E-ENVIRONMENT

Website Preferences of Indian Internet Users

-- D Vijaya Geeta

Since its inception in the early 1990s, the Internet has seen tremendous growth in number of users, as well as websites. Many websites have come into existence with different themes. Since this is a powerful medium, an understanding of user's preferences in websites can help Web business grow by increasing its viewership. This article aims to understand the website preferences of the Indian users. It also presents some interesting findings and gives suggestions on how to improve the website ranking and make it more interesting and approachable to a large audience.

Internet can be termed as one of the greatest inventions of the modern world. According to Thompson (1998), it is presently the fastest growing computer network in the world. According to Stephen Voller, Managing Director of Internet software company Netscape, UK, "It took the Internet five years to reach 50 million users, compared to 38 years for radio and 13 for television", as noted by Bell & Tang, (1998). Ryder and Hughes (1997), observed that the rapid growth of the Internet in the 1990s can, in part, be attributed to its increased ease of use. They also opined that with the introduction of browser software, such as Mosaic and Netscape, which feature graphical user interfaces, the World Wide Web has become readily accessible.

Internet provides solutions to almost all the topics existing on this planet. From mailing to chatting, from searching to uploading, from simple information to complex information, it has become one of the basic necessities for an information-hungry user. And there are several websites that cater to the needs of the Internet user, each having its own set of usefulness and features.

According to the report titled, "ICube - 2007 Internet in India", released by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), more and more people are now using the Internet. It also states that an estimated 70% of the people who possess working knowledge of the computer have used Internet in their life. This proves that people are becoming aware of the Internet and are willing to know more. Chart 1 depicts the growth of the Internet usage in India.

According to a latest survey by Juxtconsult India, people, on an average, spend more than two hours a day on the Internet.

India has witnessed a tremendous growth in its Internet user population. It can thus be termed as a powerful and a popular medium through which one can search for any kind of information from anywhere in the world. This needs to be explored further to know and also understand the user, his preferences and his surfing (or usage) patterns. This understanding can help in target and behavioral marketing. Appropriate steps have to be taken by marketers to improve the popularity of the website. As a part of this process, sample set of Internet users are questioned regarding their usage and preferences of websites. The survey method will cover only a few thousands users and not the huge population of the Internet users that runs in crores. But with Web traffic analysis, one can give a better estimate of the website usage by covering a large section of the Internet users. Also, this helps one to compare the Indian users' preferences with the global users' to understand how similar or dissimilar Indians are, when compared to their global counterparts. This distinction will help marketers to devise strategies separately for both local and global customers.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are:

• To find out the categories or themes of websites with highest visitors in India and other parts of the world.

• To know the leaders in their respective categories.

• To find out the preferred websites in some selected categories other than the popular ones to target specific audiences.

• To understand the Web usage pattern of the selected category.

Methodology of the Study

The Web traffic data for this study is collected from alexa.com that collects the traffic data by using a Web crawler.

To meet the first and second objectives, categorization of the top 100 websites is done. This categorization is done for users in India as well as around the world.

Website traffic rank is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). So, albeit a website has more reach, i.e., number of users visiting the website, its rank may differ based on the unique pages that were visited for the website.

To meet the third and the fourth objective, five categories were selected to cater to different segments of users based on the following facts:

• An article published in USA Today, a national American daily newspaper, (1996) observes that universities have contributed to the growth of the Internet as more and more campuses have rushed to become wired. Students are opting for higher education and Internet has become a hub to carry out research-based activities. Based on this fact, the categories `Universities and Colleges' and `Academic Journals' are considered. These categories target the intellect (academicians, students and researchers) community.

• According to the annual report by IAMAI (2007), e-commerce emerged as the boundaryless trade medium in the era of globalization. To know who are popular among the electronic shops, the category `Shopping' is considered. This category targets the online consumers.

• The category `Government Domain Websites' is chosen to estimate their popularity and reach among the people. This category targets the common man.

