India: How It Is Placed In Digital Age

In last two days, I have got to read two very interesting, somewhat related but yet very distant to each other news about digital landscape of India. Let me start with the softer and smaller one, which will play a role of catalyst in connecting entire India through internet. Information Technology department of Government of India is working out a plan to two hundred and fifty thousand telecentres (internet enabled service kiosks) in every panchayat (Local governing body at village level) by 2012 for providing railway reservation, weather and agriculture related information to the rural populace. At present, there 94000 such telecentre in the country. This will not only help a great way in providing transparent information at the ground level to the rural people, but also fuel the consumption of newer products and services and pave way for inclusive growth. Further, this will also change the thought process and personality of consumers out there, because they will be exposed to information, products and services, which were so far limited to their urban counterparts.

Next news is on more relevant topic to us, i.e., social media.  Its use in India is on the meteoric rise and the numbers are proving it. Recently concluded IPL Season-4 saw a campaign run by NOKIA for Kolkata Knight Riders owned by movie star Shahrukh Khan. According to NOKIA officials, their campaign “KKR-Tension Mat Le Yaar”, invited users to suggest ways to reduce stress and tension to KKR players, received more than two hundred thousand entries. HUL’s Facebook page Axe Angels for eponymous deodorant has 1.6 million members within a year of its launch. Coca Cola’s latest launch, music property Coke Studio has 1,07,000 fans on the Coke Studio @ MTV Facebook page without a single song released till now.

These numbers are also being supported by the expenditure on social and online media. Medison Media estimates that, in 2010, internet advertisement ( excluding search) was Rs.6.8 Billion, which is expected to climb to Rs.9.17 Billion in 2011. Online advertisement grew 50% in 2010. In contrast, overall TV advertising spend was Rs. 105.3 Billion in 2010 and expected to increase to Rs.126 billion by this year. According to online portal Webchutney’s digital media outlook report, FMCG, which accounts for 42% of the overall ad spend in the country, spends 9% of it online.   

Both the news is heart warming. One is of taking India more closer to complete digitalization and other is making best use of it. A Nielson company report suggests that 30 million online consumers are members of social networking sites and 20 million of these spend time on it daily and Indian spend more time on social media then they do checking personal mails.  These numbers clearly indicates where we are headed for. As these telecentres are going  to change the digital landscape on India, social media is going to change the marketing communication landscape. It is going to be really huge.