Indian Social Media Trends in 2012
Indian social media grew by leaps and bounds in 2011. Indians witnessed the true power of social over the course of the year – whether it was bolstering the IAC movement in India or MTV India being awarded the best social media TV program by Mashable. It has been a year of amazing social media campaigns but also a year of great fiascos. I feel social media momentum will only grow more in a country where 70 percent of the population accesses the Internet through mobile. There will be even bigger success stories in 2012, but what will they be? I have listed some trends that I believe will shape the social media business in India over the next 12 months.
Mobile goes social: It is a known fact that most Indians browse the Internet via mobile, and 2012 will see even more fondness to pocket devices. A large percentage of Indians are spending time on social networks using their mobiles, with the biggest chunk comes from non-metros. Expect mobile to add some extra zing to the Indian social media market in 2012. $100 mobiles powered with Android have already made it possible for Indians to browse the Internet quite cheaply. Are we going to witness brands now focusing more on mobile apps rather than web apps? This was a thought also expressed by Preetham Venkky in a recent chat.
B2B and corporate gear up: The B2B arena will gear up, and we will see not only professional networks opening up but also see large enterprises will walk the extra mile to embrace Enterprise 2.0. I have always felt that LinkedIn has been inside a shell, as its more of a corporate network. But this year, I think it will be more social and allow its API to be used by more developers. This would be great news for the Indian market considering how many people use Linkedin here. We are already seeing companies such as Standard Chartered opting for Enterprise 2.0 with the help of Kreeo. I think in 2012, we will see more companies being social, dropping their logos, and providing a platform for employees, stakeholders, and customers to engage.
Social commerce: New e-commerce sites are popping up all over the place in India, and they’re being funded pretty quickly too. Some pundits assert that it is a bubble but for the time being, there is money in that bubble. We have also seen the growing fondness towards Facebook, so a gradual evolution of e-commerce to social commerce seems like a logical next step. We have already seen lot of e-commerce brands such as Fashion and You, Flipkart, Fetise, and MyGrahak, doing an amazing job on social media. However brands will also have to understand that social commerce means far more than creating a Facebook fan page. They will have to provide fans with a positive experience, keeping the social aspect in focus, evolving from just liking and commenting on products.
Blogs and brands: Brands have kept their distance from blogs in the past, but 2011 saw some brands testing the waters more. Red Bull started a blogger hunt contest for F1, and we also saw the Snexy.in campaign that used blogs very effectively. IndiBlogger, India’s biggest blog network, made sure that it kept running contests all year round. Brands such as Tata, Dove, KFC, Samsung, and HP also tried creating a relationship with bloggers via contests. I have always believed that bloggers can be your best brand evangelists. Blogging is far from dead, and it will evolve further in 2012.
Forums will be back: I think social media is cluttered right now, and the content overload often detracts from the experience. Could it be that 2012 will see a resurgence of forums. We recently saw Pluggd.in launching its forum for the startup and entrepreneur community. I have engaged a couple of times and found some very interesting discussions. Forums have like-minded people and are moderated; they have more focused discussions and less spam. I hope PO is planning one too!
Video consumption increases: In 2011 we saw the launch of both BoxOffice and then Movieplex, from Internet giant’s Google and Yahoo respectively. After the Kolaveri di [2] snowball I am sure every artist and Bollywood personality would want to make his or her video viral. India is a market that is not going to be behind in 2012 even though we have infrastructure problems in the country, so expect video to be the next big thing.
The idiot box goes social: Television channels connecting to fans via social media is a common trend, but 2011 saw television serials being telecasted on social media. In December, we saw the rebirth of the movie review show Chicks on Flicks, aired on Facebook. Sony PIX had stopped airing it on TV, and from now on it will show movie reviews on the day of the release. I believe this will be followed by others in 2012.
Social media outsourcing: Last time when I spoke to Adhvith Dhuddu, he predicted that 2012 would see lot of social media outsourcing work coming to India. I think many bigger brands will opt for social media outsourcing as this will also allow them to scale. But how exactly can social media work be outsourced? Certainly there is some risk in some areas, but at the same time there are many mundane tasks that can be outsourced.
ORM becomes important: With more and more brands opting for social, brands will need to be more careful about their online reputation. 2011 saw Vodafone Dhaval Valia fail in this area. Having witnessed such catastrophes, other companies will be trying to avoid these kinds of mistakes in 2012.
SMEs become more social: I have always believed that social media can be a game changer for SMEs. In 2011 we saw some amazing social media work from Faasos, Shopo and more which may become case studies for their competitors. SME’s will be more open and innovative on social media over the coming year.
Source: www.penn-olson.com
India has 65 Million Active Internet Users; Number of Online Shoppers up by 70% YoY: Juxt
According to India Online Landscape 2011 study by Juxt, the number of active internet users in India stand at 65 million, recording a 28 per cent rise from 51 million last year. The study also revealed that India has 61 million ‘regular’ users with 46 million urban and 16 million rural users.
"4 out of 5 internet users ‘shop’ online, translating into a 50 million strong online consumer base. 17 million of these ‘online shoppers’ (or 29 per cent of all internet users), also ‘buy’ online recording a growth of 70 per cent from 10 million last year. Online buyers of ‘non-travel’ products stand at 13.5 million outnumbering 8.6 million travel buyers," the study quoted.
Most bought ‘non-travel’ products were mobile phones and accessories recording 56 per cent responses, computer hardware and consumer electronics contribute 35 per cent each and movie tickets stand at 30 per cent. Most bought ‘travel’ products were train tickets at 83 per cent and air tickets at 58 per cent.
“The growth is largely ‘PC’ driven as access on mobile phones is still only among 1 in 4 internet user. Mobile is adding ‘depth of usage’ and 8 out of 10 mobile internet users are ‘dual’ users. Only mobile based usage is low at 3 per cent with 1.8 million users,” the study said. Home is the single largest place of access recording 58 per cent, and the most preferred place of access recording 43 per cent responses. Only ‘Home’ and ‘transit’ show growth in usage on ‘preferred place’ basis.
The study further states that internet reaches 29 million Indian households (avg. users per household up marginally at 2.23) and covers 11.3 per cent of all Indian households and 5.4 per cent of all Indians with 13 per cent urban and 2 per cent rural. Over 4 in 5 are ‘daily’ users. Daily users’ base grew at 33 per cent.
Almost 2/3rd of all internet users are employed and 71 per cent of the employed ones ‘head’ of their households. 2/3rd of online Indians belong to SEC A,B and C, with claimed ‘average’ monthly family income of `18,720; 1 in 4 have a credit card. Female user-ship ‘inch’ up further at 27 per cent but ‘housewives’ segment declines.
Connection speeds of internet usage has picked up noticeably from all places of access, which indicated that a good proportion of existing users have been ‘upgrading’ their connection speeds.
Online search for products (especially non-travel products) has been up significantly, making ‘shopping’ the 2nd most popular online activity (at 85 per cent) after emailing. Social and professional networking also gained usership further reaching 61 per cent and 48 per cent usage. Usage of all ‘social media’ platforms put together inched up to 86 per cent.
Job search, cinema ticket booking and reading product reviews are other activities that gained users. Downloading screensavers/wallpapers, online trading in shares and watching videos showed the most declines in usage. Usership of ‘local language’ content gained only marginally recording 2 per cent growth to reach 29 per cent.
Google continues to dominate the online landscape with Google, Gmail, Gtalk and YouTube being the most used websites for 19 distinct online activities (compared to 24 activities last year). Facebook emerges as the leader in 6 distinct verticals including online games and even professional networking. For the rest of the verticals, it is the ‘specialized’ players who lead or dominate user preferences like Naukri, IRCTC, EBay, 99Acres, MoneyControl, ShareKhan, BharatMatrimony, Toorentz, Songs.pk, ESPNStar.
“25 to 35 years’ user segment grows further as the ‘single largest’ online age group. 9 out of 10 ‘home’ and ‘office’ based online Indians log on to the net ‘daily’ and almost half of all ‘home based’ net users are ‘heavy users’ of internet (spending >2 hours a day on weekdays). Less than 1 in 3 of them spend that kind time on other media. Net surfing is among top 3 favorite ‘indoor entertainment’ for 3 out of 4 of them and 9 out of 10 of them (86 per cent) use some ‘social media’ (networking, communities, blogs, tweets, reviews).
The India Online Landscape 2011 studies the online Indians and their net usage behavior and preferences. This year’s annual land survey was conducted between April 2011 to Mid June 2011 to profile and estimate ‘internet users’ in India. The survey covered ‘towns’ and ‘villages’ of all population strata in all the mainland states and union territories in India (covering all the key, and 80 of the total 88 regions in India as per latest classification by NSSO). Net usage dynamics, usage behavior and website preferences were captured from the ‘actual’ internet users in an online survey using Juxt’s own 180,000+ member Internet User Panel.
Source: http://www.techgig.com
E-commerce: The New Gold Rush
E-commerce is suddenly the in-thing and everyone wants to be a part of it, one way or the other. While the established players are talking about growing at more than 100% year on year for the next couple of years, very surprisingly people still in their planning stage are talking about reaching 10% of their total revenue through e-commerce in the first year of operations. In the e-commerce industry as a whole, Sales are increasing rapidly; new players are mushrooming daily and funding companies are pouring money as if there is no other industry with potential!
