Youths guide India's net, mobile boom

Riding high on youth power, India is world's fastest growing cellphone and Internet market, reports Lalit K Jha.

Fuelled by youth power, India is not only the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, but also its Internet density is increasing very fast, resulting in a host of companies jostling to find a share.

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"In fact, it (internet and mobile market density) is multiplying very frequently," Nilesh Modi, co-author of 'Face of the Web' study told HindustanTimes.com in an interview.

The 'Face of the Web' study is said to be the most authoritative international study of consumers and the Internet. The study was carried out in 12 countries including India.

One in five adults in urban India is a net-buff. Interestingly, nearly two-thirds of the web-browsers are either bachelor or not married. "This is the maximum for any country," said Modi, also a senior research manager at the Chicago-based Ipsos-Insight.

Ipsos-Insight is the flagship marketing research division of Ipsos in the United States. Ipsos is a leading global survey-based market research group, which conducts research in more than 100 countries.

The pattern of Internet usage also reflects that it is mostly dominated by the younger generation. "One in five internet users in India have purchased a product online. However, close to half of them have either sent or received digital pictures or video," Modi said.

Even though, downloading of music in India, which is very popular in other developing countries, is in a very nascent stage, it has one of the strongest online music listening populations. "Two of the three internet users in India are engaged in this activity. This is only second to South Korea and China," Modi said.

Referring to the fact that half of the households in urban India owned a mobile phone and that in the past two years, India has been the fastest growing mobile phone markets in the world, Modi said instant messaging and SMS have been jumping manifold over the past few years.

Of the 12 countries studied — urban Brazil, Canada, urban China, France, Germany, Japan, urban Mexico, urban Russia, South Korea, the UK, and the US - urban India has posted the highest 500 per cent growth rate in sending and receiving pictures using a mobile phone.

"The country has also experienced the highest growth in downloading ring tones on their mobile phone, with one in four having downloaded a ring tone on their mobile phone," he said, referring to the study.

With most households in India owning a single mobile phone, Modi said there was no opportunity for the companies to present family plans to encourage multiple mobile phone ownerships.

Modi observed that wireless phones and cables would drive significant technological changes in India - a country that leads the globe in cable television market. "This presents an enormous opportunity for broadband internet connectivity via cable," he said.

For India, he said, wireless Internet access through a mobile device may not be complimentary to wired access, but rather a mobile device may in fact become the primary access point, potentially through Internet-enabled mobile phones, jumping many phases of the technology evolution curve experienced by users of wired PCs.

"The logic is simple. Why invest on colossal wired networks and equipment that are increasingly being substituted in developed nations for cost and utility benefits far outweighed by wireless offerings. Also, the hardware costs associated with a mobile phone or handheld device will likely be more economical than a PC, which will fuel expansion outside urban areas of developing countries," he said.