Google websites have been ranked as the top web destinations in India for June 2012, reaching nearly 95% of the Internet population in India, according to a Media Metrix study by comScore. The report also states that Indian Internet consumers spend nearly 25.2% of their online minutes in social networking activities.

Methodology: The company says that this study was compiled from an audience of 61 million aged 15 and older accessing the Internet from a home and work computer, however it doesn’t include visits from Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants).

Editor’s Note: Readers should bear in mind that, in private, some publishers have questioned the authenticity Comscore data despite their site being tagged.

Top online destinations: According the report, Google sites (Google.com, YouTube, Gmail, Maps etc) registered 57.8 million visitors out of 61 million as of June 2012, followed by Facebook which had 50.9 million visitors, accounting for 83.4% of the Indian Internet population, and Yahoo! sites which reached 39.9 million visitors, accounting for 65.5% of the Indian Internet population. Microsoft sites stood at the fourth place with 29.3 million visitors (48.1% reach) while Wikimedia Foundation sites took the fifth place with 21 million visitors (34.5% reach). Ask Network which had rolled out a dedicated India site earlier this year, has registered 15.8 million visitors during the month with 25.9% reach.

While the report had data from June 2012, Kedar Gavane, Director, comScore India also revealed numbers for July 2012, in a following live webinar conducted by the firm. He said that Google sites had recorded 59.7 million visitors during the month, a 39% increase from 42.8 million visitors in July 2011 while Facebook had recorded 52.1 million visitors, up 47% from 35.3 million visitors in July 2011 and Yahoo sites had recorded 40.3 million visitors, up 9% from 36.9 million visitors in July 2011. One interesting entry into the charts was that of BitTorrent sites which recorded 20.2 million visitors, up 35% from 14.9 million visitors in July 2011.

Top local web destinations: Times Internet Limited* was the highest ranked local web property in June 2012, with 20.5 million visitors and 33.7% reach, followed by Network 18 sites which recorded 17.8 million visitors and 29.3% reach, Rediff India Ltd which recorded 15.3 million visitors and 25.2% reach and National Informatics Centre (NIC) sites which recorded 13.3 million visitors and 21.8% reach.

In a webinar, Gavane stated that Times Internet Limited had recorded 22.6 million visitors in July 2012, up 42% from 15.9 million visitors in July 2011, while Network18 recorded 19.3 million visitors during the month, up 19% from 16.2 million visitors in July 2012 and Rediff recorded 15.2 million visitors, down 6% from 16.2 million visitors in July 2012.

Average Minutes per visitor: Social networking portal Facebook was the most engaging destination in June 2012, with an average of 224.9 minutes per visitor, followed by Google sites which recorded an average of 155.3 minutes per visitor. comScore noted that YouTube accounted a majority share of the time spent on the property although it didn’t disclose any specific information for it.

Besides that, Yahoo! sites recorded an average of 63.3 minutes per visitor, Microsoft sites recorded an average of 19.8 minutes per visitor and Wikimedia Foundation sites recorded an average of 11.1 minutes per visitor. The aggregate average minutes per visitor stood at 772.5 minutes per visitor.

Among the local web properties, Network18 was the most engaging property in June 2012, recording an average of 31.6 minutes per visitor followed by Rediff India Ltd which recorded an average of 28.3 minutes per visitor, NIC sites which recorded an average of 23.6 minutes per visitor and Times Internet Limited which recorded an average of 16.9 minutes per visitor.

Top Online Categories:

– Social Networking was the top online category for the month, accounting for 25.2% of all time spent online, a marginal 0.8% increase from 24.4% in June 2011.

– This was followed by Entertainment category which accounted for 10% of all time spent online, up 1.2% from 8.8% in June 2011 and web Portals which accounted for 8.8% of all time spent online, down 2.6% from 11.4% in June 2011.

– Email accounted for 8.1% of all time spent online, down 0.5% from 8.6% in June 2011

– Search/navigation accounted for 3.2% of all time spent online, down 0.2% from 3.4% in June 2011,

– Business and finance accounted for 3.0% of all time spent online, up 0.1% from 2.9% in June 2011,

– News and information which accounted for 2.2% of all time spent online, down 0.1% from 2.3% in June 2011,

– Retail activities which accounted for 2% of all time spent online, up 0.5% from 1.5% in June 2011.

– Instant messengers accounted for 2.0% of all time spent online, down 1.8% from 3.8% in June 2011,

– Games which accounted for 1.8% of all time spent online, up 0.2% from 1.6% in June 2011 and

– Directories/resources which accounted for 1.7% of all time spent online, up 0.1% from 1.6% in June 2011.

Notes from Webinar – Stats for July 2012

comScore conducted a webinar earlier in the day to discuss the above report and provide insights into recent audience trends in India. Here are some notes from the Webinar:

– Gavane stated that 85% of the pageviews in India now carry a comScore tag for audience measurement.

– APAC region has added over 40 million users over the past year and has accounted for 617 million unique visitors in July 2012, up 7% from 574 million uniques in July 2011.

– Among the BRIC nations, India is the fastest growing online market in the last 12 months, accounting for 62.6 million visitors in July 2012, up 41% from 44.5 million visitors in July 2011. India is also the third fastest growing nation globally after Vietnam (101%) and Venezuela (61%).

– India has 124.7 million Internet users as of July 2012, up from 83 million Internet users in July 2011. Of this, 62.6 million Internet users are 15 years and older, and access the Internet from their home or office computer. The remaining 62.1 million Internet users comprise of shared computer users, mobile Internet users and others.

– 75% of the Indian Internet population is below 35 years and females account for 39.3% of the total audience. Males in the age group 15-24 account for 21.9% of the total audience while the females in the same age group account for 13.7% of the total audience. Similarly, males in the age group 25-34 account for 23.7% of the total audience while the females in the same age group account for 15.3% of the total audience.

– Indian Internet population spent 48 billion minutes on the Internet as of July 2012, up from 36 billion minutes in July 2011 and recorded 69.9 billion pageviews as of July 2012, up from 54.6 billion as of July 2012.

– Category-wise, Games recorded 60% YoY (year-on-year) growth with a total 41% audience reach, while News accounted for 54% YoY growth with 80.3% total audience reach, and Search recorded 43% YoY with 91.5% total audience reach. Online retail grew by 43% YoY and has a total audience reach of 59.9% while health grew by 43% YoY and has 21.1% total audience reach.

– Online Coupons category has declined by 38% YoY in the country since several players have either moved to allied verticals or to a different category like online retail and Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category declined by 33% YoY.

News and Information Sites

– News and Information sites recorded 50.2 million visitors in July 2012, up from 32.6 million in July 2011. Yahoo-ABC news network has a total 20.4% reach in the country, followed by Times of India which has 18.7% reach, and New York Times which has 11.3% reach. Other Notables in the list include HT Media (11.1% reach), OneIndia.com sites (9.6%), India Today Group (8.5%), IBN Live (7.9% reach) and Bhaskar.com (3.2% reach).

– Consumption of NRI (Non-Resident Indians) is growing in local news and information sites and regional newspapers. NRIs accounted for 53% of the total unique visitors to Malayala Manorama and 55% of the total unique visitors to CricBuzz.

Online Retail

– Online Retail sites recorded 37.5 million visitors in July 2012, up from 26.1 million in July 2011. Gavane stated that Snapdeal and Flipkart recorded 7.5 million visitors, while Myntra and Jabong have around 5 million visitors as indicated in the graph below. Note that MediaNama is unable to verify any of the claims.

The graph also suggests that Jabong has recorded the highest growth among all online retail stores. Interestingly, Amazon sites already record around 10 million visitors in the country, in spite of not having any official online retail presence in the country, besides the price/product comparison engine Junglee.com. However, its worth noting that Amazon had recently expanded the range of products that ship to India at standard rates.

– Apparel is the fastest online retail category in the country, recording a 362% YoY growth and a total audience reach of 13.4%, followed by Consumer goods which recorded 119% YoY growth and has 2.9% audience reach, and sports/outdoor goods which recorded 100% YoY growth and has 2.8% audience reach.

