72% time spent online by Indians is planned, not spontaneous says the “Living With the Internet – What is Driving Web Behaviour” study. It is a joint study conducted by Microsoft Advertising, MEC and Mindshare to understand net usage trends among consumers across the world and help online marketers take advantage of and optimize their advertising strategy accordingly.
The study was conducted aross 11 countries viz, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom and the US simultaneously with 7,000 participants in the age range of 16 to 54 years. The study has revealed some interesting India specific facts.
As per the study, spontaneous activity has halved in India over the last two years. This trend is similar worldwide with 79% respondents confirming they planned activities for increased efficiencies. In Asia Japan tops the list with 89% closely followed by China at 76% and India at 72%. Only 16% of the net users have reported to spontaneously searching online for offline news or events.
The study has following findings for India specific online consumers:
- 49% communicate with others
- 35% seek information
- 22% seek entertainment i.e., music, video and gaming
- 14% blog or create digital content
- 12% transact online
The study also throws light on the fact that in India, net usage on smartphones is highest at 34% for primarily seeking info and content sharing. which is closely followed by notebook users at 33% which is done for transactions and entertainment. This finding certainly makes it necessary for advertisers to make smart ads which fit into a users experience, as consumers are increasingly getting more focused and its anyways technically difficult to create ads as well access these on most handheld devices like the smartphones and tablets.
Internet has also became one of the most sought after entertainment destination with 16-24 year olds mostly using the net to consume digital media in the form of songs, videos and online games.
With the users becoming more mature and focused and able to distinct ads from useful stuff its becoming increasingly difficult for marketers to market their products and services. The need of the hour for the online marketers is to involve the consumers with their brands online so that they can push their brand communications (read advertisements) across to the consumers easily and effectively.
I would leave you with the very interesting and informative info graphic below:
