ad:tech Delhi Day 1 Evening Session – Rajan Anandan Keynote – Google – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

Rajan Anandan Adtech 2011
Rajan Anandan Adtech 2011


Then it was time for the evening keynote. Generally they save the best for last and there is no doubt it is. Next up is Google India’s Rajan Anandan who is the Managing Director and Vice President for Sales and Operations (I know it’s a pretty long designation). He starts by saying that if you thought that India’s Internet growth has skyrocketed, you haven’t seen anything yet. He also gives some pretty insightful statistics which are listed below –

  • As on April 19, 2011, India’s Internet population stands at 100 million.
  • India has seen 20 times growth in search queries in the past 5 years
  • Out the 100 million Internet users
    • 30 million access the net from home
    • 40 million access the net from work
    • 30 million access the net from an Internet café
  • Indians spend 16 hours on an average online. This is more than the time spent watching TV
  • India is Google’s 3rd largest market in the world (in terms of users)
  • The Indian Online advertising market has crossed 1000 crores in 2010 and is growing at a rate of 50%

Wow I don’t know about you but those stats tell me that the Indian Internet story has some amazing potential when it comes to Digital Marketing. Rajan also shared that Indians generally use the Internet for researching products online; however tend to make the purchase offline. In fact Rajan gave an Industry wise breakup of research being done online vs purchases being made online vs. offline.

Research and purchase being done online vs offline

And the insights don’t just stop there. Rajan points out that in the travel industry, 1/3rd of all bookings will be made online in 2011. Further 54% of people doing research on travel are looking for hotels.

Rajan adds that telcos will find it interesting that 66% of people who bought a mobile phone say that the Internet is the 1st place they go to when researching phones to buy. Also more importantly 47% said that they changed their mind after conducting their research.

In light of the above points, I think it’s safe to conclude that whatever happens online seems to be influencing offline purchases or decisions. With such a plethora of reasons, it’s a foregone conclusion that companies will have to ramp up their digital marketing efforts considerably if they are to catch the consumer’s mind space.

Rajan also brings to light the importance of videos in the Indian scenario and lets us know that more video was uploaded on YouTube than was produced by the 4 largest broadcast networks in the world in the last 5 years (Awesome statistic). Other interesting aspects of videos on India are:

  • India is the 5th largest nation in terms of users of video
  • Dabangg was the 1st sponsored movie on youtube in India and crossed 1 million views in just a week

Case Study – Airtel ran a highly successful contest on theYouTube platform asking users to send in videos. Within 2 weeks, Airtel received 2400 uploads and half million page views which helped it gain brand recognition.

Kiran Mani Google India

Key Takeaways

  • Indians are heavy users of the net and with a high growth rate it’s only going to get better. Early adopters will benefit
  • With the Indian Online advertising market crossing 1000 crores, Digital Marketing has a very bright future in India
  • With the use of Internet banking on the rise, online purchases will increase in the future.
  • With most Indians using the Internet to conduct research on products before buying, companies will need to have a comprehensive Internet presence via websites, social media etc. Also reputation management will be imperative since bad comments and reviews will impact prospective customers adversely.

What a finale for Adtech day 1. Don’t know about you but my head is swirling with a million figures & ideas! Just to put those figures into perceptive, I had my team whip up a sweet Infographic on Internet Usage in India. Check it out and let us know how you like it in the comments section 🙂

Please note: Credit for all the photos go to the photographer Naina Redhu.

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