Internet Market in India

JuxtConsult an Online research firm is the latest to release a report about Internet in india. The report is titled "India Online 2008" and is based on an on-ground survey conducted in March in 12,500 households in 40 cities of all population sizes, and 4,000 households in 160 villages across all socioeconomic classes. The Internet usage, online behavior and site preferences were collated from 15,000 Internet users through an online survey conducted in April.

Some of the things that caught my eye was that only 28% people prefer to read in English when online and 65% users use Google for local language searches which show that there is a scope for regional languages on the web. Another out of the way info was that Rediff was used by 19% users for renting a movie cd which surprised me that there was such a market in India. Just a disclaimer that with a sample size of 15000 it is very brave to make predictions about millions and so take the report with a pinch of salt but it can still help you to make some decisions.
Excerpts (via afaqs)

No of Internet users in India:

It claims that there are 49 million Internet users in India, of which 40 million are in urban cities. Of these, 35 million are regular Internet users who log on at least once a month. Around 25 million Internet users are online daily.

Demographics & Choice of Language of Indian Internet users

The report shows that 77 per cent of the Internet users are in the age group of 19-35 years, 51 per cent are salaried employees in corporate houses and 30 per cent live in metros. Surprisingly, only 28 per cent of the respondents said they prefer to read in English when online.

Most Popular Internet Activities of Indian internet user

According to report most popular activities online are emailing (91 per cent), job search (72 per cent) and instant messaging (70 per cent). Other popular activities are checking news and sports, downloading music and movies, and checking cricket scores.

Internet Brands & Top of Mind Recall

Among the brands surveyed by JuxtConsult, Google predictably has the highest top of mind recall, at 36.6 per cent, followed by Yahoo! at 31.5 per cent and Rediff at a distant 7 per cent. In terms of usage, Google is used by 28 per cent of the respondents, and Yahoo is used by 27.6 per cent of them. Rediff and Gmail follow with 8.6 per cent usage each.

Online Activities on Indian Websites
JuxtConsult also surveyed the most used websites for specific online activities.

• According to the report, Yahoo! is most used for email (51 per cent users), instant messaging (53 per cent), online news (16 per cent), net telephony (25 per cent), astrology (25 per cent), cinema (14 per cent) and mobile content (12 per cent).
  
  
• Google is the most used website for information search in English (81 per cent), search in local languages (65 per cent), real estate (23 per cent) and online learning or education (32 per cent).
  
  
• Orkut is the most used website for friendship and dating (54 per cent), sharing pictures (38 per cent), social networking (66 per cent) and professional networking (44 per cent).
  
  
• Among the other activities, Naukri is used by 42 per cent of the respondents for job search. Yatra is most used for travel (18 per cent), Zapak is most used for games (32 per cent) and eBay is most used for online shopping (33 per cent).
  
  
• In the financial vertical, Moneycontrol is accessed by 18 per cent of the users for financial news and information, while ICICI Direct is used by 31 per cent users for online share trading.
  
  
• Bharatmatrimony is most used (36 per cent) in online matrimony, YouTube is most used for video sharing (43 per cent) and Cricinfo is used by 19 per cent of the users for sports. Raaga is the website most used for music (17 per cent), while Rediff is used by 19 per cent of the users for buying or renting a movie CD.