messaging/chatting, dating/friendship and
matrimonial search) and entertainment activities (news, sports,
movies/music, and cricket) stand out as the most popular online
activities.
If we combine all the social interactivity related online activities
together (IM/chat, networking, communities, sharing pictures and
videos, blogs, etc.) Then 81% of all online Indians undertake some or
the other ‘social interactivity’ activity online.
The emergence of the ‘local language website’ users. Almost 1 in 3
online Indians (34%) is already using local language websites (up from
just 12% last year). Further, the proportion of internet users who
generally prefer to read in local language has also gone up from 59%
last year to 72% this year.
Net is increasingly becoming a ‘shopping window’ among the online
Indians. 4 out of 5 online Indians (80%) either search or buy products
online, making the base of ‘online shoppers’ in India as large as 28
million.
Of these online shoppers only 28% or 8 million are online ‘buyers’
currently. The rest 72% are just online ‘window shoppers’. The base of
active online buyers has grown by 29% in the last one year, at best an
‘average’ growth rate (as internet user base itself has grown by 33% in
the same period).
A substantial 92% of all active online buyers have bought a travel
product online (up 8% points over last year) and 51% have bought a non-
travel product online (down 5% points over last year).
Google leads the online landscape, both in ‘mind share’ as well as
‘user share’. Unlike last year, when Yahoo was the most top of mind
recalled online brand but Google the most used website overall, this
year Google sweeps the charts on both counts. Google leads the ‘mind
share’ at 37% (Yahoo follows next at 32%) and leads the ‘user share’ at
28.4% (Yahoo this time follows very closely at 27.6%).
However, when it comes to conversion of ‘mind share’ into actual ‘user
share’ at the overall level, it is neither Yahoo nor Google but Gmail and
Orkut which shows the best recall-to-usage conversion ratios (1.56 and
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1.45 respectively). The other top online brands showing above average
conversion ratio are Rediff, Sify and Moneycontrol.
To sum up, internet usage in India has shown a healthy growth in last
one year. More importantly, it is showing clear signs of evolving and
becoming the ‘dominant medium’ of interacting with the world for a
good proportion of the regular online Indians. It is increasingly
becoming more and more relevant and meaningful in their ‘personal’
lives (and not just their work lives). However, online buying has not
really picked as much this year, making net more of a ‘window shop’
rather than an ‘online market’ in any true sense of the word (except for
the travel products maybe).
The fact that the bulk of Indian consumer mass comes from the
vernacular Indian world, the increasing usage of local language
websites is one of the most important elements of internet usage to
watch for in the future. Availability of relevant and meaningful local
language content and applications on the net, together with affordable
access, may become the biggest enabler (or the biggest limiting factor)
in the future growth of Internet usage in India.
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Estimation of
Internet Users in
India
JuxtConsult this year again continued with its unique and tried-and-
tested method of using a combination of ‘land’ survey at household
level to identify both users and non-users and an ‘online’ survey to get
Internet users’ detailed responses. To work out a methodologically
sound and technically correct sampling and estimation process,
JuxtConsult once again took the expert advice of Indicus Analytics, one
of the leading economic research firms in India.
Before explaining our method of estimation of the internet users’ count
in India in detail we would like to qualify the fact that depending upon
the definition used of what constitutes an Internet user, methodology
used, and the quality of the underlying data, many different estimates
have been thrown up on internet user-ship in India from time to time 1.
Usual sources are: the regulators, industry associations and research
agencies like us. It is advisable that these differing numbers (estimates)
are not compared directly with one another without understanding how
these have been arrived at.
Estimation methodology
Coming to “how JuxtConsult’s estimate of internet users in India
arrived at?”, we have once again brought in a few key improvements in
our estimation methodology this year to attempt to arrive at a more
accurate and representative estimate of the internet user-ship in India.
These changes are :
Complete representation of Urban India: As explained earlier in
the methodology section, this year our land survey went deeper to
bring in representation of all 5,000 plus population towns in Urban
India. This has in effect made the survey (and the estimate)
representative of all 600+ districts and 5,500+ towns in India. The
sample selection for the land survey was also done very carefully to
1
Why are the estimates from varying sources so different? There are many
reasons – differences in methods, orientations, and definitions, all contribute.
For instance who is an Internet user – is he / she one who uses the net at least
once a month? Or is a net user someone who uses it once a day? Also some
estimates are based on expected growth, where past growth is ‘proxied’ for
expected growth. It is evident that in the nascent stage of any industry, the
number of consumers grows exponentially in the initial stages, then grow
linearly, and then at a slowing rate. Blind use of past growth can therefore lead
to inordinately high and overly optimistic projections.
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19. India Online 2008
bring in representation of all four zones, maximum states and all 8
town classes 2.
First ever attempt to bring in representation of Rural India: No
estimates of internet users in India can be called truly
comprehensive and representative unless they also include the rural
areas based internet users. It was imperative therefore that we
would at some stage correct this anomaly and attempt to bring in
the estimation of rural internet users in India also in the total
count. We have done so this year and believe that this may
probably the first serious attempt in India to estimate and profile
the rural internet users.
Allocation of equal quotas for SEC 3 to avoided skew of lower
SECs in the sample: Many a time field interviewers find
respondents easily from lower SECs (being higher in proportion) for
face-to-face interviews. When one is trying to estimate incidence
rate, it is difficult to avoid this. Hence this year we decided to pre-
set an equal quota of all 5 SECs in the urban areas to avoid any kind
of bias coming in from a possible skewed selection of respondents
at the field level in terms of their SEC profile.
Collection of household parameters at an Individual adult level:
In order to estimate internet users we went well beyond collecting
information to just know the internet user and non-user proportions
in the population. We further probed for the ‘characteristics’ of the
head of household and some of the other basic household
characteristics like total members in the household, their
demographic profiles and the household’s asset ownership.
We not only queried the respondent to provide the number of male and
females in the family, their respective demographic profiles, and the
asset ownerships of the household but also collected very rich and
relevant information on each of the adult member (12 years and above)
in that household. Starting from gender; age; educational and
occupation characteristics; degree of proficiency in speaking, reading
and writing English; we finally collected ‘ever’ and ‘regular’ users of
computer and internet.
