Trends in Social Networking in India

Comscore in its report tells that nearly 60.3% of the Indian internet users are using any of social networks. Ashish kashyap CEO of ibibo lists out 4 key trends that are affecting social networking in India and how marketing in social networks is changing.According to him

1. We are witnessing a co-existence of global, local and niche based social networking platforms. Besides broadbased networks, categories such as professional, education, entertainment and games will emerge as strong growth drivers for the social media.
2. The second aspect that emerged in 2008 was the fact that young users in the age group of 18 to 24 from tier II and tier III cities began to aggressively enrol into social networking platforms.
3. The third key trend is an emergence of integration between social networking and casual gaming.We anticipate more and more users to consume casual games in a social networking context
4. The fourth and very healthy trend is the fact that marketers are beginning to use social media to intimately communicate their message, engage with their target audience and, at the same time, leverage the power of viral on networking platforms.

He also points out that average time spent by a consumer over a conventional medium is very low compared to the average time spent by the consumer on new age online media. According to ibibo social media marketing in 2009 will be highlighted by the advent of advertiser branded interactive applications. He also points to how movie producers have started leveraging social media to promote their movies and engage with the audience with the likes of rab ne bana di jodi being promoted across Ibibo,Youtube and Facebook. Overall an interesting article written by him check it out here
Related Read:
Synovate on Social Networking in India
Social Networking Demographics and usage