"socially effective" movements are now in forefront of company's "image building" tasks

unlike "save our tiger" fake movement (one cant actually save the tigers in facebook / online but in "FOREST" !) by Aircel "ek jodi kapda" (one set of clothing for all) is working on ground.
good for all

Online Users in India and Their User Behavior- a report by India-Reports

India has witnessed an increase in the number of internet users. The behavior pattern of internet users can be ascertained with respect to different parameters, which include: users in metros, cities and rural areas, age group of population accessing internet, and purposes of accessing internet.
The surge in internet usage in small towns and rural India has been more than that in big cities and metros. In India, the youth drive internet usage. School and college going students along with young men contribute to 72% of internet activity. (Source IAMA Report – 2008-2009)
People use internet for various purposes, which include: email, information search, academic information search, music/video on internet, chatting, online job search, gaming, financial information search, booking railway tickets, online news, internet telephony/video chat/voice chat, and online banking.
Top ten sites viewed by Indians during 2009 include:
google.co.in
google.com
yahoo.com
facebook.com
blogger.com
youtube.com
orkut.co.in
rediff.com
wikipedia.org
orkut.com
Indians, being cautious buyers start online shopping with the purchase of railway or airline tickets. This is perceived as a safe bet due to uniformity of services to the buyers.
Reasons for Growth in Online Users in India.

It is predicted that by year 2015, around 65% of Indian population will be in the age group of 15-35 years. Since youth is an early adaptor of all technology, this seems to be a positive factor for the Indian eCommerce market.

Reasons for Growth in Online Users in India:

It is predicted that by year 2015, around 65% of Indian population will be in the age group of 15-35 years. Since youth is an early adaptor of all technology, this seems to be a positive factor for the Indian eCommerce market.
India has an added advantage of lowest broadband prices in the world, which is $4-$5 per month. This enhances the potential of online transactions.
Indian population has better adopted mobile phones as compared to internet. Thus, there is a huge potential of mCommerce in India. Mobile phones provide flexibility to users to connect to internet without having to find a place to plug in into the internet. The mobile penetration in India is expected to become 1 billion by 2014, which will further enhance the opportunities of mCommerce. Currently, there are about 440 million subscribers for mobile phones, which covers around 40% of the country’s population.
India has already started the efforts to provide biometric identity to all its citizens. This is equivalent to Social Security Number in the West. Having this unique identity in place, online financial transactions would become much safer as they can be easily tracked and subject to law.

Source: http://india-reports.in/uncategorized/analysis-of-the-online-user-behavior-in-india/

Youth Readership survey - A brief overview

Source: business today (http://www.businesstoday.in/) October 17,2010

Survey results, reported in the Financial Express, are:

1. India’s youth population grew at over 2% to 459 million in 2009 from 390 million in the 2001 census, while the literate youth population grew at a more rapid 2.5% to 333 million from 273 million. Growth was faster in urban India (3.15% a year) than in rural India (2.11%)

2. Of the country’s total youth population of 459 million, literate youth constitute around three-fourths, numbering 333 million. Literate youth in rural India number 207 million (62.1% of the total) and 126 million (or, 37.9%) in urban areas. A large proportion, over 41%, is in the older 25-35 age group, followed by teenagers (36.7%), with the rest in the 20-24 age bracket (22.1%).

3. Almost three-fourths (73%) of literate youth in the country are from schedule castes (22.7%), schedule tribes (9.8%) and other backward classes (40.3%), according to the survey. Currently, caste-based reservation in educational institutes stands at 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs.

4. Awareness of government flagship social schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is higher among rural youth compared to city dwellers.

5. Television emerges as the biggest media, with over 77% of the 333 million literate, or 259 million, youth exposed to it. Newspapers too are able to maintain their dominance, with over half (53%) of all literate youth, or 177 million, exposed to them. But in terms of preferred media for news & current affairs, newspapers win hands down, with around two-thirds (63.4%) selecting them compared with just a third (22.2%) for television.

6. Book readers (non-syllabus) number around 83 million (25% of literate youth), of which 39 million are in urban areas and 44 million in rural India.

7. Television emerges the biggest engager, with average time spent a day at over 97 minutes. Radio (61 minutes), magazines (44 minutes) and newspapers (32 minutes) lag far behind. Though the Internet reaches fewer than 4% of all youth (8% in urban areas), time spent with the medium is proportionately higher at over an hour a day (70 minutes), reflecting the medium’s stickiness.

8. Newspapers and the Internet share a high out-of-home exposure. Around half of all youth get to read a newspaper outside their homes, with shops/cafes/restaurants and neighbors as chief access points. Around two-thirds accessed the internet at cyber cafes and/or the workplace.

