Previous studies on the subject have provided mixed results. Iffort proved that Twitter has gained a significant foothold within the Indian business community, however, research by ASSOCHAM showed a general lack of understanding about the subject.

India Inc leads the way

Over 15,000 respondents from the Regus global contacts database were interviewed for the purpuses of their study. Regus found that India tops their social networking activity index, 52% of Indian businesses have successfully won business using social networks, followed by Mexico (50%), Spain (50%) and Netherlands (48%).

Indian social network user numbers

Given the fact that India has 600 million wireless subscribers - and 9 million broadband users - it isnt surprising to find that India is maximising the use of online communications, especially when you consider the country's growing economy.

Gupshup (Hindi for Chatter) has over 25 million members, Orkut 18 million, Facebook 16 million and Bharatstudent.com 3.3 million.

Social networking usage in India

In India, 32% of businesses have a marketing budget assigned for social networking activities, compared to 27% globally.

71%, compared to 51% globally declared that they primarily use social networks to manage and connect to customer groups. And 67% of companies use social networking to source information compared to the 54% global average.

Madhusudan Thakur of Regus comments:

"The survey has revealed that social networking has finally become a mainstream business tool. While the most popular function of these networks remains that of keeping in touch with contacts, businesses are also acquiring new customers, supporting their retention efforts and interacting with customer groups".

Making the most of sizable business opportunities

The findings of the survey prove that Indian business is adopting and successfully utilising all available online communications tools. The findings also indicate that organisations who have failed to tap into the world of social networking are missing out on significant business opportunities.