Probability of Individuals not being reported as Internet user by
the respondent: We have been carefully analyzing the numbers
from our various surveys since 2005, telephonic survey for Internet
user incidence, off-line land survey, and the online surveys of
internet users. We have found from our various surveys that the
2
The town definitions and classifications were referenced from the 2001
Census, where towns are classified basis their population into classes like: 5,000
to 20,000 population; 20,000 to 50,000; 50,001 to 1,00,000; 1,00,001 to
5,00,000; 5,00,001 to 10,00,000; 10,00,001 to 30,00,000; 30,00,001 to
50,00,000 and above 50,00,000 population.
3
Based on the education & occupational profile of the Chief Wage Earner (the
one who contributes maximum income towards monthly household expenses),
classifying the urban Indian households into 5 socio economic classifications
(SEC). Refer to appendix for the detailed SEC grid.
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20. Main Report
‘probability’ of an individual not being reported as internet user by
the other members of the household is about 15%. These
probabilities were also calculated for various groupings like
‘number of member in a household’, ‘town class’ and ‘SEC’ level.
Basis that we arrived at a ‘correction factor’ to take care of probability
of respondent’s lack of awareness about internet users in the
household. Like last year, in this year’s estimation of internet using
population in urban India we have again used this correction factor to
further improve our numbers. In this way, we also ensured that we are
consistent in our estimation of the ‘growth’ in usage over the last year
and make this year’s data comparable with the last year’s data.
Government of India data sources for universe estimates to
generate multipliers: Using data from the National Survey of
Savings and Income, National Sample Survey Organization’s large
sample employment survey, and district level detailed demographic
data from the Census of India, Indicus Analytics estimated the
number of households across the 5 SEC categories in the urban
areas (A, B, C, D, and E) and further broke it up to three town
classes (less than 100,000 households, 100,000 to 500,000
households and greater than 500,000 households) for each of the
geographical regions of the country.
Hereafter a household level ‘multiplier’ was constructed for each of the
household showing some varying combination of these three factors
(SEC, city class and region). This resulted in deriving 60 distinct
household level multipliers (5 SECs * 4 Regions * 3 Town Classes). These
60 multipliers (or weights) were then applied to the 12,507 household
sample achieved through the land survey to make it representative of
the 72 million urban households. In case of Rural Sample we have been
able to make an estimate with two factors, i.e., Regions & Rural SEC
(R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5). This resulted in 20 distinct multipliers (5 Rural
SECs * 4 Regions). These 20 multipliers were then applied to the 3,946
rural sample achieved to make it representative of the 159 million rural
households.
Thereafter, individual level responses received on usage of ‘computer’
and ‘internet’ from our land survey was analyzed to arrive at the
Internet using ‘households’ as well as ‘individuals’. This estimated
number in turn was used to arrive at second set of multipliers to be
applied on the internet users sample achieved online.
The estimates
After making all the relevant ‘corrections’ to make this year’s data free
of possible biases and consistent with our last year’s data, we arrived
at our final estimates for the internet using population in both urban as
well as rural India in 2008. These estimates, along with a comparative
view of internet using population estimates from the last 3 years, are
provided as follows:
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21. India Online 2008
Table 2: A comparative view of the internet using population estimates
2005 2006 2007 2008
Estimated Internet user-ship
Urban - Internet using individuals (regular) 17.63 mn 21.95 mn 25.17 mn 30.03 mn
Urban - Internet using individuals (occasional) 5.20 mn 1.65 mn 5.15 mn 10.31 mn
Urban - Internet using individuals (total) 22.83 mn 23.60 mn 30.32 mn 40.34 mn
Rural - Internet using individuals (regular) 5.06 mn
Rural - Internet using individuals (occasional) 4.00 mn
Rural - Internet using individuals (total) 9.06 mn
All India - Internet using individuals (regular) 35.09 mn
All India - Internet using individuals (occasional) 14.31 mn
All India - Internet using individuals (total) 49.40 mn
Growth
Urban - Internet using individuals (regular) 25% 15% 19%
Urban - Internet using individuals (occasional) -68% 212% 100%
Urban - Internet using individuals (total) 3% 28% 33%
Penetration
All Urban Internet Users as % of population of India 7% 7% 9% 12%
All Rural Internet Users as % of population of India 1.1%
All Internet Users as % of population of India 4.3%
We estimate the total ‘regular’ internet users in India to be 35.09
million, where the regular users are defined as those who use the
internet at least once a month, which is also the internationally
accepted norm. The regular internet using urban Indians in 2007 has
grown by 19% to 30.09 million from 25.17 million.
Of the regular users 28.08 million (82%) are male users and 6.2
million (18%) are female users.
Of the 35.09 million regular online users about 25 million use
internet everyday.
With a total of about 15.4 million estimated urban households
having one or more regular internet user, the average regular
internet users per household is 1.95. In case of rural the average
regular internet user per household is just 1.
In addition to the 35.09 million regular users of internet, we
estimate that there are an additional 14.31 million ‘occasional’
users of the internet in India (defined as those who use the internet
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22. Main Report
for less than once a month). This makes the total internet using
population in India to be not more than 49.4 million currently.
At 40.34 million ‘urban’ users, the penetration of internet usage in
urban India is around 12% of the total urban population (our
estimate of total urban Indian population in 2008 is about 337.2
million). With rural Internet user base estimated to be 9.06 million,
the penetration of Internet in rural India is around 1.1% of the total
rural population (our estimate of total rural population in 2008 is
about 811.3 million).
With these numbers, the total all-India penetration of internet
usage would range around 4.3% at best.
However, after completing this year’s survey and estimation we have
realized that we may have to bring in further improvements in the
methodology of our rural sampling and estimation process to be able to
arrive at a more robust estimate of rural internet users, especially
occasional users. We plan to do so in the next round of our estimation
survey.