Interesting observation is the hour of engagement in internet (70 minutes) though the penetration is very slow (4%).

More informations at : http://ideasmarkit.blogspot.com/

National Readership Survey is available here: http://contentsutra.com/article/419-indian-readership-survey-r1-2009-some-highlights/

"petomania" is spreading into social activities

"I love animals" is spreading...and youth are mostly into loving street dogs and kittens...this trend is moving towards various social activities as mentioned below :

Source : The Hindu


Photo by Tanushree via FB

cycling is getting cooler

As I have mentioned earlier, cycling is becoming "cool" among the youth in India. A reference note:

Source: The Hindu

read more about cycling at : http://getahead.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/09/bicycling-a-new-lifestyle-choice-for-young-successful-indians.htm

"we are the blackberry boys": Blackberry is trying to go mass..in India

Blackberry is trying to become "everybody" phone in India (see this ad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZH4OysGZI&feature=related)...

“The blackberry boys” are an omnipresent phenomenon of “lucrative mass market greed” which is to dilute the value of this brand and to define its future (in India). A downfall from being elite to mass…as per my theory of adopted differentiation, even before blackberry gets the status of mass brand (blackberry farmers, blackberry autowalas…) the “elite class” will drop their bb in recycle bean and move to the next great phone (ie iphone or whatever comes as next big thing for elite)…BB is in India cause it already lost the status of elite phone in west (even Mr. Obama stated that he is NOT using BB anymore) due to its mass-greed and soon their fate will be same as Nokia( in India)...due to aggressive invasion of Samsung, Macromax and other brands in mass segment Nokia is almost dead in grassroots…and elite is not using Nokia cause their subordinates/ drivers/ maids use it...BB will follow this path…one can see BB mirrors/ clones are already available under various other brands (read this article)…
A product can’t cater to class and mass (other than staple foods and politics) in India and anyway BB wont be able to cater the grassroot needs.

at anencyafqs Pramil commented against the post : Drop your suits, sing and dance- The 'BlackBerry Boys' are the new craze in town "...as the brand grows there is always that temptation to make some more bucks by repositioning your brand and targeting the unconventional prospects. Many brands fall prey to it and most of them fail, because one thing in a human brain can occupy one association at a time, in most of the cases. Going against this basic law about how humans percieve and then act and react leads to so many failures in re-positioning attempts by brand managers across the globe.A very idealistic attempt that comes to my mind is the brand Lexus. After failing miserably to promote itself as a luxury car maker in the North American market, Toyota decided to create an anonymous brand, Lexus, which nowhere told anyone that it belongs to Toyota. It required sincere efforts in every aspect of the marketing function to create a brand that was no where connected to Toyota.Blackberry is trying to do something very "cheap" in terms of re-positioning a brand; just a communication facade and wrap up to enforce the Boy thing. It might give them some more boys and girls singing to their tune but more importantly and more likely, it can take away that loyal class of Executives which build the brand Blackberry.This is not at all an impressive move by the strategists and brand people at RIM."...in this article Rajiv Rao, national creative director, Ogilvy India (they created the ad), tells afaqs!, "I remember the look on the faces of the top executives in suits, sitting in business class age, having to share their seat with a young guy like me in a crumpled T-shirt and torn jeans. It was this feeling that was very similar to the BlackBerry phenomenon a few years ago - when getting a BB was like a big perk in the organisation."
"Today, besides the top executives, a lot of youngsters are using BlackBerry for various reasons. Inspired by this insight, we thought - how about getting these typical BB users singing a song about BB and themselves - and then letting a bunch of youngsters completely take over what was meant to be their stage, since they are the new users," Rao adds...
unfortunately, "a big perk in the organization @ BB is what RIM is....as a micro trend the product might become hot-cake among all the segments in India, but in long run BB will be dead within 5-6 years unless they really creep in their earlier status, which actually is impossible once the "downfall" happens...the best example is Reliance, who is perceived as "cheap" mass brand and they will never be able to become an elite...

Indian youth is changing the work place culture/customs in India

The Gen Next in India is changing the very notion of "being at office/work" as envisioned by the Gen "Grey".
Here's an article:

Source: Business Today, September 19,2010

Drug addiction is raising among the youth in Kashmir

Due to mental pressure, insecurity, frustration and physical abuse, the drug addiction is raising among the youth in Kashmir.
Here's a report from PTI

knockoff online games to lure the Indian youth

After the phenomenal popularity of Firmville among the youth in India the ‘knockoff’ games are floating in online gaming scene @ India… the quick survey got one reply among first 100 youth I had a chat: “simply crap! We hate copycats!”

"petomania" is growing among the youth in India

pets are becoming more important in the life of youth...online and offline.

An article about the pet industries in India can be read here

cycling is becoming "cool"

for more information about cycling clubs in India Bharani Shivakumar and Sarath Raju can be contacted in their facebook page :facebook page (Bharani), facebook page (Sarath Raju)

family is most important, then career

Unlike Canada, where [currently] happiness,compassion, integrity and optimism are most important than career( http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/295180) , Indian youth are more focused on family and career. They wants to "prove themselves" to their family and parents to become the best among all:

bisexualilty and youth in India

In "gen next" India, bisexuality is an "accepted" sexual trait.

Read this article: http://in.news.yahoo.com/248/20100907/1582/tnl-the-third-paradigm.html

Source: yahoo news

desi online games are ON!

after the hooping success of "earning pumpkins" and "gifting" in Firmville (late night "non adult" craze in Facebook among the youth in India) the Desi (with very Indian theme) online games are appearing in net.



Source: http://mu.ibibo.com/

more about Firmville: Yahoo answers
Desi and 'semi-desi' online games: http://www.kreeda.com/
http://www.gamekhel.com/

the "desi quest" is growing

as I have stated earlier, the "self confidence level" of "being desi" is growing rapidly among the youth of India and following the clue, a range of products are appearing with "indianized" features (...the new insignia for Rupee/ Indian currency is also one of these products; or else, why the hell the GOI will wake up to get a face for Indian currency after 60 years of independence!)...the Casio calculator with Indian comma marker and the Pine mobile with Hindi and Muslim Calendars are the latest add-ons in "desi quest" of youth in India.

Aniketh's comment

Avid blogger and SNS+gadget enthusiast Aniketh ( Aniketh D'souza) wrote in his blog "I believe and would recommend you going through this presentation by Kaustav Sen Gupta. All his presentation, his research has found relevance in what we see around these days. His insight into the youth of the nation is far advanced than any study conducted in India over the web."

the page capture:


You can reach Aniketh at Facebook or add him in Twitter (@anikethdsouza )

orkut is DEAD!

The "sentimental" value of Orkut (being the first SNS in India and a place to "meet long lost friends") seems to be vanishing...and the youth in India are leaving Orkut, finally!
see the below page capture:


Source: Orkut


Source: google insights

WHAT YOUTH THINK @ INDIA

I have asked " MP salaries are hiked! ok...but will their QUALIFICATIONS be hiked too?? what's ur say????? http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100820/818/tnl-government-okays-three-fold-salary-h.html"

the answers were :
"we al kno dt in India only salary cn rise fr politicians bt qualificatn cn nvr"
"Qualifications are rising everyday ....u r not paying enuf attention....cheating, frauds, lying thru their teeth, all of these & more are on a rise!!!"
"they have already got their bonus from common wealth games funds.then a salary hike too OMG !!"
"knw it ...its making news and still they are not happy with the 300% hike......anyways......50,000 is wat they will be gettin and still making mess of it...anyways this is wat they earn per hour un officially....corrupt indian dogs.......it will be better if they leave all this issues and strt wrking seriously on important matters of development"
"‎50,000/- plus free daily survival...most stuff starting from toothbrushes & ending to toilet tissues are state funded!!!"
"ask dem even to take dipers which they can use during never ending question hours nd .... which they are making crap out of it....every hour of the session cost more than a billion......."

Taken from my Facebook page

mobile internet is growing in India

The number of users who surf the internet on personal computers (desktops and laptops) may not have grown as fast as the industry expected it to. Innovative data plans offered by telecom operators, and reduction in prices of internet-enabled handsets are expected to make up for the gap with an increasing number of users surfing the net on their handsets.

The number of people hooked on to mobile internet in India, according to Google, now has more than doubled, from about 8-10 million in the beginning of the year 2009. The company says March-April last year was the inflation point in terms of traffic to Google Mobile, when it saw a four-fold increase in Google searches on mobiles.

“The year 2009 was big for us. We used to think that India is basically low-end mobile market with users having no appetite for data consumption over mobile. But towards the February and March timeframe in 2009, we started seeing a sudden spike in traffic in mobile Internet space. We analysed the data only to find that this is the real growth and the industry is growing,” says Alok Goel, product manager, Mobile, Google India.

