India remains second-largest internet market

Brands in India tap online influencers

GLOBAL: China is by far the largest internet market in the world with 721m users, but India has now overtaken the US to become the world’s second largest market with 333m, according to a new report from the United Nations.

India also recently overtook the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world, with an estimated 260m mobile broadband subscriptions, said the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.

The UN report, entitled "The State of Broadband 2016", also confirmed that the top  10 countries for household internet penetration are all located in Asia or the Middle East. South Korea continues to have the world’s highest household internet penetration, at 98.8%, followed by Qatar (96%) and the United Arab Emirates (95%).

Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for nearly half (48%) of all active mobile broadband subscriptions with Singapore (142 subscriptions per 100 people) second only to Finland (144) in the world. However, European countries lead the world in terms of the highest percentage of individuals using the internet and also the extent of fixed broadband penetration.

Iceland (98.2%) continues to have the highest percentage of individuals who use the internet, closely followed by Luxembourg (97.3%), while six out of the top seven nations where fixed broadband penetration exceeds 40% are all European, with South Korea the only non-European country among them.

In total, the report revealed that there are now 91 countries where over 50% of the population is online. The top ten for internet use in 2014 were all located in Europe, but now Bahrain (#7) and Japan (#9) have joined the top group.

The report went on to forecast that India and Indonesia will drive the future growth of internet penetration, but it found that an estimated 3.9bn people around the world are still not using the internet.

Just six nations – China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria – account for 55% of the total global population that is still offline and the UN put this down to the sheer size of their populations.

"These findings suggest that targeted efforts in just a few key markets could help enormously in redressing the gaping 'digital divide' between those who are online and those still offline," the report said.

While India may have overtaken the US in terms of internet population, the value of its online ad market is still 20 times smaller, according to Warc's Global Ad Trends. In India, marketers are turning to the power of online influencers in India as internet penetration increases and young Indians spend more time on their phones than ever.

Although social media access remains low in India compared to other markets – just 13% of the total population use Facebook and 7% use Instagram – the sheer size and spending power of India's more educated millennial generation offers compelling reasons for brands to look towards online influencers.

Kunal Sinha, an expert in consumer trends, examined the role of India's influencers and their social media behaviour in an exclusive Warc report: How Colgate, Philips and Durex Do Influencer Marketing in India.

Brands must carefully consider who they partner with to have the most positive effect, he said, and that means an influencer who enjoys popularity with the target audience, as well as being a good fit for the brand.

Philips understood that requirement in order to make their home appliance products popular on the subcontinent. The Dutch firm realised it needed an Indian touch, both in terms of the recipes featured and talent.

After discovering most recipe content was Western-oriented, Philips roped in one of India's most popular YouTube chefs, Sanjay Thumma, to create a six-month long branded show, called Philips SuperChef, on his own cookery channel VahChef. In each episode, he showed viewers how to cook a dish using the Philips Airfryer. With over 330,000 subscribers, this was a captive audience. And after every episode, Thumma also posted the recipe episodes on his Facebook page.

The outcome of engaging Sanjay Thumma for Philips was outstanding, Sinha said, because average monthly keyword searches for Philips Airfryer jumped by 1292%, and year-on-year sales grew by 266%.

Elsewhere, a survey by influencer found that most online influencers are millennials aged between 20 and 40, and blogging is seen as a full-time career for those participating. The most popular category of blogging and micro-blogging is lifestyle and fashion, followed by travel, food, entertainment, healthcare and technology.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the most popular channels, with Instagram being more popular among India's fashion and food influencers. (Data sourced from United Nations; additional content by Warc staff)