Study to evaluate employee value
proposition for a
leading banking back
office.
Study to understand the IM/ chatting users for a leading media company.
Bench marking usability studies for a leading travel portal based on actual user evaluations.
MOST PREFERRED WEBSITES
June 10th, 2007
Yahoo is the most recalled online brand but Google is the most used
Internet usage in India continues to grow at a slow but steady pace, both in ‘spread’ and ‘depth’. If there are no visible signs of any sweeping or far-reaching growth on the horizon yet, there are no indications of any slowdown either.
The overall internet population in urban India has grown by a healthy 28% between April 2006 and April 2007 to reach 30.32 million now.
Of the total 30.32 million urban internet users, 25.17 million (83%) are the ‘regular’ users who log on at least once a month and the balance 5.15 million (17%) are the ‘occasional’ users who use the internet with a lesser frequency than that. From a practical point of view, 20 million internet users are on the net daily
Yahoo once again emerges as the most top of mind recalled online brand of all with 30% of all online Indians recalling it as the first online brand coming to their minds. However, when it comes to actual usage it is Google which emerges the frontrunner with 29% of all internet users preferring to use Google the most among all websites.
However, at the overall level it is neither Yahoo nor Google but Orkut which shows the best recall-to-usage conversion ratio of 1.76.
Table 1: Overall Popularity of Websites (Top 10)
Rank
Website
Top of Mind Recall(2007)
Top of mind Recall(2006)
Website Usage(2007)
Usage/Recall Ratio (2007)
1
Yahoo
29.80
35%
26.60%
0.89
2
Google
27.20%
21%
29.30%
1.08
3
Rediff
11.50%
15%
10.90%
0.95
4
Orkut
4.50%
1%
7.90%
1.76
5
Gmail
2.90%
-
3.90%
1.34
6
Hotmail
1.60%
5%
1.50%
0.94
7
Indiatimes
1.00%
5%
0.90%
0.90
8
Contest2win
0.60%
-
0.30%
0.50
9
MSN
0.50%
4%
0.40%
0.80
10
Nakuri
0.50%
1%
0.50%
1.00
In terms of specific online activities, both Yahoo and Google emerge as the most popularly used websites for 14 of the 23 popular online activities surveyed (7 each).
Online Activity
Top Website
%Prefer to Use
YoY Increase
Emailing
Yahoo
53%
16%
Instant Messaging
Yahoo
63%
-
Info Search - English
Google
75%
-2%
Info Search - Languages
Google
74%
-
Job Search
Nakuri
37%
-13%
Online Travel
Makemytrip
17%
7%
Yatra
16%
16%
Online Shopping
Ebay
34%
-4%
Online News
Yahoo
14%
4%
NDTV
12%
-1%
Financial News & Info
Google
13%
1%
Moneycontrol
13%
3%
Online Share Trading
ICICI Direct
36%
-
Real Estate Info
Google
17%
-
Magicbricks
14%
-
Matrimonial Search
Bharatmatrimony
29%
-4%
Shaadi
28%
-5%
Dating/Friendship
Orkut
36%
32%
Social Networking
Orkut
64%
-
Online Games
Yahoo
18%
-13%
Zapak
17%
17%
Mobile Content
Yahoo
14%
-8%
Rediff
12%
-10%
Online Music
Raaga
22%
5%
Sports Content
Espnstar
29%
5%
Cinema Content
Yahoo
11%
-2%
Astrology
Yahoo
22%
-2%
Online Education
Google
34%
-
Local Language Content
Google
12%
-
Blog Site
Google
21%
-
Yatra, Orkut, Magicbricks and Zapak are the biggest success stories this year, gaining significant popularity in usage on preferred basis. The 4 websites have not only become popular but have almost reached no. 1 or no. 2 positions in their respective activity categories.
Yatra has gained 17% usage over last year to have become one of the most popular travel websites along with Makemytrip.com which retains its top slot. Magicbricks in the real estate space and ICICI Direct in the online trading space have been the biggest gainers as well. Zapak has also done well for itself in the online gaming vertical with 17% user preference.
Orkut’s infiltration in the Indian online space continues. The Google owned community has gained market lead with 64% usage preference in the social networking category and has 36% usage preference as a dating/friendship site.
Shaadi and Bharatmatrimony continue to fight it out in the online matrimonial space but both have lost preferred usage share compared to last year’s findings.
Further details on the methodology of the study, evaluation criteria used, and calculation of the user-friendly index of websites can be checked out at www.juxtconsult.com .
For more information on JuxtConsult, visit www.juxtconsult.com
For More Information on ‘India Online 2006- The Brimming Melting Pot’:
Contact: Nidhi Dewan nidhi@juxtconsult.com
Ph: +91.9811973230