The future Outlook
The overall growth of 33% in total internet user base, and growth of
19% in ‘regular’ urban internet users, is definitely a healthy sign. Even
in rural India we are seeing a decent user base, accounting for almost
14% of the ‘regular’ internet user base and 18% of the ‘total’ internet
user base.
However, presence of a significant ‘occasional’ user base (29% of all
internet users) can be read as a sign of people getting familiar with
internet but not really finding a benefit interesting enough to stick to
it. The divide is very high for urban and rural internet users, among
urban internet users the occasional users are just 26%, against 44% in
case of rural Internet users.
Currently there are little indications of any likely exponential growth in
the internet user base in India in the near future, especially when we
consider the issues of current technologies, affordability, net content,
search engines and lingual issues. We feel that not much has changed
significantly at the ground level in the last three years for us to really
change our future outlook on projecting the growth of Internet in India.
A few other facts that make us take a more ‘realistic’ (rather than
‘optimistic’) future outlook of growth of internet usage in India are:
In India households remain the second biggest internet access point
after office, with just less than around 80 PC/Laptops per 1,000
members against global average of 165 per 1,000. With increasing
penetration of PCs in the households internet will eventually
become even more main stream in India. Affordability or access to
computers at home or at community level (cyber cafes not
withstanding), have still not reached a level of significance where
they can make such an impact.
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23. India Online 2008
The stagnation and declining relevance of cyber cafes from once a
pedestal of a place for ‘mass access’ of internet usage, has been
really disappointing and disheartening.
With the current ambitious ‘digital vision’ of India to take the
broadband connections from 4 million subscriptions currently (of
256+ kbps speed) to 100 million subscription by 2012 (of 512+ kbps),
may help in creating much faster access. Hopefully this time with
mobile based broadband it may very well penetrate beyond the
existing Internet users more in next 3 to 4 years (last 4 million
broadband hasn’t gone much beyond existing internet users). What
would also be critical is how affordable is this broadband over the
wire line and wireless. This is more likely to decide how deeper into
the cities is it likely to penetrate, which could be the ‘catalyst’ of
any big bang growth.
All this put together clearly indicates that it is not only about ‘access’
but also to do with ‘reason for access’. Making only access rates
‘affordable’, making access device ‘cheaper’ and making access
available at ‘more points’ without providing more ‘reasons’ to access,
and in fact more ‘motivating reasons’ to access will not do the trick.
Bringing water to the horses is one part of the story, but making the
horses drink the water is a different ballgame altogether.
The development of relevant language content, local content and clear
benefits around ‘professional and vocational needs’, ‘communication
needs’, ‘entertainment needs’, ‘personal conveniences’ and
‘transactional needs’ would make the Internet more relevant for the
masses.
Accordingly, keeping in mind all the ground level realties, we do not
expect the internet user-ship in India to reach beyond the 70-75 million
mark in the near future (say, 2010 or so) and beyond 120-125 million by
2012, at least not until the ground level factors turn around significantly
and suddenly.
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24. Main Report
Key Findings
Online Indians touching 50 Million, 1 in 5 users come from the
rural areas
The total base of internet users in India stands at 49.4 million currently
in April 2008. Of this total internet user base, 40.34 million, or 82% of
online Indians come from the urban areas and 9.06 million, or 18% of
online Indians come from the rural areas.
At these levels, the penetration of internet stands at 4.3% of the total
population of India. The penetration levels within the urban and rural
population stands at 12% and 1.1% respectively. Compared to last year,
the penetration in urban areas has gone up noticeably, from 9% to 12%.
Further, within the total base of 49.4 million online Indians, 35.09
million, or 71% are ‘regular’ internet users (defined as those internet
users who use the internet at least once a month). The balance 14.31
million online Indians, or 29% of them are ‘occasional’ users of the net
(defined as those internet users who use the internet less than once a
month).
Table 3: Total internet users base in India
2005 2006 2007 2008
Estimated Internet user-ship
Urban - Internet using individuals (regular) 17.63 mn 21.95 mn 25.17 mn 30.03 mn
Urban - Internet using individuals (occasional) 5.20 mn 1.65 mn 5.15 mn 10.31 mn
Urban - Internet using individuals (total) 22.83 mn 23.60 mn 30.32 mn 40.34 mn
Rural - Internet using individuals (regular) 5.06 mn*
Rural - Internet using individuals (occasional) 4.00 mn*
Rural - Internet using individuals (total) 9.06 mn*
All India - Internet using individuals (regular) 35.09 mn
All India - Internet using individuals (occasional) 14.31 mn
All India - Internet using individuals (total) 49.40 mn
Penetration
All Urban Internet Users as % of urban Indian population 7% 7% 9% 12%
All Rural Internet Users as % of rural Indian population 1.1%
All India Internet Users as % of total Indian population 4.3%
* Note – Rural internet usage estimated for the first time in India Online study
Within the base of 40.34 million urban online Indians, 30.03 million, or
74% of them are ‘regular’ internet users. In contrast, the number of
‘regular’ internet users in rural India stands at 5.06 million, implying
that only 56% of rural online Indians qualify as ‘regular’ net users.
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25. India Online 2008
When seen from the entire internet user base perspective, the
proportion of regular or occasional urban and rural internet users stand
at: urban regular users (61%), urban occasional users (21%), rural
regular users (10%) and rural occasional users (8%).
From a practical point of view, 28.2 million internet users (57% of
online Indians) are on the net daily.
Chart 1: Current status of internet usage in India
Current Internet Usage Status in India
All Internet Users in India
49.4 million (100%)
Use less than once a month Use at least once a month
Occasional Users Regular Users
14.31 million (29%) 35.09 million (71%)
Urban Occasional Users Rural Occasional Users Urban Regular Users Rural Regular Users
10.31 million (21%) 4.00 million (8%) 30.03 million (61%) 5.06 million (10%)
Total Daily Users Daily Urban Users Daily Rural Users
28.19 million (57%) 24.73 million (50%) 3.46 million (7%)
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26. Main Report
A year of healthy growth in urban user base
In the last 1 year internet usage in India has shown a ‘healthy’ growth.
