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PROJECT ON
NATURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN MOBILE PHONES
IN INDIA.
IPM2012 17 Batch
201516
Submitted To Submitted By Prof . P. VIGNESWARA ILAVARASAN Pallav Grover (IPM2012073)
Ashwini Joshi (IPM2012023)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to thank our Project Guide Professor P. VIGNESWARA ILAVARASAN for giving this great opportunity to study the “NATURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN MOBILE PHONES IN INDIA”, that helped us learn a lot about the contemporary scenario in the Indian Social Media Space. We would also like to thank the respondents of the survey we conducted to study the subject mentioned above. A comprehensive study of the subject above would not have been possible without their kind cooperation.
Sincerely Pallav Grover (IPM2012073) Ashwini Joshi (IPM2012023)
CONTENTS
1. Introduction 2. Abstract 3. Aim 4. Survey Report 5. Observation and Inference 6. Conclusion 7. Bibliography
INTRODUCTION The past few years have seen an exponential increase in the number of mobile handsets being used in India and also the level of Internet penetration via these phones. With respect to world, India stands at third position in terms of total internet users, but the startling fact is that it is the use of mobile phones that has generated this situation. According to The Hindu (August 2014), threefourths of India’s online population is under 35 as against just over half worldwide. India Digital Future in Focus 2013, says, it is possibly reflecting India’s more recent improvements in literacy. The market in India is dominated by mobile. For mobile we have 840 millionplus users, unlike many other markets, mobile is becoming the dominant device for voice, for valueadded services, and increasingly for mobile Internet also. This was the 2011 data. As a matter of fact, if social media presence is to be administered one should know the penetration of internet among the rural and urban areas of India which would give a wide array of directions. According to a recent report by Economic Times, As of 2014, approximately 200 million Indians used mobile phones to access internet. The report also noted that content would become more vernacular to cater to the "diverse user base to include larger numbers of rural consumers." Also, ”around 70 per cent of rural users access the internet from their mobile handsets.” Speaking of Social Media, the presence of internet users is very large. The consumer base for the social media sites/apps are increasing because they are providing benefits to their users in one way or the other, which is kind of revolutionary these days. Most popular among such sites/apps are Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and so on. There are various utilities for which people use the apps/sites. Social Media caters to different sections of people such as people with different interests, genders, cultural background, different tiers of society and so on. Social Media has become inevitable today, whereby it acts as an agent to appreciate the outcome of daily happenings, help and propagate in the similar direction. It has been able to touch the lives of people. India, consists of Men who are under 35 and women between 35 and 44 that are heavier users of internet. But women account for less than 40 per cent of all Indian users, a far lower sex ratio than that of other countries, reported by The Hindu. The ET reported that the three factors including expanding reach, affordable access and improved awareness are the primary driver of online growth along with mobile usage.
ABSTRACT
We selected this topic as a part of our project because when it comes to India, presence of social media is relatively less talked about with respect to other developed and developing countries. Hence, in the process it would help us to capture the trending aspects of social media in India as our topic being”Nature of Social Media Use in Mobile Phones in India”. It would help us get an idea of mobile phone usage behaviour among customers and get information about different sites and apps that are particular to most of the community at large. As highlighted in the Introduction, as a nation with a huge population our consumption of online content has seen a huge boost with the availability of mobile devices to a larger consumer base. A lot of our time is spent looking at photos, playing games,and social networking sites on mobile phones instead of desktop computers. The smart phone users use a lot of mobile application for their daily needs, however researches depict that the most frequently used apps are the social media apps. (Ref:Social Samosa) As such it becomes vital to understand , how often and in what ways are people using their mobile phones to access social media networks?
AIM
The aim of the report pertains to objectively derive conclusions which cater to the questions that have the issue “social media usage along with mobile phones in India” at the core. The questions that the report will be dealing with are as follows:
● Which age group has the highest number of users of mobile phones for Social Media? ● What do consumers use mobile platform based social media for? ● What kinds of apps are most popular amongst Indian users? ● Why is there a shift in usage patterns from computers and smart phones? ● Which age group has the highest number of users of mobile phones for Social Media? ● What do consumers use mobile platform based social media for? ● How can social media companies make their mobile phones platforms more conducive
for networking for their users? ● What kinds of apps are most popular amongst Indian users? ● How should new entrants in this sector proceed with their marketing strategy to make the
most of this newly emerging market? The report comprises of a survey and its analysis that caters to the answers to all the questions mentioned above.
