TMCnet News
Net's cast wider than you thought(The Economic Times (India) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) You are in for a surprise if you thought blogs are a metro, elite consumer phenomenon. With almost 86% of the 25 million odd internet users in the country regularly checking out blogs (second only to e-mailing ), nearly 59% coming from middle-to-low income group (essentially socio-economic class B&C ) and approximately half being from outside the top eight cities, blogging and internet have well and truly become a mass medium in India. This is a clarion call for marketers who have either shunned or used the internet sparingly, blissfully ignorant in their belief that the Net is a largely metro, high-income and English-speaking consumers' medium. There are surprises galore. Almost 41% online Indians prefer an Indian language Web site, with Hindi right there at the top with 17%. For the doubting Thomases, Internet shopping has quietly become a Rs 3,500-4 ,000-crore market, with almost 28% or 5.9 million people buying online in the last one year. WITH around 10% of urban Indian population hooked onto the Net, and almost half of all computer using Indians (around 50 million ) on the Net, internet is virtually at an inflexion point as far as becoming a viable mass-media for marketers of every hue is concerned - from soaps, shampoos , soft drinks to train & airline tickets. Non-metros , essentially 40 cities account for around 37% of all Net users. Almost half, 46%, of internet users access it from cyber cafes. Online ticketing is fuelling the rapid growth of online shopping, with almost a third of all internet users buying train tickets online in the past year, with two out of three online buyers shopping from home. Almost a fourth, 23%, are using the medium for Net banking. Books, electronics goods, clothes and gifts are some other products high on the Net consumers basket. |