Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 2
Internet In India ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Local Language Outlook ................................................................................................................................ 4
Local Language content on the Internet ....................................................................................................... 6
Rollout plan for “Adoption of Local Languages Solutions” ........................................................................... 6
Key Drivers of Local Language Content on Internet in India: ....................................................................... 7
Advertisements ecosystem for local language content ................................................................................ 8
The way forward: “Smartphone coupled by Local language content” ......................................................... 8
Methodology............................................................................................................................................... 10
About IMRB International and IAMAI ......................................................................................................... 11
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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Local language user base reached 127Mn in June 2015 growing by 47% YoY at a penetration
level of 47% among Internet users1 in India.
Local language user’s witnessed a high penetration of 57% in Rural India with the overall base of
46Mn. Whereas Urban India base crossed 80Mn growing at a faster rate of 51%.
India has 88% non-English speaking population giving large headroom for local language growth
on the Internet. Hindi is the largest conversed language at 50%.
Increase in local language content on Internet will result a growth of 39% in the current Internet
user base. The growth will be majorly from the rural segment (75% growth) followed by urban
segment (16% growth).
5% of the digital advertising spends belongs to ads in the local language. With the increasing
growth of local language content and hence the user base, this is expected to reach 30% of the
entire market size by the year 2020.
Local language user experience can be enhanced by creating websites and apps with complete
local language content and providing intelligent translations. This will also help in expanding the
user base.
Corporates should rollout holistic local language solutions including website, digital media, call
centers, analytics, logistics and outbound communications.
Key drivers of local language in India are Smartphones, Government initiatives and Political will.
Next couple of years will see higher spend on creating local language content and local language
advertisements; which shall result in opening up of new consumer market segments and
increase the total Internet user base.
1
As of June 2015, it is estimated that there are 352 Mn Claimed Internet users in India. Out of this, there are 269
Mn Internet users accessing at least once a month. This survey has been conducted among these Monthly Active
Internet users.
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INTERNET IN INDIA
India’s 1.32Bn population hosts a rapidly increasing Internet Users base of 20% with around 269Mn.
Although there has been substantial growth in the adoption of Internet in the past few years with a
penetration of close to 40% in Urban India and 10% in Rural India, there still remains huge potential to
connect the population through this medium. The Internet usage in Rural is catalyzed by the reach of
mobile phones and the mobile Internet users in Rural India have grown by 60% annually to cross 45 Mn
by the end of 2014. Communication, Social networking and Entertainment are some of the purposes
people access the Internet for. Majority of the Urban users like to access Internet for Communication
whereas the Rural users for Entertainment.
This growth in Internet usage is due to the increased adoption of handheld devices like smartphones
and tablets coupled with Internet connection. The marketplaces have started releasing their offerings in
local languages like Hindi, Tamil etc., mentioning the product features and other information in local
language. With the expansion plans in Rural segment, the local language move will boost the number of
Internet users in India.
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Currently, the local language overall user base is growing at 47% YoY to reach 127Mn in June 2015. Hindi
is the main language of accessing Internet apart from English among 20% of the Internet users.
LOCAL LANGUAGE OUTLOOK
With around 125Mn English speaking people in India, close to 88% of Indians converse only in local
language. Hence the local language is a big opportunity in Indian context. Hindi is the most widely
spoken language with 50% population using it.
The local language content penetration on the Internet is
increasing over the time but at a sluggish pace. The Urban
penetration has reached up to 43% whereas the Rural
penetration stands at 57% showing the higher acceptance of
local language content in the Rural Internet users. Thereby with
the growing content in local language the acceptance and shift
towards higher usage of Internet will in turn drive more and
more people towards using the Internet.
The Indian consumers like to consume other media mostly in
local language through the television, newspapers, movies etc.
Considering the main vehicle of the print media, newspapers,
the sales of local language newspaper is much ahead of the English newspapers.
Local languages are a high priority for the well-established old business groups in the country. They look
at local language engagement as a driver to multiply their total addressable market in the Rural base
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after covering the Urban target audience. The non-English speaking audience can open the Pandora box
for their business. Along with that, the new businesses are also developing content in the local language.
Thus, with emphasis on local language content on the Internet is the way to increase the number of
Internet users. Among the Internet non-users in India, lack of local language content on the Internet is
one of the prime reasons for not accessing Internet. Thus, enabling local language content on the
Internet will lead to a growth of 39% in the current Internet user base. Out of this, 16% growth will come
from Urban users and 75% growth from the Rural users.
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LOCAL LANGUAGE CONTENT ON THE INTERNET
In the last 2 years, various local languages solutions for Internet applications have been introduced. The
newer Government and corporate initiatives will impart momentum to the creation of such content. The
local language content should seek to cater to the following needs in order to gain mass acceptance:
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Need to create Websites/Apps with complete local language content: a vast majority of the
websites / Apps currently are providing partial local language content. The most accessed pages
of website are in local language; but internally all the content in English. Only handful of
websites / Apps provide all pages in local language but still the attachments and documents are
in English.
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Need for intelligent translations: the maturity of translation features present should be
enhanced by a bid to provide better user experience. E.g. Camera 16MP: ‘MP’ is translated to
“saansad” in Hindi.
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Need to adopt a holistic approach: Current local language deployments are only a part of the
value chain, but not the complete value chain. For instance, advertisements in local language is
incomplete unless the services are completely accessible in local language.
