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InMobi has released a survey revealing nuances of mobile internet usage patterns in India. The survey was conducted at IIT School of Management and surveyed 205 college-aged consumers. Although a very specific sample group, the results do offer some insight into India’s youth generation who make up the largest population sector in the country.
According to the survey, fifty-seven percent (57%) of respondents browse the internet on their mobile phones, and close to one-third of respondents who surf the Internet through their mobile phones engage with brands that advertise. Of whose who engaged with the ads, they were most likely to visit the ad’s website (72.5%) but also went so far as to call the company (10%), or buy the product (17.5%).
Survey results also showed that the college-aged consumers are equally interested in almost all genres of mobile advertising, as long as the advertisements have something significant to offer and do not interfere with the mobile browsing experience. Among ads, those most welcomed are fast free coupons, free mobile games with embedded unobtrusive ads, money transfer services, free humorous clips and Bluetooth-based “alerts” for items on sale nearby.
Mobile internet usage broke down in the following way:
India is currently the second largest mobile market in the world after China, and nearly 10 to 12 million mobile subscribers are added monthly in the country. (Source: VitalAnalytics)
The country’s largest cities have the highest mobile Internet usage; however, many small to midsized towns such as Meerut, Aligarh, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Kota, Hassan and Trivandrum generated almost a fourth of the mobile browsing traffic.
Mobile internet browsing is also spread across income groups of those with mobile phones. Specifically, 20% of the respondents who access the Internet on their mobile phones are from the working class demographic, 38% are from the lower middle class and 42% are from the upper middle class. This data shows that mobile Internet usage is not limited to only the upper middle class.
Mobile is clearly becoming a mass medium in India – having extended out from only the most affluent individuals in the very largest metropolitan areas. In addition, Airtel is the clear leader in terms of the percentage of respondents browsing the Internet on their mobile phones. Reliance is the only service provider where less than 50% of the respondents browse the internet, most likely because Reliance phones are not used frequently for value-added services.
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