SURVEY REPORT The survey was conducted at Indian Institute of management, Indore which saw about 38 responses from participants of IPM 2012, IPM 2013, IPM 2014 batches and also some participants from outside the institute. In total 6 questions were asked for prompt reply and quick data generation. Below are the questions which were included in the survey. Along with every question, there are inferences and observations mentioned that helped the group in reaching to the conclusion which is mentioned at last. Q1. Which medium do you use more often for accessing social media? Out of 38 respondents, 17 (44.7%) of them use computers as a medium to access social media tools and 21 (55.3%) make use of mobile phones. The pie chart is as follows:
Q2. While you use mobile phones, what makes you prefer it for social media over computers? This question saw acceptance of several options like performance, handy, lower cost, easy access and better interface. Out of 38 respondents, the users that prefered various options are : Option Users Percentage
a. Performance 6 15.8%
b. Handy (Mobility) 37
97.4%
c. Lower Cost 2 5.3%
d. Easy access to Apps 22
57.9%
e. Better interface than desktop The bar graph is as follows:
6 15.8%
Q3. Do elderly people in your home (age > 40 )use mobile phone for social media? In total, 23 respondents said that elderly people in their home used mobile phones for social media and 15 of them declined. The pie chart :
Q4. How often in a day do you use mobile phone to access social media ? Out of total 38 respondents, the maximum number of people who use social media on their phones said they use to use mobile phones for about 12 hour per day, seconding to this 9 out of 38 of them said they used mobile phones for social media access for 34 hours. Option Users Percentage
12 hour 20
52.6%
34 hours 9 23.7%
At most 5 hours
2 5.3%
At least 5 hours
2 5.3%
Other
5 13.2%
Q5. Your age group, please.... ( your respective age). This was inquired in order to help the group filter the data that catered to specific age groups and help in relating to the information that could inform about the trends that are setting in different age groups. Well it was seen that, maximum of the respondents belonged to age group 1820, about 20 belonged to this category out of 38. 2 respondents belonged to age group greater than 24, who were in their 40s. Hence, the data consists of 36 respondents. And, it was interesting to know that there was no respondent in age group less than 18. Option Users Percentage
Less than 18
0 0%
18 2 5.3%
1820 20
52.6%
2024 The pie chart:
14
36.8%
Q6. Which kind of apps do you use on mobile phones? This was the last question of the questionnaire which saw many overlapping of preferences. There were 9 options out which maximum users used WhatsApp (37 respondents) as an app whereas 26 users used Facebook. Option Users Percentage
Facebook 26
68.4%
WhatsApp 37
97.4%
SnapChat 9 23.7%
Twitter 4 10.5%
Youtube 15
39.5%
Instagram 10
26.3%
Shopping (flipkart/amazon)
10
26.3%
Online Games 9 23.7%
Other 0 0%
The bar graph is as follows:
OBSERVATION AND INFERENCE
From the survey we conducted, it was seen that most of the youth particularly belonging to age group 1820 years are well versed with the usage of social media. However, when it comes to use the tools, it is the mobile phones which have add on benefits of being handy and easy access to apps which helps consumers prefer them over desktops to get things done. Mobile phones have taken a center stage in our lives and relatively the outdation of computers and PCs have revolutionized the communications trend in India. Computers are relatively costly and some of the internet users of the most rural parts of India do not own one, rather have not used one ever. So, this gives an idea of how the mobile phones have easy penetration into the societies in India. There are phones which cost Rs. 9001500, 15002000, 20005000 and a good smartphone with easy access to apps comes in the price range of 40006000. The target audience is relatively large as even a labour who is working on the field with Rs.150 as wage per day can now own a smartphone, only opportunity cost that he/she would give up would be that of quality. In India, the apps that have generated popularity are Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and certainly some online gaming sites. On comparison with nations like UK and USA, Indian customers do not feel comfortable while using some specific social media tools on mobile phones such as for online shopping through Flipkart/Amazon. Even some social media tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn are growing at a good rate but their effect in attracting wide array of market and target customers is relatively not strong.
CONCLUSION We now try to address the questions we had aimed to answer in the beginning as a part of this project. The survey gives a clear indication about the trend and behaviour of consumers who use mobile phones for accessing social media. We have found out that people belonging to age group 1820 and 2125 are use social media more as they have the knowledge of many social media tools and use them on daily basis. They use mobile based social media mainly for accessing Whatsapp (97.4%) and Facebook (68.4%). The usage of image sharing based platforms like Snapchat (23.7% )and Instagram (26.3%) is also catching up fast. It is interesting to note that an increasing number of people (26.3%) have also begun to use e commerce sites for shopping using their mobile phones. Given the relative ease of handling a mobile phone and its higher portability visavis a computer, there has been an evident shift of users from laptops to mobile phones. Also,a revolution has started whereby the companies that did not have much presence in the Social Media space are now coming online and those who haven’t customized their sites for mobile platforms like android and iOS are in the process of doing so. The Economic Times in a recent report stated that “the share of rural internet users will increase nearly fivefold to touch 28 crore by 2018, signalling higher online purchasers going forward from rural India”. Also, by 2018, the country will have "as many as 55 crore internet users, of which 28 crore would be from smaller towns and cities, expanding at close to 40 per cent a year from six crore in 2014," forecasts a report on digital consumption by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
In the light of this, it becomes important for Social Media platforms to increase their presence on mobile phones. Companies like Facebook, who initially struggled a lot due to a shift in their user base from desktops to mobile phones, have finally been successful in launching user friendly apps for mobile users after initial hiccups. For the new entrants in the Social Media space it is very necessary to make “presence on mobile platforms” a very vital component of their marketing strategy. In the end, we would like to conclude by mentioning that Indian users are using mobile phones to access social media at a very large scale and have their global footprints much better than the developed and developing countries with respect to the same.
How can social media companies make their mobile phones platforms more conducive for networking for their users? How should new entrants in this sector proceed with their marketing strategy to make the most of this newly emerging market?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. http://www.thehindu.com/scitech/technology/internet/indiaisnowworldsthirdlargestinternetuserafteruschina/article5053115.ece
2. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/ruralinternetuserstosurgeto28croreby2018report/articleshow/47026152.cms?utm_source=FbM&utm_medium=ETFbMain&utm_campaign=ETFbMain
3. http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/10/mobiledevicesonlinesocialmedia/ 4. http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/09/podcastmarkhenleyadobedatatalent/ 5. http://www.indiadigitalreview.com/news/indiahas5548mnmobileusers1432mninter
netusersstudy/14350 6. http://www.slideshare.net/Vicks18/socialmediausersusageinindia2014report 7. http://dazeinfo.com/2014/07/11/mobileinternetindia2014349millionuniquemobilep
honeusers70trafficmobileindiashininginfographic/ 8. https://vaibhavgnnugupta.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mobilemarketinindiafinalrepo
rt.pdf