This, despite the fact that the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) had recently estimated the number of mobile internet users to be around 2 million. Industry experts reason that there are a little over 500 million mobile phone subscribers in India and with the prices of internet-enabled handsets falling, the number of people who surf the internet on their mobiles presently hovers around the 10 million mark.

The low cost of a general packet radio service (GPRS)-ready mobile handset is a major factor which is driving growth. For instance, an internet-enabled handset costs at least Rs 5,000 almost a year ago. Today, a customer can buy a GPRS-enabled handset for as low as Rs 2,000.

Tata Docomo, a relatively-new entrant in the cellular market in India, says about 40-45 per cent of its subscribers have GPRS activated on the mobile connections “leading to healthy data usage”. “While it is still early days for us to put an annual growth figure given that we have been around for just over six months, data is one of the fastest growing revenue streams for us,” says Deepak Gulati, President, Tata Docomo.

The company sees mobile internet usage happening for messaging, e-mail, social networking and entertainment. “Social networking is one of the fastest-growing areas and mobile Internet fits perfectly into the scheme of things as it allows friends to remain in constant touch irrespective of the time or their location,” adds Gulati.

Most cellular operators that are seeing a huge traction in the mobile internet user base, say that the plans being offered to subscribers have also become a major factor driving mobile internet usage. Cellular operators like Airtel, Tata Docomo, Aircel have introduced innovative data plans to help users get unlimited access to data for less than Rs 100 per month.

Aircel’s pocket Internet cards, for instance, are available for just Rs 98 per month (the company also offers a 3-day plan for Rs 14) and give unlimited browsing, gaming, music. In fact, before launching its campaign in traditional media, Aircel used the Facebook to launch the campaign for pocket Internet card since the purpose was to communicate the message to the youth first. “We are the first to democratise the product (mobile Internet). We have nearly 31 million subscribers now across 18 circles of which a significant number of subscribers use pocket Internet,” an Aircel spokesperson said.

Soon after Aircel introduced pocket Internet card in May 2009, Google saw a “50X increase in Internet usage on Google Mobile by Aircel customers”, according to Goel.

India’s number one cellular service provider Airtel, too, offers data plans at Rs 95 a month. The company is seeing significant increase in mobile Internet users in rural area because of the lack of proper broadband connectivity there. Recently, Tata Docomo has launched a monthly pack for Rs 48 with a 30-day validity and 100 MB data transfer limit during the day and 2GB data transfer during night. The company has now customised GPRS packs which allow customers to get unlimited Internet access for Rs 5 per day.

“Most of these plans are non-confusing with no hidden charges which seems to have done away with the fear among the users on the cost associated with browsing the Internet on mobile,” says Rutvik Doshi, product manager at Google India. He said the devices are also becoming cheaper and smart phones are available in the Rs 7,000-10,000 price point which has made the consumers affordable to but them.

“The trend of using mobile phones for Internet access has already started picking up and we will only see this trend grow manifold when 3G services are launched,” adds Gulati of Tata Docomo.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/mobile-internet-usage-onroll-in-india/386465/

71 Million People Claimed to have used Internet in 2009!

71 million people claimed to have used internet in 2009 according to the Internet in India [I-Cube] Report published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] and market research leader IMRB .

71 million people claimed to have used internet in 2009 according to the Internet in India [I-Cube] Report published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] and market research leader IMRB here today.

Active users, those who use internet at least once a month according the international standards of reckoning, rose from 42 million in September 2008 to 52 million in September 2009 according to the study, registering a year on year growth of 19%. The 'claimed users' is an important category for understanding future trends in active user base.

This surge in number has been primarily due to the increased numbers of the users in the remote urban pockets (small metros and towns) and among lower socio-economic classes (SEC C, D &E). This development has been more striking this year as the combined usage of these geographies and classes have overtaken top cities and higher socio-economic classes in numbers.This finding clearly indicates that the Internet has reached to remote masses in urban India.

The report further states that Internet usage has gone up from 9.3 hrs/week to 15.7 hrs/week i.e. a steep 70% rise. The reason can be attributed to innovative content delivery, better applications and its increased use for entertainment purposes, which comprises downloading music or videos, socializing through social networking sites and expressing one's own opinions and views through micro-blogging and user-generated content sites.

Youth continues to drive the surge in Internet use and form major portion of the total users. Among youths, the Internet is primarily being used for searching general information and for entertainment.

Commenting on the report, IAMAI president Subho Ray said: "While we are happy to note while people in the smaller towns are taking to internet seriously, for a deeper engagement we need to provide them the best innovations in the language of their choice, at an access cost that does not pinch and through a device that they have. Only then this engagement is going to be sustainable."
Source: http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/internet/2010040547312.htm