– As of July 2012, Indian Railways had a total audience reach of 19.2% in the country, followed by MakeMyTrip which has 11.6% audience reach and Yatra which 8.3% audience reach. comScore however noted that it has observed high duplication of visitors among these online travel agents due to difference in fares. For instance, the unduplicated reach of MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Cleartrip is 16.4%, which is 7.5% lesser than their combined audience reach of 23.9% (MakeMyTrip – 11.6%, Yatra – 8.3% and Cleartrip – 3%). The firm also noted that Bus and Car Rentals services have significantly grown over the last 12 months.

– Net Banking is the most popular payment format in the country, accounting for 58% of the total payment transactions in Q2 2012, followed by Visa credit cards which accounted for 21% of the total transactions and Mastercard credit cards which accounted for 12% of the total transactions. Cash On Delivery (COD) accounts for 7% of the total transactions and other payment modes account for 2% of the total transactions.

– Travel accounts for majority of the payment transactions and the money generated from these transactions, which in turn is driven primarily by IRCTC.

– Avg Transaction Size: IRCTC recorded an average transaction size of $17 (Rs 945) during April – June 2012, while MakeMyTrip has an average transaction size of $204 (Rs 11340) and Yatra has an average transaction size of $166 (Rs 9227.5).

Flipkart has an average transaction size of $35 (Rs 1945.6), Yebhi has an average transaction size of $27 (Rs 1501) and Myntra has an average transaction size of $24 (Rs 1334). Note that Medianama is unable to verify any of the claims, although Myntra had stated an average transaction size of Rs 1250 in June 2012.

Social Networking Portals

– Gavane stated that Facebook took the top spot among social networking sites with 52.1 million unique visitors with 47% YoY growth from 35.3 million visitors in July 2011, followed by LinkedIn which has 7.9 million unique visitors, up 36% YoY from 5.8 million unique visitors in July 2011, and Orkut which has 3.8 million unique visitors, down 69% from 12.6 million visitors in July 2011. Both Twitter and BharatStudent recorded 3.8 million visitors for July 2012. While Twitter recorded a 5% YoY growth from 3.6 million visitors in July 2011, BharatStudent recorded a 2% growth YoY from 3.7 million visitors in July 2011.

Entertainment

– Entertainment sites recorded 55.8 million unique visitors in July 2012, up from 40.6 million unique visitors in July 2011 and has a total audience reach of 89%. YouTube has the highest reach in the category with 53.7% audience reach. Interestingly, three pirated music portals are among the top 10 portals with the highest reach. While Songs.pk stood at third position with an audience reach of 8.8% as of July 2012, while BeeMP3.com took the sixth position with 7.6% audience reach, and MP3RAID.com took the 10th position with 6.2% audience reach.

Other Categories

– The Business and Finance sites recorded 56.6 million visitors for July 2012, up 35% YoY. Among the top two sites include SBI Bank website which has 9.5 million visitors and ICICI Bank website which has 9.2 million visitors.

– Real Estate sites have recorded 8 million visitors for July 2012, up 38% YoY. Among the top two sites include 99Acres (1.8 million visitors) and magicbricks (1.8 million visitors)

– Career Services sites have recorded 43.3 million visitors for July 2012, up 30% YoY. Among the top two sites include Naukri (13.3 million visitors) and Timesjobs (6.6 million).

– Automotive sites have recorded 17.8 million visitors for July 2012, up 18% YoY. Among the top two sites include zigwheels (3.6 million visitors) and CarDekho (2.8 million visitors).

– Online Video: Online Video Viewers in India has grown by 37.3% to 44.5 million viewers in June 2012, with 3.4 billion videos viewed in the month, up from 1.9 billion in June 2011. 52% of the videos belong to the entertainment category.

– Mobile Platform: Total pages viewed on mobile has grown to 7% in July 2012, up from 3% in July 2011. Weather (54%), Telecommunication (25%), Sports & Entertainment (24%) and Music (25%) are the top categories on the mobile platform.

– Tablets: iOS currently has 80% of the tablet market share in terms of page requests. Food, Travel information, online trading are among the top categories on the tablet platform.

Disclosure: Times Internet Limited is an advertiser with Medianama