The Hindu Business Line : `Net is used as much for e-mail as for info'

Why would you surf the Net? Just to look up your mails and chat? While E-mails still continue to be the most popular application across all segments - old and young, the rising innovations in the content space has stirred up the curiosity of active Net users.

The Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has in its recent report noted that the primary drivers of Internet traffic was no longer e-mail and Chat but for sourcing information and in research.

Currently, over 30 per cent of active Internet users rely on the Net for information against just about 20 per cent five years back. New innovations in the content space, especially in the form of online ticketing, Weblogs, product information and preview sites, are said to have triggered the traffic coupled with the quest for getting hold of the maximum information from the Net.

IAMAI conducted a survey across 26 cities among 16,500 households covering 65,000 individuals, 10,000 business and 250 cyber cafes. The Internet in India (I-Cube) study was jointly undertaken by IAMAI and IMRB International.

Findings revealed that out of the 13.2 million active Internet users there were about 11.6 million e-mail users, 2.4 million e-commerce users and around 7.5 million Chat users. Thirty-two per cent of the active Internet users use `search' as their primary application.

The association perceives that the glamour of chat was fading even amongst the college goers, with information search emerging as the second most prominent reason for surfing the Net.

Further, the number of users accessing the Net primarily for entertainment has recorded impressive growth although its share has not risen above the 10-per cent mark.

The online transactional applications (e-commerce) has witnessed a steady growth.

According to the President of IAMAI, Dr Subho Ray, "the growth of information, transaction and entertainment points to the fact that the active Internet users spend quality time, looking for content-based platforms. While communication tools such as e-mail and chat would bring new users to this medium, the mature ones have forward looking for information and doing transaction over the Net.'

The growing popularity of applications like P2P, preview sites, streaming video etc is expected to further change the Internet dynamics. Mumbai leads the pack, with 3.24 million users and 2.6 million active users, followed by Delhi with 2.66 and 1.80 million, users and active users respectively.

Kolkata has far more active Net users than some of the tech centres such as Bangalore and Hyderabad.

User proportion

The I-Cube study further reveals that in terms of access points, the proportion of users accessing from home is the highest in Hyderabad and lowest in Pune. The proportion of users accessing from offices is the highest in Mumbai and the lowest in Hyderabad. Cyber cafes continue to be the most important access point in Pune and Bangalore.

Among the various towns, cyber cafes continue to serve as access points to 50 per cent of users in non-metros.

Proportion of users accessing Internet mainly for jobs, matrimony and e-commerce is highest in Kolkata, followed by Ahmedabad and Pune.

Proportion of internet users accessing internet mainly for financial or business information is significant in Mumbai and Pune.

The proportion of users accessing the Internet for information search is significant in non metros. Almost 40 per cent of Internet users are school/ college going students. Lack of availability and accessibility of reliable sources for information is driving users in non-metros towards Internet, mainly for education.

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