• With so much uncertainty prevailing in today's world, saving for the future and investment has become essential, so the category `Financial Services' is chosen. This category targets the economist as well as the common man.

Once the categories are decided, overall ranking of the top 10 websites in each selected category are taken. The ranking is seen in the context of India and the rest of the world. The percentage of usage by the Indian, as well as global users, is considered for understanding the popularity of the Indian preferred website in the global context. The usage during August 2007 to August 2008 is considered for each website to understand the usage pattern.

Analysis and Interpretation

In this section, the results are shown along with the interpretations.

The categorization, along with the number of websites in each category for the top 100 websites in India, is exhibited in Table 1, Chart 2 and for the rest of the world, it is depicted in Table 2 and Chart 3. From this data, the following inferences are made:

• The categorization of websites in India and the rest of the world is similar with the exception of three new categories in India, i.e., job portals, marriage portals and government services.

• In search engines, Google can be termed as the leader in English as well as non-English domains.

• Even though India is a country with diverse languages, we do not have many websites in Indian languages. Only one website had made it to the top 100 (Eenadu - Telugu).

• Across the globe, there are 42 websites in non-English category that made it to reach top 100.

• In terms of information search, there are five websites that deal with financial information in top 100 preferred websites for the Indians but there is no single such website for the global users.

 

Popular Websites in Selected Categories

Universities and Colleges

The popular websites in the category `Universities and Colleges' are exhibited in the Table 3. Charts 4 and 5 depict the percentages of reach among the 10 selected institutes for the Indian and global users respectively. The following inferences are drawn from the above data:

• Anna University is clearly the topmost preferred website with much gap between the first and second slot.

• Among the top 10 preferred websites, four of them are of IITs, and this clearly displays their preference among the users.

• There are two foreign universities that made it to the top 10, which suggest that some of the Indian students opt for studies in the US.

• Among the distance education sites, IGNOU is the most preferred website.

• Both MIT and Stanford University are given more preference by the global users.

The trend of usage of these websites for the past one year is shown in Chart 6.

The following inferences are drawn:

• There is much activity during the months of March and June for IITs.

• MIT and Stanford University follows a similar usage trend with more activities in the months of November and June.

 

Online Academic Journals

The popular websites in the category of "Online Academic Journals" is shown in Table 4. Chart 7 and Chart 8 indicates the percentages of reach among the 10 selected academic journals for the Indian and global users respectively.

Inferences from the above data:

• Springerlink and Elseiver are the most sought out online journals for academic research in India, as well as across the globe.

Online Shopping

For this category, those websites which have shopping as one of the service (rediff, sify…) are excluded. The popular websites in the category `Online Shopping' are indicated in Table 5. Chart 9 and Chart 10 exhibit the degree of reach among the 10 selected online shopping malls for the Indian users and global users respectively.

Inferences from the above data:

• Amazon and eBay can be declared as the leaders with the rest being almost negligible.

• Mouthshut and CompareIndia, the next two preferred websites, are usually used to compare brands, prices and they help one to make decision while purchasing a product.

• Amazon is preferred more in India while eBay is preferred more by the global users.

Government Domain Websites

The popular websites in the category `Government' is exhibited in Table 6. Charts 11 and 12 depict the degree of reach among the 10 selected Government domain websites for the Indian and the global users.

Following are the inferences from the above data:

• More than 70% of users of Government websites prefer the services of Indian Railways.

• Three of the websites could make it to the top 100.

Financial Services Website

The popular websites in the category `Financial Services' is exhibited in Table 7. Charts 13 and 14 depict the quantum of reach among the 10 selected financial services websites for the Indian and global users respectively.

Inferences from the above data:

• Moneycontrol that provides information regarding current stock market, sensex, mutual funds is the most preferred site for financial information.

• There are three different websites of ICICI.

• There are two insurance companies that made it to the top 10 websites.

   Inferences from the above data:

• There has been more usage in the months of January and February.

