Changing Online Marketing Strategies in India with Comparative Infographics

The massive Indian market is changing fast. Internet access is main streaming among professionals and the use of mobile is intensifying. The pace of change continues to be rapid with digital channels constantly growing in volume and strength. More people spend more time online in India every year, and the digital tools and sites they use play an ever-growing role in their lives. Smart marketers keep on top of the scale of change and ensure their marketing strategies and touch points mirror where the consumer is spending their time. These notes give a sense of the scale of change we’ve seen so far and implies the scale of what is coming.

Changing Online Marketing Strategies in India

In India the web is now established as a mass market media channel for the wealthy. Email has become a mass market media channel for office workers and professional classes. Mobile (for SMS) is a mass market media channel across many demographics, but while mobile use is very high, mobile devices and the web will not properly converge until late 2010. The main changes in internet access have happened in the last five years and the internet has become an essential part of office life, and plays a key role in many homes. The number of people with access continues to rise, but so too does the time they spend online. Broadband access is growing fast, but the number of home connections lags behind comparable markets; however although the number of connections is low, a large number of people in high-end demographics have access. Significant infrastructure problems remain, creating a high cost for access compared to average wage rates.

As India becomes more digitally connected, this special edition of Digital Intelligence shows the way Indian consumers are going online, and on mobile. It covers the key trends you need to know to healthcheck your digital strategy and question whether digital has the right weight in your marketing mix.

India is the third biggest country in terms of internet users in the world, with a highly social and mobile audience. This snapshot takes a closer look at India’s digital consumer, and the key trends driving the country towards a digital future. It's estimated as many as 121 million Indians are logged onto the internet. It is a sizeable number, but still a relatively small proportion of the country's 1.2 billion population.

India's internet

• 2% - Number of rural Indians using the internet

• 25% - Growth in Indian internet users in India over the past 12 months.

• 59% - Number of Indians who only access the internet via mobile devices.

What Indians do online

• 3 hours - Average time an Indian net user spends on social media.

• 13m - Number of Indians registered on matrimonial or dating sites.

• 70% of Indian internet users who watch online videos.

Search, social networking and email are the top three key categories fro online communities in India, with social networking and email being significantly more popular categories in India than the rest of the world.

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