Juxt Consult Report Out – The Confusion with User Stats Continues; Internet India is Growing at a Pathetic Pace even Though Stats May Glorify
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Juxt Consult has just released their ‘India Online 2008’ report. It is an offline survey of over 12,500 households across 40 cities and 160 villages countrywide to gauge the online behaviour of Indians. The report also included a seperate online survey taken across the country (15, 000 people). Interestingly the IAMAI report that is released every year covers 65, 000 households but it does so in only 24 cities. So in that sense the Juxt Consult report covers a wider surface area but has limited depth when compared to the IAMAI report. Having said that the Online Survey is innovative. The limitation is that one has less control over the identity of the respondent, in an offline survey that is more easily gauged. It still makes more sense to do a survey on ‘online habits’ – online.
The report says that there are 49 Million Claimed Internet users in India. This figure reflects really slow growth. Just last November, the IAMAI put the claimed user rate at 46 million. So effectively, Internet penetration has grown by only 6% in half a year. A far cry from the expected targets of 50% and beyond. When the IAMAI report released last November – they claimed a growth in penetration of 40%; at that time, the President Subho Ray sounded worried. But in reality, the growth was not even 40% – the IAMAI report blatantly lied and misrepresented facts – here’s a story that tells you how and why.
In terms of the active Internet users * active refers to once a month usage * (I wouldn’t call that ‘active’ but nevertheless – Juxt Consult pegs the number of active users at 35 million. Up 3 Million from what the IAMAI claimed in November. I doubt that all the users that have come on to the Internet (there has been a 3 million surge in claimed users) have become ‘active’ – statistically that’s hard to believe. Nevertheless, a few millions here and there – we know that for now, Internet penetration still remains dismal.
We should be worried by the Juxt Consult figures – Internet India is not growing as rapidly as it should be.
Here’s a Few Insights from the Report that should help Marketers and Investors alike with respect to what might Work on the Internet in India:
1) Over two-thirds (70%) of all Internet users reside outside metros
This shows that the Internet is not only an ‘elitist’ Urban medium. It’s not a ‘metro’ oriented medium. Class B towns primarily are looking at the Internet as well. A message from WATConsult – We are expecting more Mass Products to come to us and help them frame their web strategies. We are also equipping ourselves culturally to tackle these brands.
2) Over 70% internet users prefer to access the net in Indian languages, with English users at just 28%, down from 41% in 2007 (this means that people would want to ‘read’ in regional languages)
Expect more regional portals. These signs have been showing recently – a spate of regional portals have been launched by some of the big media houses. Google translate will be an important tool in the near future. Orkut is in Hindi. Video content that will be viral will have to have a regional tone and probably be in a regional language.
3) Women account for less than a fifth, just 17.6%, of the 49-million odd Indian netizens.
It really is surprising then that so many women centric portals have come up. Marketeers need to look at men and male oriented categories more closely. The Internet is a great touchpoint for men. For women, other touchpoints may be more valuable. They are a more ‘tv friendly’ audience. (I’ve noticed that we hardly get comments from Women on WATBlog). Im not going to speculate in detail as to why I think women in India are not accessing the Internet – it probably is a mix of Income, Culture, and historical confidence (or lack of it) with technology that is preventing a lot of women from jumping on to the Internet bandwagon.
4) On an average, net users take 15 odd activities which includes chatting, emailing, downloading music and movies, sharing videos and pictures, checking cricket score, job and matrimonial search. Social networking, picture and video sharing, online communities and Internet chatting and blogs are significant for 81% of the users.
Heartening to see Social Networking up there – people are spending time on it so i think there definitely lies an opportunity with respect to brands engaging audiences through various social media tools. The web is now more ’social’ - and that slowly being proven true in India as well. With respect to video, we have noticed that mostly studio produced Bollywood oriented content is shared more than User Generated Content.
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JuxtConsult is a fu*king piece of crap. Go by the IAMAI reports which are directly collected from ISPs Audits.
As long as the broadband prices comes down drastically there is not going to be great penetration of internet in India
“Numbers don’t lie, people lie”.
