Global social networks show dramatic Indian growth

Recent research shows India's PC users are increasingly creating social networks. With PC and broadband penetration improving expect social networking to grow.

Express growth

Supporting Nielsen's conclusion that globally, social networking is now more popular than email, digital marketing intelligence agency comScore conclude that visitors to the website category grew 51% - to 19 million - in the twelve months up to December 2008.

Low engagement and penetration

Research also highlights most popular global networking sites and their growth over 12-month period (see table 1). Despite impressive India growth figures, findings show below average penetration and engagement compared with other markets across the Asia Pacific Region (see table 2).

Formula for Indian success

Will Hodgman, executive vice president at comScore identifies the key ingredients to success in India, "Sites with the right blend of strong brand and cultural relevance will be best positioned for future growth."

Tipping point

While penetration and engagement is below average for the region, India shows signs of being at a social networking tipping point, especially as laptop penetration grows.

3 significant signs suggest that popularity will accelerate.

• Illustrating the fact that the business community want to better understand the power of online networking, this week saw the "India Social Media Summit 2009" held in Mumbai; widely believed to be the first of its kind.
• Current global economic difficulties and resultant impact on employment opportunities are likely to create a trend that will see professionals proactively build wide reaching social networks.
• Although anecdotal, anyone using Twitter - estimated global growth of 900% over last 12 months - will be aware of its increasing popularity in India, a passionate Indian community is utilizing the service, this is set to increase.

March 29, 2009 Add a comment