If the overall internet using population in urban India grew by 28%
during April 2006 - April 2007 to reach 30.32 million, then it has grown
by a healthier 33% during April 2007 - April 2008 to reach 40.34 million
now.
Table 4: Growth in internet users in urban India
2006 2007 Growth 2008 Growth
Internet using urban
21.95 mn 25.17 mn 15% 30.03 mn 19%
individuals (regular)
Internet using urban
1.65 mn 5.15 mn 212% 10.31 mn 100%
individuals (occasional)
Total internet using urban
23.60 mn 30.32 mn 28% 40.34 mn 33%
individuals
The ‘steady’ pace of growth in internet usage over the last 2-3 years is
also indicated by the fact that the proportion of regular internet users
with over 2 years of internet usage experience has remained constant
at around 60% - 63%.
Chart 2: Years of experience in using internet
Current Year Up to 1 year 1-2 years M ore than 2 years
80%
60%
60%
40%
24%
16%
20%
0%
All Internet Users
The added new users are as many ‘regular’ internet users as
‘occasional’ ones
Leaving aside the rural internet users (as they have been estimated for
the first time in India Online study), in last one year if 5.16 million new
urban internet users have joined in as ‘occasional’ internet users, then
4.86 million urban internet users have also joined in as ‘regular’
internet users.
In fact, while the growth rate of occasional urban internet users has
dipped from 212% last year to 100% this year (on a lower base though),
the growth rate of regular urban internet users has increased from 15%
last year to 19% this year.
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27. India Online 2008
Chart 3: Trend in growth of ‘regular’ internet users
Regular urban internet users
35
30
30.03
25
Million Users
17.4 25.17
20 21.95
15
10
5
0
2005 2006 2007 2008
Year
The bulk of regular internet users come from the non-metro
towns
After inclusion of the rural internet users as well, only 30% of all
regular internet users came from the top 8 metro cities. On the other
hand, the 'second tier' mid-size cities (urban uptowns and emerging
towns) account for another 18% of them. This means that the 'rest of
India' (smaller towns and rural areas) account for the balance 52% of all
regular internet using population.
Table 5: Top 10 cities by contribution to regular internet user
population in India
% of Regular Regular Internet Users (in
Rank City
Internet Users millions)
1 Mumbai & Thane 9.8% 3.44
2 Delhi NCR 8.6% 3.02
3 Hyderabad & Secundrabad 7.4% 2.60
4 Bangalore 7.1% 2.49
5 Chennai 5.6% 1.97
6 Pune 2.6% 0.91
7 Kolkata 2.5% 0.88
8 Ahmedabad 1.3% 0.46
9 Coimbatore 1.2% 0.42
10 Lucknow 1.0% 0.35
In terms of socio-economic classification (SEC), if 56% of regular
internet users came from SEC ‘A’ and ‘B’ groups last year, then this
year their share goes down to 50%. SEC ‘C’ accounts for 19%, while SEC
‘D’ and ‘E’ put together account for 16%. The balance 15% come from
the rural SEC groups - with R1, R2 and R3 combine accounting for 10%
and R4 and R5 for approx. 5%.
More importantly, almost 70% of the regular internet users continue to
constitute what can be termed as the ‘urban consuming class’ (SEC ‘A’,
‘B’ and ‘C’).
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28. Main Report
Incidentally, despite the growth in the proportion of smaller town and
lower SEC profile users among the regular internet user base, the
proportion of female net users continues to stay at 18%. This indicates
that users coming from the smaller towns and lower SEC profiles do not
necessarily show a higher tendency of being more ‘males’.
Internet user base is increasingly skewing towards the
‘younger’ India
If the under 25 year age groups were in ‘minority’ last year accounting
for 42% of the regular internet users, then their proportion has grown
into the ‘majority’ this year standing at 52% of the total regular
internet user base.
Further, if the age band of 25-35 years formed the ‘single largest’ age
group of regular internet users at 36% last year, then the 19-24 year age
band has emerged as the ‘single largest’ age group of regular internet
users this year at 44%. Indicates that the new internet users form the
urban areas as well as internet users form rural areas show much
‘younger’ age profiles.
Chart 4: Age distribution of regular internet users
13-18 years 19-24 years 25-35 years 35 years +
50% 44%
34%
25%
14%
9%
0%
All Internet Users
Further, in the line with the age profile, if almost half of the regular
internet users (47%) were ‘head’ of the household last year, then a
much lower 37% of them are ‘head’ of the households now.
Lastly, only 17% of all regular internet users came from ‘IT’ functional
background last year. The proportion of IT background net users has
jumped up significantly and now accounts for more than 1 in 4 of the
overall regular net users (27%).
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29. India Online 2008
Online Indians represents the ‘masses’ as well as the ‘classes’
With 55% of the regular internet users having monthly household
income (MHI) of less than Rs.10,000 and only 14% of them having
MHI of more than Rs.30,000, the bulk of the Indian internet users
can only be classified as the ‘masses’. The ‘average’ monthly
household income of the regular net users comes out at about
Rs.18,930 approximately.
But with ownership of cars among them being at 17% (against a
possible national norm of just 5%-6%), and a very high 2-wheeler
ownership levels at 46%, the regular net users do show up as highly
‘consumption’ oriented and show a glimpse of the ‘classes’. This is
also hinted by the fact that 28% of regular internet users prefer to
read in English, probably again much higher than the national
norms.
Almost 2 out of 3 regular net users (64%) own some kind of an
automobile.
Though almost 68% of regular net users are employed and 51% of
them work as ‘salaried’ employees in the corporate world, only 25%
of them own a credit card. The credit card ownership among
regular internet users stood at 34% last year. This noticeable fall in
the proportion of credit card owners can be attributed to the
significant increase in the proportion of the relatively ‘younger’ age
group net users.
Among the credit card owning net users, almost 1 in 3 own
‘multiple’ credit cards.
Almost half of the regular net users (52%) have taken up a ‘loan’ of
some kind. The most taken loan is auto loan (both cars and 2-
wheelers put together) at 23%, followed by home loan at 21% and
then by personal loan at 16%. The average number of loans taken by
the ‘loan taking households’ among internet users is 1.5.