Let us have a look at some of the recent investments by Global Venture Funds in Indian e-commerce ventures
Online Apparel retailers – Myntra.com, Zovi.com, Exclusively.In, Yebhi.com (primarily shoes)
Deals and Group discounting – Snapdeal, Deals and you, Fashion & You.
Books to Electronics: Flipkart, Indiaplaza, Letsbuy, BuyThePrice
Baby and Maternity wear: Babyoye.com, Firstcry.com
Closed group exclusive discounting: Fashion & You. 99labels
Some Acquisitions: Chaupaati Bazaar by Future Group, SoSasta by Groupon, PicSquare by Infibeam
Newspapers, blogs and other media forms are talking endlessly about e-commerce being the next big thing. We have humungous numbers being spelt out daily, projecting the industry to grow @70% Y-o-Y to reach $ 10 Billion this financial year. The growth and revenue targets might really sound a tall order to the cynics, but let us compare the figures with some other regions of the world.
USA: $ 210 Billion (Amazon reached $32 Billion)
Western Europe: $120 Billion
Japan: No clear figure but clearly more than $ 100 Billion
China: $ 80 Billion (Taobao.com did $61 Billion and did $150 Million in a single promotional day)
Compared to these numbers, the $ 10 Billion suddenly looks very small. Especially considering that the size of internet users in India has crossed 100 Million, we are only talking about $100 per person in a year. This is less than the online payment it’d generate if it is assumed that half the internet users have broadband connection and they pay their monthly rental online. Or, everyone buys one electronic item a year. Or, only 10% buy their grocery online. Or, only 1% buy their grocery, apparel, tickets, electronics online. Now this number suddenly is dwarfed by the possibilities that the remaining 99% of the market presents.
So, it is very safe to assume that the next gold rush is in Indian E-commerce market. The earlier you jump onto it, the better prospects you have of making a fortune!
Order Online and Pick in store – A starting point for Indian retailers to start e Commerce
Is the Indian consumers still not matured for e Commerce and m Commerce retailing ? Well, the debate continues as the more traditional players still have a mindset that the Indian consumer is not ready but the people in second school of thought, believes they are ready.
It is definitely true to a certain extent, that Indian customer is willing to indulge for guaranteed supply like e-tickets, movie tickets etc. But he is wary, when it comes to delivery of products, as retailers have no clear policy and guarantee mechanism regarding fulfillment.
This can be resolved, if the retailers offer consumer with option of ordering it online and picking his packed items in stores would help to overcome this initial block in the mindset and would give them the needed confidence. Already this has started working, as consumers have the choice to buy on line and pick at the store using tenders like m-coupons etc.
As a consumer, this saves me time and gives me the convenience of filling my cart without the hassles of moving around in a crowed store, at my convenient time, may be in the night when the store is not even open. It saves me the time of waiting in queue at the billing counter.
The Indian consumer is a smart consumer and is ready to adopt new channel looking for more convenience, if he is given a safe try. The option of Order Online and Pick in store has all.
Indian retailers need to change their attitude to succeed, Indian consumer is ready to take risk once and give opportunity to online retailer.
Indian Mobile Commerce set to grow in leaps
Mobile commerce in India is gaining quite a bit of momentum, and why not. India currently boasts more than 200 million mobile subscribers growing at nearly 100% yoy. Online E-commerce is yet to catch up, but it also has started picking up pace.
With this kind of growth it is hardly a surprise that India’s largest mobile service provider – Bharti Airtel – is all set to join the M-Commerce bandwagon in a big way.
According to the latest news, Bharti will launch host of value-added services, primarily related to M-commerce applications.
The application includes a platform that allows both its prepaid and postpaid users to link their credit card, debit card or bank accounts to their mobile connection. (This facility has already been thrown open to its pre-paid users and Bharti subscriber can use this facility to top up or pay the bill of other cellular users also). Also on the cards is an extension of these M-commerce applications to allow customers pays their utility bills and also pay for their railway tickets and hotel rooms via their handsets.
Paymate is another mobile payment gateway that offer similar service to what Bharti plans to offer.Very recently, Magicbricks, one of the leading real estate portals came up with their mobile real estate portal.
There are also host of other M-Commerce application providers in India. However, with entry of Bharti in this arena, M-Commerce in India will take much bigger proportions. Remember, they already have more than 50 million strong subscriber base who are readymade customers for M-Commerce applications.
Source: trak.in
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