Dealerships and auto-exhibitions are no longer the exclusive hang-out zones of auto-enthusiasts for they are now increasingly googling their queries and populating the web-space. A report by search engine Google shows that Indian consumers were ahead of US and Europe in using the internet to research car and bikes in 2010. Web searches related to auto grew faster than those for travel, consumer electronics and finance.
According to the report, vehicle shopping queries accounted for 49 per cent of all auto related queries on Google.
The entry and mid-segment cars in the price range of Rs 2-6 lakh are the most searched while the SUVs were the second most searched category followed by luxury cars. Search queries for bikes saw over 96 per cent in query volumes in 2010.
Maruti was the most searched car OEM’s brand and Hero Honda was the most searched bike brand. The most searched car launches between Jan 2010 to May 2010, were of Maruti Alto K10, Ford Figo and Hyundai i10-next gen.
“We have seen over 150 per cent growth in revenues from the auto sector in 2010 and we expect the share of auto advertising spends on digital to grow significantly in the next few years,” Mr. Rajan Anandan, Vice President (sales and operations), Google India told reporters here. “Online marketing is a Rs 1000 crore industry growing at 50 per cent year on year,” he added.
According to the report mobile searches for auto related queries grew at over 300 per cent in 2010. Search queries for diesel cars saw 52 per cent growth in April to May 2011 when petrol fuel prices increased by Rs 5 per litre.
“Digital is a crucial part of our communications and we aim to harness its power for favourable opinion and sales conversion. We allocated seven per cent of our marketing budget to digital, for Figo launch”, said Mr. Nigel Wark, Executive Director (Marketing, Sales and Service), Ford India.
The report also revealed that Indians are more research oriented when it comes to auto related purchases, with 65 percent of the Indians using the internet as the first place to do their research. Only 62 per cent of the internet users in mature markets like US and Europe use internet as first stop.
The auto vertical witnessed tremendous growth in online searches registering 110 per cent and 84 per cent growth in 2009 and 2010 respectively on Google search. The trend continues to show fast paced growth this year with auto category showing a growth of 72 per cent in the first six months of 2011, over the same period last year.
Bikes : Bike related queries grew at 96 per cent in 2010, the report said. Premium bikes i.e 150 cc plus segment registered 90 per cent year-on-year growth, in terms of query volumes, from January 2010-May 2011, compared to a year-ago period. Deluxe i.e bikes in 125 cc to 150 cc are the fastest growing category registering 193 per cent growth in query volumes.