The answer to this question seems pretty simple. Social networking keeps you in touch with your friends and also, most definitely, helps you utilize your time to the fullest by doing pretty much a lot like liking your friends comments/status’, updating your status, or “poking” some friend. On the other hand you got trading, which if done meticulously, will ensure a good inflow of money. The decision is simple and India has made the choice, and it has chosen social networking.
According to a study, India has 1.7 crore Demat account holders, while there are 3.1 crore Indian users on Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter combined. For the less informed, Demat means a dematerialized account which is used for Indian citizens to trade in listen stocks or debentures. A citizen obtains a Demat account on registering with an investment broker. The growth of Demat account holders is a meager two lakhs as compared to two crore new mobile connections every month. Throw into the mix all the new phones that are marketed solely on the basis of their compatibility to social networking websites and you have a David vs. Goliath battle here.
You can make an account on social networking sites for free, while you do have to pay a certain amount to open up a Demat account. But should there really be a comparison based on this fact? Social networking sites are great to keep in touch with friends and family but apart from that does it really help users? A lot of companies have their pages now on Facebook or other sites so as to increase their clientele. But considering that most of the users are using these sites strictly for connecting with friends, creating a Demat account should make sense as it could rake in some moolah. But a noteworthy point here is that a huge number of Demat account holders are still non-active or retail investors who restrict themselves to mutual funds and public offers, which to is a declining trend. This can be attributed to the average Indian’s low confidence in investing in the market which will have its ups and downs.
Another major factor is that 60% of India’s population is below the age of 30 years, and that is definitely helping social networking sites in winning this “battle”. While writing this post, I did check my Facebook 5 times, and am also not a Demat account holder, which is not something I am proud of. How about you India?
The major reason is that to get a Demat account, you need to have PAN Card, deposit certain amount of money, and verification takes a while. on the other hand, for Social network site, you just need 5 minutes to create, absolutely free, no one comes out searching for your address to verify you. no social network site has banned any user Without a proper ID. Nothing Legal or financial is involved in Social networking.
Apart from the subject line, nothing is appealing in this post of yours. But it still is ok, the real A******s are the people at SMC capital who did this study, which is like comparing “how many people want to study maths” with “how many people want that sachin hits a century in all of his matches”. these two topics are totally different, Social network and investments. I can’t believe how a company involved in Financial sector can do such a stupid study. I think their next study must be “How many people have profiles on every social network site” compared to “how many people have insurance policy in every company approved by IRDA”? Junk!