ROLLOUT PLAN FOR “ADOPTION OF LOCAL LANGUAGES SOLUTIONS”
Local Language offerings can be classified as
The local languages projects can be planned in the below mentioned phases and should be rolled-out in
a phase wise manner to enhance the user experience:
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KEY DRIVERS OF LOCAL LANGUAGE CONTENT ON INTERNET IN INDIA:
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Government Initiatives: With the government focusing on creating a framework in which most of
things will be digitized, the execution of several digital projects will be started in many states and
implemented in the local languages. The persistence of government is undoubtedly the biggest
driver. These initiative will drive the following in India to increase the digitization of various activities
and services:
o Broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fi
hotspots.
o Generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs
o Deliver services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking,
etc.
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Increasing reach of Smartphones and decreasing prices: Internet usage is driven by smartphones.
With the ownership of smartphones crossing 110 Mn by June 2015, there is a long way forward for
the Internet consumption. The first time users of the smartphone from this point shall comprise of a
large share of local language content users.
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ADVERTISEMENTS ECOSYSTEM FOR LOCAL LANGUAGE CONTENT
To wider consumer base, companies across sectors are adopting to
advertise in local languages. The digital commerce companies are going
multilingual with descriptions of goods and their prices in local
languages.
On Television, irrespective to the channel’s broadcasting language, on
an average 4 out of 5 Ads are in local languages. Even the online
channels like YouTube and online broadcasting sites are producing and
disseminating the Ads in local languages.
The overall digital advertising spends in India will reach INR 3,575 Crores
by the end of December 2015. The proportion of Digital ads spends in
the local language will be 5% of the entire market i.e. INR 179 Crores.
With the increasing availability of digital content in the local language,
this share is expected to reach close to 30% of overall digital advertising
spends by the year 2020.
THE WAY FORWARD: “SMARTPHONE COUPLED BY LOCAL LANGUAGE CONTENT”
The combination of smartphone with local language support will enable the pool of non-English literate
population to adopt Internet in day to day life and leverage advantages which as of are limited largely to
English literates creating a digital divide.
Thus, in the next half a decade, we can look at the following in the area of local language content on the
Internet:
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High spend on Local Language Content and Ads: Increased focus by the corporates on the local
language strategy by creating the local language content and focusing on advertising in local
language. “Holistic” approach by organizations will be preferred with respect to local language
implementation.
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Open new consumer market segments: Sales will boost by local language implication through
digital marketing as the companies shall be directly able to connect with the customer. This in
turn will help addressing the needs of the rural consumers and provide innovative solutions.
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Helping government initiatives through as framework enabler: Local language will be a big
enabler for the government to execute its plans and reach the nook and corner of the country to
provide benefits. Thereby helping the Rural India uplift and upgrade.
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Collaborative implementation model between Public and Private sector: The execution of
large scale projects shall be executed by the joint effort of enterprises and government bodies.
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METHODOLOGY
The findings presented in the current edition of the report have been derived by conducting both
primary research as well as secondary researches. The current edition showcases the information
captured from various data sources in the years 2012, 2013 & 2014.
Primary Research
The primary research for this research study has been done using various data sources like Individuals &
Industry Experts.
CITIES BY STRATA
Top 4 Metros
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata
Other 4 Metros
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune
Small Metros
(More Than 1 Million Population)
Coimbatore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Visakhapatnam, Patna,
Guwahati, Kochi, Vadodara, Indore, Surat, Nagpur
Non Metros
(Between 0.5 To 1 Million
Population)
Aurangabad, Belgaum, Aligarh, Bhubaneswar, Raipur
Small Towns
(Less Than 0.5 Million Population)
Alappuzha (Alleppey), Ujjain, Behrampur, Faizabad, Panipat,
Ranaghat, Baleshwar, Philbit, Amreli, Chickmagalur
Individuals: Structured Face to Face (F2F) interviews have been conducted with around 65,000
individuals among 19,000 households spread across 35 Cities were surveyed during I-Cube 2014, a
syndicated product of E-Tech, IMRB International.
Industry Experts: In-depth interviews have been conducted with stakeholders of Local Language content
on Internet in India including various developers & publishers..
Secondary Research
Secondary research was done to understand the structure and dynamics of the solutions offered for
developing content for Local Language on the Internet in India. Information from various published
resources was used to perform a data validation check. Information that was collected from secondary
as well as primary researches was thoroughly analyzed and then portrayed in the report.
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ABOUT IMRB INTERNATIONAL AND IAMAI
About IMRB International
ETech Group | IMRB (a specialist unit of IMRB International) is a research based consultancy offering
insights into IT, Internet, Telecom & Emerging Technology space.
Our continuous link with industry and a constant eye on the pulse of the consumer ensures that we
can decode the movements of technology markets & consumers. To our clients we offer an
understanding of the present market environment and a roadmap for the future.
Contact Details
Research Team for this Report
ETech Group | IMRB
Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, Vice President
IMRB International
biswapriya.bhattacharjee@imrbint.com
‘A’ Wing, Mhatre Pen Building
Abheek Biswas, Insights Director
abheek.biswas@imrbint.com
Senapati Bapat Marg, Mumbai
Tel: (91)-22-24233947
www.imrbint.com
Rittvik Agarwal, Research Manager
rittvik.agarwal@imrbint.com
About Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)
The Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] is a young and vibrant association with
ambitions of representing the entire gamut of digital businesses in India. It was established in 2004
by the leading online publishers, but in the last eleven years has come to effectively address the
challenges facing the digital and online industry including mobile content and services, online
publishing, mobile advertising, online advertising, ecommerce and mobile & digital payments among
others.
Eleven years after its establishment, the association is still the only professional industry body
representing the online and mobile VAS industry in India. The association is registered under the
Societies Act and is a recognized charity in Maharashtra. With a membership of 125 Indian and MNC
companies, and offices in Delhi and Mumbai, are well placed to work towards charting a growth
path for the digital industry in India.
Contact Details
Nilotpal Chakravarti – Associate Vice President IAMAI
Delhi number Tel: +91-11-40547601 | http://www.iamai.in
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