Top Indian Web sites for May 2008

RESTON, USA: comScore Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its first study of Internet usage in India, which reports that more than 28 million people in India age 15 and older accessed the Internet from home and work locations in May.

This represents a 27-percent increase versus year ago, making India one of the fastest-growing Internet populations among the 37 individually-reported countries in the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. Additionally, the fact that Internet users in India represent approximately only 3 percent of the population indicates significant potential for continued strong growth.

“India truly represents one of the most promising emerging Internet markets, given both the size and technological sophistication of the population,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “While global Internet brands like Google and Yahoo! currently reign as the most visited Web properties in India, several local players also have strong positions in the market.”

Some findings from the study include:

* The average Indian Internet user visited the Internet 25 times during the month and was online for 28 minutes per visit.

* Those between the ages of 15-24 were the heaviest Internet users among all age segments, spending nearly 12 hours online per month on average.

* Some of the fastest growing Web site categories during the past year included Maps (up 64 percent), Sports (up 60 percent), Entertainment - Movies (up 55 percent), and Finance – News/Research (up 52 percent).

Google sites ranks as top Web property in India

Google Sites ranked as the top property in India with nearly 20 million visitors in May, a 35-percent increase versus year ago.

The property grew on the strength of several Google-owned entities, including Google Search (up 38 percent to 17.1 million visitors), social networking site Orkut (up 39 percent to 9.3 million visitors), blog platform Blogger.com (up 102 percent to 7.3 million visitors), and video site YouTube (up 131 percent to 6.3 million visitors).

Top 15 Web Properties in India Ranked by Unique Visitors*

May 2008 vs. May 2007

Total India: Age 15+, Home and Work Locations

Source: comScore World Metrix

Properties Total Unique Visitors (000)

May-07 May-08 % Change

Total Internet: Total Audience 22,805 28,886 27

Google Sites 14,597 19,746 35

Yahoo! Sites 14,664 18,704 28

Microsoft Sites 10,800 11,980 11

Rediff.com India Ltd 7,740 9,246 19

AOL LLC N/A 6,325 N/A

NIC.IN 5,675 5,953 5

Times Internet 5,002 5,948 19

Wikipedia Sites 4,353 5,264 21

Naukri 3,295 5,105 55

eBay 4,204 5,020 19

Indian Railways N/A 4,454 N/A

CNET Networks 3,194 3,841 20

Ask Network 3,155 3,444 9

BharatMatrimony.com Pvt Ltd. 2,336 3,420 46

Monster Worldwide 2,854 3,301 16

*Excludes traffic from public computers, such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones/PDAs.

Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 18.7 million visitors (up 28 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 12 million (up 11 percent). Indian portal Rediff.com ranked as the top local property with 9.2 million visitor (up 19 percent), followed by government site NIC.in with nearly 6 million visitors (up 5 percent).