Advertisment

The Home–emerging hot spot for the Net

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

IDC India's recent Home Segment Study related to Internet

usage in homes has indicated that 9% of PC-owning households in the country have Internet

access. However, within current non-users 37% have plans to get on to the Internet in the

future. What's even better is that amongst households currently not owning a PC but

planning to take one in the near future over half of them plan to get an Internet

connection in future. Out of these 23% plan to get on the Net with their PC purchase.

Advertisment

Usage of the Internet is not restricted to a single user in

a household with nearly 90% of IDC's respondents indicating that more than one family

member used the Net at home for different applications and purposes. Since the Internet is

not a single-user medium any more, it becomes important to know the key users. The title

of top Net user was equally divided among the categories of "adult son/daughter"

and "male head of the household" with the teenage segment constituting nearly

9%.

The availability of suitable content and applications would

go a long way helping Internet surpass all age barriers. The almost universal presence of

Cable TV among Internet enabled homes assumes importance because cable modem technology is

available for providing Net connections using cable to the home.

The Internet has emerged as a medium for communication in

97% of Internet connected homes Next comes "Entertainment/Recreation" with 63%

of the respondents rate second due to lack of content and options. Nearly half of the

Internet homes use the medium for "Education".

Advertisment

In future, 'Edutainment' would add fuel to higher Internet

usage. Online shopping at present is experienced by nearly one-fifth of Internet homes and

should grow significantly in the days to come.

"What ISPs and content providers need to do is

understand the home users, segment them based on their needs and finally offer them

tailor-made services in order to get a positioning advantage, as homes would bring in

volumes" says Utpal Ghosh, Manager - Consumer Research, IDC (India) Ltd.



IDC INDIA

Homes who... Percentage
Plan to take Internet Access 53
Don't plan on taking Net access 47
tech-news