RESTON, Va., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc.
(Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a
study of the online search market in India, indicating that Google Sites
commanded the strong majority of searches conducted in this developing market.
Google Sites ranked as the top search property in India with more than
1 billion searches conducted in June, representing 81 percent of the market.
Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 9.4 percent, followed by Ask Network
(1.9 percent) and Microsoft Sites (1.7 percent). Indian Internet portal
Rediff.com ranked fifth with 1.5 percent.
Top Search Properties in India
June 2008
Total India -- Age 15+, Home/Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Searches Share of
(MM) Searches
Total Internet 1,242 100.0
Google Sites 1,011 81.4
Yahoo! Sites 117 9.4
Ask Network 24 1.9
Microsoft Sites 22 1.7
Rediff.com India Ltd 18 1.5
FACEBOOK.COM 10 0.8
People Group 9 0.8
CNET Networks 5 0.4
Wikipedia Sites 5 0.4
AOL LLC 3 0.2
"The Indian search market is dominated by global Internet brands, with
Google attracting the wide majority of searches," said Jack Flanagan, comScore
executive vice president. "As the top local player in the search market,
Indian web portal Rediff.com attracts slightly less than 2 percent of all
searches, indicating that there is substantial room for growth among the local
Internet brands."
Search Intensity Lags in India, Indicating Opportunity for Growth
Despite being one of the most rapidly emerging Internet markets in the
world in terms of overall usage growth, India currently exhibits less frequent
search behavior than its global counterparts. Of the 37 countries individually
reported by comScore, India ranked second to last with 53 searches per
searcher during the month, well below the worldwide average of 93. India also
had significantly fewer search visits per searcher (14.7 vs. 23.6) and
searches per search visit (3.6 vs. 3.9).
India Search Market Overview
June 2008
Total India -- Age 15+, Home/Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch
Unique Search Searches
Searches Searchers Searches Visits Per Per Search
(MM) (000) Per Searcher Searcher Visit
Worldwide 74,217 802,267 92.5 23.6 3.9
India 1,242 23,416 53.1 14.7 3.6
"Though India represents more than 15 percent of the world's population,
it accounts for less than 2 percent of global Internet searches," added Mr.
Flanagan. "It will be interesting to see if this gap narrows as more people in
India gain Internet access and ramp up their use of search over time."
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