Social media overtakes personal email use for Indians

Social media has now become a huge part of everyday life for a majority of Indians who spend time online to the point that they spend more time checking updates than they do using personal email.

According to a study on social media usage by The Nielsen Company conducted in collaboration with AbsolutData, nearly 30 million Indians who are online are members of social networking sites and about two-thirds of them spend time on these social networking sites daily.

This shows an overwhelming opportunity for brands to take advantage of social media rather than spamming users with emails, which are mostly considered spam by users. This is in contrast to social media, where having a social media presence, according to Neilsen VP Adrian Terron, denotes innovation, customer friendliness, and a sense of ‘cool.’

Social media is rapidly gathering momentum. Based on the current rate of growth and the intention of online Indians to participate in social media, the study estimates that over the next six months 45,000 online Indians intend to join social networking sites each day.
As Terron puts it, “brands should only ignore this aspect at their own peril.”