Ownership of most of the household assets is also fairly high among
the regular internet users, as indicated by the table below:
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30. Main Report
Table 6: Ownership of popular household assets among online urban
Indians
Household Asset % Owning in 2008 % Owning in 2007
Color TV 90% 92%
Mobile Phone 87% 90%
Bank Account 84% 82%
Computer/Laptop 72% 67%
Cable TV connection/DTH 69% 72%
Fridge 68% 75%
Home 55% 58%
Life Insurance 53% 61%
Camera 52% 64%
Landline Phone 50% 62%
Debit Card 48% 52%
Washing Machine 46% 57%
Credit Card 31% 35%
Fixed Deposits 27% 34%
Medical Insurance/CGHS 26% 33%
Mutual Funds 21% 22%
Air Conditioner 19% 25%
IPod 19% 10%
Microwave 17% 24%
Video Camera 17% 20%
Demat Account 11% 21%
It is interesting to note here that almost three-fourths (72%) of the
regular internet users have personal computers/laptops at home. With
an average internet user-ship of approx. 2 per household, every third
internet using household (36%) has access to a computer/laptop at
home.
Internet is accessed the most from ‘place of work’, though
‘home’ emerges as the most preferred place of access
Almost half of the regular internet users (46%) access the net from
more than one place of access. The per capita ‘places of access’
averages at 1.7.
On multiple access basis, place of work (office, school, colleges, etc.)
Still continues to be the single largest place for accessing internet at
60% (though down 18% points over the last year’s figure of 78%). Usage
form home follows at 55% (down 4% points over last year), and then
from cyber cafes at 47% (the same as last year).
In terms of exclusive usage, while 1 in 5 internet user still accesses
internet only form home (at 21%), another 1 in 5 also accesses it only
from place of work (at 20%). About 1 in 8 regular internet users (13%)
access the net exclusively form a cyber café.
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31. India Online 2008
This still indicates that the relevance of cyber cafés is only ‘secondary’
in nature as of now. This low exclusive access of internet from cyber
cafes could be one of the biggest barriers in the rapid growth of
internet usage in India, as in a country like India the large-scale (mass)
accessibility and affordability of computer at self-ownership level may
still be a long way away.
Chart 5: Place of accessing internet (multiple accesses)
Internet Usage by Place of Access
Place of Work - 60% Home - 55%
Office Only Home Only
20% 12% 21%
16%
12% 6%
Cyber Café Only
13%
Cyber Café - 47%
Note - 6% regular internet users also use it ‘in transit’
However, when it comes to the ‘single most preferred’ place of
accessing internet among the regular internet user, home scores over
the place of work marginally. While 41.2% prefer to access the net from
home, just a marginally lower 40.6% prefer to do so from the place of
work. Cyber café falls back significantly with only 18% regular net users
preferring to access the net from cyber café the most.
Broadband connectivity is very widespread among the regular
online Indians
Broadband is now the main source of internet connectivity among the
majority of regular online Indians, irrespective of where they access
the net from. 71% of regular internet users accessing internet form
home, 68% accessing from place of work and 62% accessing from cyber
café claim to go online using a broadband connection.
However, despite such widespread usage of these ‘commonly
perceived’ broadband connections, the biggest problem faced on the
net by almost 2 out of 3 net users (59%) is the ‘slowness’ in opening of
25

32. Main Report
websites. Another 1 in 3 regular net users (31%) also complains about
the ‘difficulty in connecting to the net’ in the first place. Therefore, it
appears that a large part of the available broadband connectivity is not
really true ‘high speed’ broadband connectivity in practice yet. This is
also in line with the fact that though TRAI defines a true broadband
connection at 256 kbps (and recently being revised by it to 512 kbps),
in reality ISPs have been marketing connections as low as 75-100 kbps
as broadband.
Chart 6: Problems faced by regular net users while surfing the net
Website not opening/opening slowly
Spam/Junk Mails
100% Mails with virus/Spyware
Unsolicited ads/pop-ups
80% Difficulty in getting connected
59% No response to queries on websites
60% Cumbersome navigation in websites
42% Don't have relevant local language content
39% 37%
40% 31%
23%
20% 12% 11%
0%
All Internet Users
Spam and junk mails, virus and spyware, and unsolicited ads and pop
ups form the other main irritants and problems faced on the net.
Net is the ‘dominant’ medium in their home lives
Despite the technical glitches and the ‘unasked for’ irritants, the
frequency of accessing internet from homes as well as offices is very
high. It is to the extent that almost 9 out 10 regular internet users
accessing the net from home or place of work do so ‘daily’ (89% from
home and 85% from office). It is only from cyber cafes that net access is
relatively less frequent. Only 33% of internet users who access the net
from cyber café do it on a daily basis. In fact, more of them (46%)
access the net at least weekly but not daily.
The fact that daily usage of internet from homes is now higher than
that from place of work is a clear indication that internet is now also
becoming a part of people’s ‘personal’ lives and has not just remained
a part of their ‘work’ lives.
Internet users who access the net from home tend to be relatively
‘heavier’ users of the internet as compared to the ‘offline’ mediums
(TV, newspaper and radio). 1 in 2 of them (58%) is a heavy user of
internet during the weekend, while 1 in 3 (36%) is also a heavy user of
internet during the weekdays. In contrast, only 1 in 7 of them (14%) is a
heavy user of TV and 1 in 10 (10%) a heavy user of radio.
Regular internet users tend to be the lightest users of radio, followed
by newspaper and then TV.
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33. India Online 2008
Table 7: Duration of usage of Internet and Offline mediums from home
Internet Internet
TV Newspaper Radio
Weekday Weekend
Light Users (less than 1 hr. a usage
29% 19% 47% 51% 69%
day)
Medium Users (1-2 hrs. a usage day) 35% 23% 40% 36% 21%
Heavy Users (more than 2 hrs. a usage
36% 58% 14% 13% 10%
day)
Note – only in case of newspaper ‘light user’ has been defined as someone who spends
‘up to 30 minutes’, medium as someone who spends between 30 min. to 1 hour and
heavy user as someone who spends more than 1 hour
In terms of the internet usage pattern by the day-parts, 9 p.m. To 12
midnight is the peak usage time from home with almost 1 in 3 home
based net users (32%) logging on to the net in that time band. The peak
usage time band from place of work is between 9 a.m. To 12 noon with
1 in 4 net users from office (26%) logging on to the net during that time
band. Lastly, the peak usage time band from cyber cafes is between 6
p.m. To 9 p.m. With 29% of all cyber café user users logging on to the
net during that time band.