 

Findings

The findings for the above inferences are given below:

• In India, Internet has more preference and usage among English literate users.

• Internet is used as a means for socializing and uploading/downloading any     software.

• Websites of universities and colleges are mostly visited during the admission    process.

• None of the top B-Schools has made it to top 10 in the `Universities and    Colleges' category. This shows that most Indian users are interested in visiting    the technology institutions.

• The websites that have made it to the top 10 in `Academic Journals' have    journals based on multiple disciplines, rather than a single specific discipline.

• Festivals and holidays season is the time when more users shop online.

• The Indian Railways is the most successful government website.

• Most users visit the Income tax website during the end of July, since that is the    time to file their income tax returns.

• Users in India are more interested in the financial information. All the websites    that are listed in `Financial Services' category is in top 500 the most preferred    websites in India.

• Moneycontrol.com is the most preferred website in "Financial Services". User    prefers a general website that gives all kinds of financial information rather    than specific one like BSE or NSE.

• ICICI is the most preferred private financial company.

Suggestions

Some suggestions given below can be used to improve the ranking of a website for each selected category.

 

Universities and Colleges

• The website should not be just a source of information but should offer links and resources that draw the current students of the institute to the website.

• Lecture notes/course material can be made available on the website.

• Posting of campus news and notices should be a part of the website

• Application forms for different purposes that students require, such as requisition for TC, study certificate, scholarship, revaluation, change of address and so on can also be made available online.

• Introduction of online/Web courses.

• Separate logins for faculty, students, parents and guests can be made to serve different sections of the users.

Academic Journals

• The website should contain journals of different disciplines, rather than a single discipline, to attract more researchers.

• Free access to the journals in the website can be given for a trial period to attract new users.

• A researcher forum can be made as a part of the website through which researchers working on similar area can exchange their views.

• Open access/free access should be there for some sample articles research papers. These papers should provide link for discussion where the researchers can post queries or comments, which can attract more users.

 

Online Shopping

• Gift certificates or vouchers can be made available for shopping.

• Discounts and lucky draw dips could be included in the purchase scheme.

• A customer discussion forum can be made part of the website where the customers can interact with current and past customers to make buying decision.

• Easy and secure payment system should be made part of the website.

Government Services

• Apart from English and Hindi, versions of the websites in other Indian languages can be introduced to cover more number of people.

• Images can also be used with text for labeling wherever it is appropriate to help people with lower education level in using the website.

• A suggestion box can be kept where users can post their suggestions to improve the services and make navigation easy.

Financial Services

• The website can be made available in different languages to help non-English users to connect to the website.

• A link can be given for `Advice' where the user can seek advice on investments, savings and market trends from the experts.

In general, a few suggestions are made for improving the quality of the websites:

• Website must be advertised so that people can come to know of its existence and features.

• Websites must be user-friendly and should provide for easy navigation.

• They must be made more attractive by adding more features.

• The links should be logically ordered to avoid any confusion on the users' mind.

• A feedback link should be part of the website where user's suggestions are taken to improve the features of the website.

• Emergence of websites in Indian languages can help in reaching out to the vast number of people.

Conclusion

The following study has been undertaken to understand the preferences of Indian users when they browse the Internet. Based on the Web traffic, some inferences can be made on the usage behavior of the user. Categorization of top 100 websites that are preferred by the users has given an insight into the kind of information that a user seek in the net. Specifically, five categories have been selected to get the top 10 websites in each category. Further, work can be carried out by investigating the remaining categories as well. Even though survey methods cover only a sample of the entire user set, it can help in getting more information about the users (demographics, profession, preferences, interests, etc.), since each user was personally approached. Web traffic analysis method does cover large set of population but fails to get more information about the user in particular. A combination of survey and Web traffic analysis method can be adopted to get even more information about the users.

About the Author

D Vijaya Geeta is a Associate Professor in the Department of Operations in the GITAM Institute of Management, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam. The author can be reached at vijayageeta@gitam.com.