Short Review of Online India

TrendsSpotting releases a short review on Online India statistics:

Internet use

According to ComScore: 28 million people in India age 15 and older accessed the Internet from home and work locations in May 2008.
Internet users in India represent approximately only 3% of the population (potential for continued strong growth).

The average Indian Internet user visited the Internet 25 times during the month and was online for 28 minutes per visit.

• Those between the ages of 15-24 were the heaviest Internet users among all age segments, spending nearly 12 hours online per month on average.
• Some of the fastest growing Web site categories during the past year included Maps (up 64 percent), Sports (up 60 percent), Entertainment - Movies (up 55 percent), and Finance – News/Research (up 52 percent).

Top Websites in India:

• Top players are showing a relative growth from year 2007.
• Google Sites ranked as the top property in India: nearly 20 million visitors in May, a 35% increase versus year ago and the largest growth among all other properties. That’s too include: Google Search (up 38% to 17.1 million visitors), social networking site Orkut (up 39% to 9.3 million visitors), blog platform Blogger.com (up 102% to 7.3 million visitors), and video site YouTube (up 131% to 6.3 million visitors).
• Yahoo! Sites ran second with 18.7 million visitors (up 28%), followed by Microsoft Sites with 12 million (up 11%). Indian portal Rediff.com ranked as the top local property with 9.2 million visitor (up 19%), followed by government site NIC.in with nearly 6 million visitors (up 5%).

The top ten online activities:

According to WAT consultants - most popular topics to involve youth on SN communities are: Bollywood, Cricket, Football, Wrestling, Music (Indian Metal and Rock) and Gaming.

Internet Shopping a growing trend:
Nielsen Global Online Survey reveals that 78% of the Indian respondents have used the Internet to make a purchase and more than half of the respondents (55%) have made at least one online purchase in the past one month.

Popular products to shop online:
73% Online Indians have purchased airline tickets/reservations in the past three months (this percentage being the highest for any country in Asia Pacific). Books (46%), Electronic Equipments (29%), Tours & Hotel Reservations (24%), Videos/DVDs/Games (23%), Event Tickets (23%), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (21%), and Music (20%) are some other popular purchases made online by Indians.

Mobile stats:
TRAI reports 286.86 million wireless users in India at the end of June, up 55% from a year earlier. The Indian Mobile market is considered the fastest-growing in the world.