Social interactivity and entertainment related content are the
most popular online
On an average an online Indian undertakes over 15 activities online.
Communication, social interactivity and entertainment activities stand
out as the most popular online activities. In the list of the 10 most
popular online activities among the regular internet users, 4 fall in the
domain of communication and social interactivity/networking activities
(emailing, IM/chatting, dating/friendship and matrimonial search) and
4 fall in the domain of personal or entertainment activities (news,
sports, movies/music, and cricket).
Table 8: Top 10 most popular online activities
% %
Rank Online Activity Undertaking Undertaking Increase
in 2008 in 2007
1 Emailing 91% 95% -4%
2 Job Search 72% 73% -2%
3 Instant messaging/chatting 70% 62% +9%
4 Check news 63% 61% +2%
5 Check Sports 57% 57% -1%
6 Download music/movies 54% 29% +25%
7 Dating/Friendship 50% 51% -2%
8 Check cricket score 50% NA NA
9 Matrimonial search 49% 48% 1%
10 English info search engine 49% NA NA
When compared with the last year, the biggest gainers in popularity
among the online activities are downloading movies and music, local
language content search, finance related activities like stocks and
business/financial news and net telephony. On the other hand, the
noticeable among the biggest losers in popularity in last one year have
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34. Main Report
been online travel search, checking educational material, mobile
content download and e-greetings.
Table 9: Biggest gainer and loser online activities during the year
% %
Online Activity Undertaking Undertaking Increase
in 2008 in 2007
Biggest Gainers
Download music/movies 54% 29% 25%
Local language search engine 33% 12% 21%
Visit Online stock trading websites 31% 13% 18%
Net telephony 27% 13% 15%
Check business/financial news 43% 30% 13%
Biggest Losers
Listen to/Buy Music 48% 60% -12%
Search/Buy travel products 31% 43% -12%
Educational / Learning material 35% 48% -12%
Mobile contents (ring tones, etc.) 37% 50% -13%
E-greetings 41% 57% -16%
The rise of ‘social interactivity’
If we combine all the social interactivity related online activities
together (IM/chat, networking, communities, sharing pictures and
videos, blogs, etc.) Then almost 81% of all online Indians undertake
some or the other ‘social interactivity’ activity online.
Among these activities IM/chatting is the most popular with 70% of all
regular Indian net users undertaking it. Sharing pictures comes next at
45%, followed by social networking at 43%, e-greetings at 41%, video
sharing at 36% and professional networking at 36%. Interactive blogging
is the least popular social interactivity activity online with only 10%
internet users commenting on blogs and only 8% internet users owning a
blog site.
Only 1 in 4 (28%) of all online Indians check or read blogs. Further,
among all those who blog, almost half (48%) only read blogs.
On the other hand, almost half of the online Indians (48%) are members
of some or the other online ‘community’. Alumni, Technology,
Education, Business profession, and Romance and Relationships
communities are among the most popular online communities.
The emergence of the ‘local language website’ users
Historically, internet has been a medium of English in India. No wonder
then that till last year despite 59% of all online Indians preferring ‘local
Indian languages’ for reading in general, only 12% of all online Indians
were visiting local language websites on the net.
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35. India Online 2008
However, two emerging facts indicate an increasing trend towards local
language based internet usage in the future:
The proportion of internet users who generally prefer to read in
local language itself has gone up from 59% last year to 72% this year
(maybe a correction of better coverage, and therefore better
representation through multipliers, of the smallest towns and
villages in this year’s land survey).
Secondly, the proportion of internet users who visit or check local
language websites has also gone up from just 12% last year to 34%
this year. That is, almost 1 in 3 online Indian is already using local
language websites.
Interestingly, while the increase in the base of online Indians who
prefer to read in local Indian languages has been 13% points, the
increase in base of online Indians who visit local Indian language
websites has been a much higher 22% points. Indicates that at least 9%
online Indians who were using only English websites till last year have
started using local language websites also.
Table 10: Status of local language net users
2008 2007 Increase
Online Indians preferring to read in English 28% 41% -13%
Online Indians preferring to read local Indian languages 72% 59% 13%
Online Indians visiting English websites only 66% 88% -22%
Online Indians visiting local language websites also 34% 12% 22%
Note - All online Indians check English language website by default
Net is increasingly becoming a ‘shopping window’ among the
online Indians
4 out of 5 online Indians (80%) either search or buy products online,
that is, they ‘shop’ online. This makes the ‘online shoppers’ base in
India as large as 28 million.
Of these 28 million online shoppers, only 28%, or 7.97 million currently
also ‘buy’ online. The rest 72% of them, or 20.07 million, only search
for products online but do not buy them online yet (window shoppers).
Effectively, this means that almost 1 in 4 online ‘shopper’ in actually an
online ‘buyer’.
On the overall regular internet user base, the proportion of online
buyers and window shoppers work out to be 23% and 57% respectively.
Compared to the last year, when the count of then currently ‘active
online buyers’ was 6.16 million, the base of active buyers has grown by
1.81 million to reach 7.97 million. This indicates a 29% growth in the
base of active online buyers since last year. As the growth in internet
user base during the same period has been 33%, the growth rate of
online buyers in last one year can only be described as ‘average’.
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36. Main Report
This ‘average’ growth in the online buyer base last year is also
indicated by the fact that the base of online buyers among the regular
internet users who have bought online ‘ever’ has just grown from 10.78
million last year to 11.23 million this year (a meager addition of 0.45
million ‘new’ online buyers during the year).