In this fast world even “journalists”/ “bloggers” in a hurry no more to talk to the “analyst” and check once whether the interpretations are correct. If in print a mistake happens no one can correct it, but then on the net before putting something you should be completely confident and check with the source. That’s basic of journalism, I guess. Harshil could have spoke to us before putting something up.
Check the corrections (also sent to ET):
1. “an offline survey of over 12,500 households across 40 cities and 160 villages countrywide to gauge the online behaviour of Indians”.
Correct nos. – an offline survey of over 12,500 Urban households across 40 cities and 4,000 Rural Households in 160 villages to estimate & profile Internet users and a separate online survey of over 15,000 sample countrywide to gauge the online behaviour of Indians.
2. “What’s more, over 70% internet users prefer to access the net in Indian languages, with English users at just 28%, down from 41% in 2007.”
The correct data and interpretation – Language net access stands at 34% and not 70%. 70% is the figure of net users who prefer to ‘read’ in Indian languages per se.
3. “Internet penetration (as % of population) has crossed double-digit mark in urban India at 12%, up 3% from 9% last year, and rural penetration stands at 4.5%”. Correct data – at 9 million rural penetration comes out to be around 1.2% and not 4.5%.
4. “Internet chatting and blogs are significant for 81% of the users”.
Correct data – All social media platforms put together (chatting, social networking, picture sharing, video sharing, online communities and blogging) form 81% and not just chatting and blogging.
5. “and a good 80% of regular online Indians are now buying through the net”.
Correct data – a good 80% regular net users now shop online (which is search or buy) and not buy online. Only 25% of regular internet users have actively bought in last 6 months.
Thanks Mrutyunjay – i actually wanted to check the figures from the Juxt Consult site this morning but the site was down as a result of which i had to rely on the ET figures – please put us on your mailing list and send out the releases to us so that we need not necessarily rely on external sources and make the mistake – i’ll rectify the following soon. Thanks for taking time out to comment. some of the things you listed are not on the blog but whatever changes need to be made – il look at them. The site is working fine now – just checked. But this morning i tried a couple of times and got an error.
Harshil,
Go take a walk buddy. Another one of your immature rantings!
@ Mrutyunjay – the changes have been corrected. There were 2 stats that we misrepresented on the post – one on the online survey with 15, 000 people and secondly – Social networking not being a part of that 81% time spent for users. The second one is important for all of us in social media so thanks for pointing that out. Appreciate your concerns – just that if “bloggers” and “journalists” matter to you then be proactive and communicate with them. Send out the right figures and reports. And if this is peak time for people visiting your site then make sure its UP! I appreciate the study – its great from a consumer behaviour perspective. I am sorry if the study was gravely misrepresented (i doubt it was because most of the post looks at stuff not quoted in the ET article) – i have made the necessary concerns.
– atleast someone cares passionately about these things! Thats how i like doing it anyway. Do you not like reading opinions? if you do – then how do you like them structured? I’d appreciate your feedback.
@Anon – i quite like this being called a ‘ranting’ – it has an emotional element attached
if there is less growth in internet users in india then english needs to be blamed……why bcos chinas internet users are rising cos there r millions of chinese sites in chinese language can u count ten site immediately available in hindi….cos i cud count only 2…..thats the main problem as we know not many people speak english in india……the problem could be solved by two ways making more sites in hindi,,,nd primarily launching vernaculars languages keyboards,,,plus a 1 click version of windows which turns fonts in hindi ……cos hindi translation on google pages or other sites sucks…..nd the real problem in india is the no. of languages spoken unlike china which have mandarin as primary language……so hindi may not even solve the problem as south indians cant understand it properly
some extremely valid points there!
government would even do well for penetration of internet if it could scrap service tax on it …….nd the broadband will c da light of da day when reliance starts it services nationally …..i have been waiting 4 three years for their service as they laid there broadband cables back then….there acquisition of flag telecom would play the role…..gonna c da same competition as mobile hopefully…..