Table 11: Status of online shoppers and buyers
% Online % Online
Indians Indians
Increase
Undertaking Undertaking
in 2008 in 2007
Online window shoppers (who only search online) 57% 33% 24%
Online buyers (who search as well as buy online) 23% 25% -2%
Total online shoppers (who either search or buy online) 80% 58% 22%
Online Indians who have bought ‘ever’ on the net (mn) 11.23 mn 10.78 mn +0.45 mn
Online Indians who have bought ‘ever’ on the net (%) 32% 43% -11%
Note – In last year’s report the shopper/buyer numbers were reported on ‘ever used’
basis. However, this year these numbers have been reported on their ‘currently active’
status (taken as active in the last 6 months). Accordingly, in the above table last year
numbers have been recalculated and presented, and therefore will not tally directly
with last year’s report numbers.
Interestingly, a substantial 92% of all active online buyers have bought a
travel product online (up 8% points over last year’s number of 84%). In
comparison, only 51% of the online buyers have bought a non-travel
product online (down 5% points over last year’s number of 56%).
Over half of the online Indians are ‘responsive’ to online
marketing stimulus
A little over half of all online Indians (53%) have responded to some or
the other online marketing stimuli in the past. Further, on an average
they have typically responded to approximately 3 stimuli per person
(actual average is 2.7).
Online contests are what online Indians have responded to the most,
with 60% of them having done so. Contest are closely followed by
search ads and banner ads at 56% and 53% respectively. Almost 1 in 5
online Indians (18%) have received a ‘viral ad’ from someone and a
third of them (6%) have actually forwarded such viral ads to other
people they know on the net.
Chart 7: Response to online marketing stimuli
Participated in an online contest
Clicked a sponsored search ad
Clicked a banner ad
100% Subscribe to online newsletters
Clicked a product/service e-mailer
80% Received viral ad from someone
60% Forwarded viral ad to someone
56%
60% 53%
46%
33%
40%
18%
20% 6%
0%
All Internet Users
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37. India Online 2008
Google emerges as the leading online brand overall, whether
in terms of ‘mind share’ or in terms of ‘user share’
Unlike last year, when Yahoo was the most top of mind recalled online
brand (at 30%) but Google the most used website overall (at 29%), this
year Google sweeps the charts on both the counts.
Google leads the ‘mind share’ with 37% of all online Indians recalling it
as the first online brand coming to their minds. Yahoo follows next at
32%, thereafter followed distantly by Rediff (7%), Orkut (6%) and Gmail
(6%) to complete the top 5 list.
Google also leads the ‘user share’ at the overall usage level of all kinds
of websites. 28.4% of all online Indians claim to use it the most among
all the websites they use on the net. Yahoo is a very close second, with
27.6% of all internet users using it the most. Rediff, Gmail and Orkut
again emerge as the number 3, 4 and 5 on usage as well.
However, when it comes to conversion of ‘mind share’ into actual ‘user
share’ at the overall level, it is neither Yahoo nor Google but Gmail and
Orkut which shows the best recall-to-usage conversion ratios at 1.56
and 1.45 respectively. The other top online brands showing above
average conversion ratio are Rediff, Sify and Moneycontrol.
Interestingly, 9 out of the top 10 names in this year’s list are the same
as last year (with only some shifts in ranks). It goes to indicate the
‘real’ strength and sustenance power of these online brands in the
Indian online landscape. The only brand to move out form the top 10
list of last year is MSN, which has been replaced by Moneycontrol this
year.
Table 12: Top 10 most popular online brands
% Recall Most % Use it the Most
Rank Website Usage/Recall Ratio
Top of Mind Overall
1 Google 36.6% 28.4% 0.78
2 Yahoo 31.5% 27.6% 0.88
3 Rediff 7.4% 8.6% 1.16
4 Orkut 5.6% 8.1% 1.45
5 Gmail 5.5% 8.6% 1.56
6 Indiatimes 1.7% 1.2% 0.71
7 Hotmail 1.1% 1.0% 0.91
8 Moneycontrol 0.8% 0.8% 1.00
9 Naukri 0.7% 0.4% 0.57
10 Sify 0.6% 0.7% 1.17
Lastly, in terms of specific online activities, Yahoo, Google and Orkut
emerge as the most popularly used websites for 15 of the 26 popular
online activities surveyed (Yahoo on 7, Google on 4, and Orkut on 4).
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38. Main Report
Table 13: Top-most popular websites for specific online activities
% Use Most YOY Primary
Online Activity Top Website (Primary User Share
User Share) Increase
Emailing Yahoo 51% -2%
Instant Messaging Yahoo 53% -10%
Job Search Naukri 42% +5%
Online News Yahoo 16% +2%
Info Search – English Google 81% +6%
Info Search – Local language Google 65% -9%
Yatra 18% +2%
Online Travel
Makemytrip 16% -1%
Online Games Zapak 32% +15%
Online Shopping (Non-travel) Ebay 33% -1%
Real Estate Google 23% +5%
Moneycontrol 18% +5%
Financial News/Info
Google 15% +2%
Online Share Trading ICICIdirect 31% -5%
Yahoo 25% NA
Net Telephony
Gtalk 24% NA
Bharatmatrimony 36% -
Matrimony
Shaadi 34% +6%
Friendship/Dating Orkut 54% +18%
Share Pictures Orkut 38% NA
Social Networking Orkut 66% +2%
Professional Networking Orkut 44% NA
Video Sharing Youtube 43% NA
Cricinfo 19% +6%
Sports
Yahoo 17% +5%
Astrology Yahoo 25% +3%
Cinema Yahoo 14% +3%
Music Raaga 17% -5%
Online learning/education Google 32% -2%
Buy/rent movie CD Rediff 19% NA
Yahoo 12% -2%
Mobile Content
Nokia 11% +2%
To sum up, internet usage has shown a healthy growth in last one year.
More importantly, it is showing clear signs of evolving and becoming the
‘dominant’ medium of interacting with the world among a good
proportion of the regular online Indians. More so, as the depth of its
usage has increased further and so has its relevance in regular online
Indian’s personal lives (and not just their work lives). The noticeably
increased usage of ‘social interactivity’ and ‘personal entertainment’
online activities clearly substantiates this trend.
However, while the usage of Internet has shown a ‘healthy’ growth in
last one year, online buying has not really picked as much this year,
making net more of a ‘window shop’ rather than an ‘online market’ in
any true sense of the word (except for the travel products maybe).
32

39. India Online 2008
Lastly, internet continues to be the ‘melting pot’ of the big Indian
middle ‘mass’ of urban consumers. And that fact that the bulk of Indian
consumer mass comes from the vernacular Indian world (as indicated by
the growth of local language reading online Indians in its user base),
the increasing usage of local language websites is one of the most
important elements of internet usage to watch for in the future.
Availability of relevant and meaningful local language content and
applications on the net, together with affordable access, may actually
become the biggest enabler (or the biggest limiting factor) in the future
growth of Internet usage in India.
33

40. Main Report
Detailed Findings
34

41. India Online 2008
Reading the Graphs
& Tables
Current Year Age 13-18 years Age 19-24 years
Age 25-35 years Age 36-45 years
40% Age 46-55 years Above Age 55 years
36%
31%
20%
13%
11%
6%
2%
Current
0%
year base
All Users
Base: 25,060
Same series color as the current year
Change from graph, showing an increase of 5% in the
previous year proportion of 13 to 18 years age group
Change from PY
10%
5%
5% 1% 2% 1%
0%
-5%
-5% -4%
-10%
Base: 25,060(CY), 20,268(PY)
Current Previous
year base year base
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42. Main Report
Table: Preferred websites - emailing
Assets Current Year Change from PY
Color TV 92% 3%
Mobile Phone 90% 5% Fields marked
Bank Account* 82% with * means
Fridge 75% 4% that the field
Cable TV connection/DTH 72% -4.6%
is added this
year hence
Computer/Laptop 67% 18%
not
Camera* 64% comparable
Landline Phone 62% -1.9% to last year
Life insurance 61% 1%
Home 58% -10.0%
Washing Machine 57% 2%
A blank in
Music System/DVD/MP3* 55%
this column
Debit Card 52% 7% means that
Credit card 35% 8% this attribute
Fixed Deposits* 34% was not
Medical Insurance/CGHS 33% 3%
included in
last year’
Air Conditioner 25% 5% survey and
Microwave 24% 5% therefore no
Mutual Funds 22% -1.2% ‘change over
Demat account* 21%
previous
year’ can be
Share of companies* 20%
presented
Video Camera* 20%
IPod* 10%
Chit Fund Deposits 7% -19.9%
Base: 25,060(CY), 20,268(PY)
Previous
year base
Current
year base
36

43. India Online 2008
Demographic Profile
Chart 8: Gender breakup
Current Year M ale Female
100%
82%
80%
60%
40%
18%
20%
0%
All Internet Users
Base: 15,875
Chart 1: Gender breakup
Change from PY
2%
1% 1%
0%
-1% -1%
-2%
Base: 15,875(CY), 25,060(PY)
37

44. Main Report
Chart 9: Age group distribution
Current Year 13-18 yrs 19-24 yrs 25-35 yrs
50% 44%
34%
25%
9%
0%
All Internet Users
Base: 15,875
Chart 2: Age group distribution
Change from PY
15% 12%
5%
-5% -2% -2%
Base: 15,875(CY), 25,060(PY)
Age All Internet Users Change from PY
13-18 yrs 9% -2.4%
19-24 yrs 44% 12%
25-35 yrs 34% -2.1%
36-45 yrs 9% -4.3%
46-55 yrs 4% -2.4%
Above 55 yrs 1% -1.0%
38

45. India Online 2008
Chart 10: City class - by population size
Current Year Up to 1 Lakh 1-5 Lakhs 5-10 Lakhs Above 10 Lakhs
40% 36%
31%
21%
20%
12%
0%
All Internet Users
Base: 15,875
Chart 3: City class - by population size
Change from PY
15% 10%
7%
5%
-5%
-2%
-15% -14%
Base: 15,875(CY), 25,060(PY)
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46. Main Report
Chart 11: City class - by market size
Current Year M etro Urban uptowns Emerging Towns Others
60%
52%
40%
30%
20% 13%
6%
0%
All Internet Users
Base: 15,875
Chart 4: City class - by market size
Change from PY 19%
20%
10%
0%
-3%
-10% -8% -8%
Base: 15,875(CY), 25,060(PY)
40

47. India Online 2008
Table 14: Cities
Cities All Internet Users Change from PY
Mumbai 9% -1.2%
Bangalore 7% 0.7%
Delhi 7% -5.3%
Chennai 6% 1%
Hyderabad 6% 0.2%
Pune 3% 0.1%
Kolkata 3% -0.8%
Secunderabad* 2%
Ahmedabad 1% -0.3%
Coimbatore 1% 0.3%
Thane* 1%
Lucknow 1% -0.3%
Visakhapatanam 0.8% -0.1%
Ghaziabad* 0.7%
Gurgaon* 0.7%
Bhubaneswar 0.7% 0.2%
Mysore 0.7% 0.3%
Jaipur 0.6% -0.2%
Vadodara 0.6% -0.1%
Noida* 0.6%
Surat 0.6% -0.1%
Ludhiana 0.6% 0.0%
Chandigarh 0.5% -0.3%
Indore 0.5% -0.2%
Bhopal 0.5% -0.1%
Trivandrum* 0.5%
Madurai 0.5% 0.1%
Faridabad 0.5% -0.1%
Vijayavada 0.4% -0.1%
Tiruchirapalli 0.4% 0.1%
Kochi 0.4% -0.1%
Kanpur 0.4% -0.1%
Nashik 0.4% 0.0%
Guwahati 0.4% 0.1%
Ajmer* 0.4%
Kancheepuram* 0.4%
Ernakulam* 0.3%
Guntur* 0.3%
Nagpur 0.3% -0.5%
Agra 0.3% 0.0%
Pondicherry* 0.3%
Patna 0.3% -0.3%
Warangal* 0.3%
Goa 0.3% 0.0%
41