Why is Internet marketing hot?
Posted by iMark on March 9, 2008
With total global internet users estimated at 1320 million by 2007 year end with growth rate in excess of 265% between 2000 and 2007, internet has become a powerful medium for communications. India boasts of 42 million users with the growth pegged at 28%. Increasing e-commerce has opened up new gates for the companies to target their potential customers through internet marketing. Currently standing at $36 billion, internet marketing is expected to grow at 69% over the next three years. Touted as fastest growing media, internet will overtake magazine marketing by 2010 and is expected to acquire 11.5% of total adspends by the same year.In 2006, e-commerce turnover hit $12.8 trillion, taking up 18% in global trade of commodities. With such robust growth rates in e-commerce, internet marketing is bound to take off in a big way. The figure for India stands at 9000 crore with annual growth rate of 30%.
According to TNS media Intelligence Reports, Internet display advertising posted a 16.7 percent increase to $2.70 billion, as marketers continued to expand their online programs in US. The table has been reproduced below.
| MEDIA | JAN-MAR 2007 (Millions) |
JAN-MAR 2006 (Millions) |
% CHANGE |
| TELEVISION MEDIA | $15,590.1 | $16,020.6 | -2.7% |
| · NETWORK TV 2 | $6,052.5 | $6,523.0 | -7.2% |
| · CABLE TV | $3,821.1 | $3,593.4 | 6.3% |
| · SPOT TV 3 | $3,744.2 | $3,905.3 | -4.1% |
| · SPANISH LANGUAGE TV | $985.5 | $950.2 | 3.7% |
| · SYNDICATION – NATIONAL | $986.8 | $1,048.6 | -5.9% |
| MAGAZINE MEDIA 4 | $6,699.8 | $6,417.7 | 4.4% |
| · CONSUMER MAGAZINES | $5,167.5 | $4,825.2 | 7.1% |
| · B-TO-B MAGAZINES | $957.0 | $1,009.1 | -5.2% |
| · SUNDAY MAGAZINES | $429.7 | $438.5 | -2.0% |
| · LOCAL MAGAZINES | $109.9 | $113.7 | -3.3% |
| · SPANISH LANGUAGE MAG | $35.6 | $31.2 | 14.3% |
| NEWSPAPER MEDIA | $6,282.6 | $6,589.8 | -4.7% |
| · NEWSPAPERS (LOCAL) | $5,389.2 | $5,649.7 | -4.6% |
| · NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS | $810.0 | $855.1 | -5.3% |
| · SPANISH LANGUAGE NEWSP | $83.4 | $85.0 | -1.9% |
| INTERNET 5 | $2,704.8 | $2,317.7 | 16.7% |
| RADIO MEDIA | $2,293.6 | $2,343.2 | -2.1% |
| · LOCAL RADIO 6 | $1,580.0 | $1,588.2 | -0.5% |
| · NATIONAL SPOT RADIO | $503.0 | $538.1 | -6.5% |
| · NETWORK RADIO | $210.5 | $216.9 | -2.9% |
| OUTDOOR | $882.2 | $861.3 | 2.4% |
| FSIs 7 | $474.6 | $475.2 | 0.0% |
| TOTAL 8 | $34,927.6 | $35,025.5 | -0.3% |
As clearly visible from the table, internet marketing has seen a robust growth rate in the past and is set to take a sizeable share in the whole pie. Talking about global scenario, according to ZenithOptimedia report, internet advertising is worth $36 billion in 2007 and is expected to grow by 28% in 2008 and 69% over the next three years. For India, the figure currently stands 500 crores and set to explode.
Conclusion
With growing penetration rate across continents coupled with ever increasing per capita time spent on the internet, it becomes a perfect medium for informing potential customers about products and services. Rapid growth in internet marketing is a testimony to this fact. The companies would have to integrate internet marketing in their marketing ecosystem if they want to keep afloat in this ever changing dynamic market.In future, as more and more businesses would go online, internet marketing would take over conventional marketing and would have a major chunk of the whole pie and hence presents an opportunity which needs to be tapped timely.
Prakash said
The growth projected for India is really commendable for investors like me to foresee
, but the real question how much realistic it is with respect to Indian customers in long term, I mean:
1. The widespread of Internet connectivity (PC growth rate in rural India), is it just meant for tech savvy public .
2. How much reliable (secured, speed etc) and cost effective internet in Indi?.
3. How strong does Indian people believe in online shopping ? eg. .Amazon.com has its software development sites but no shopping for India public. etc etc etc………….
Article very well covers the future growth but without addressing the hardships to be overcome
karan said
Hi Prakash,
Great to see you here!
The questions you have raised are an obvious reaction to anybody who advocates Internet Marketing. Let me answer your queries.
1) PC and internet penetration is still in infancy (atleast internet is, with just 3% of population having access to it, and thats only gonna increase, so i dont see it as a hardship but an immense business opportunity.)
And its not just on paper, with corporates jumping in (HCL launched a 10K laptop few months back) and indian governments vision to take broadband to the hinterlands, things are well on track.
And if you thought power is a problem, PCs running on solar power and cow dung is a reality today in rural India
2) As far as cost effectivness of the broadband is concerned, its only heading southwards. BSNL offers broadband from as low as Rs 250 per month.
What I mean to say it is Internet is following the telecom sector. When mobiles started at 25 Rs per minute nobody in dreams would have imagined them to be where they are today.
3) Why Indians dont shop online ?
There was no Big Brand initially whom we could trust easily. Credit card usage on net was feared. And with less than 2% of population on Internet couple of years back, who would have been eager to invest in online stores.
But it has to change.
If quality products and a wide choice is brought into your screen, there is no reason why wouldnt people buy it.
And with covering even a kilometer on the indian roads feeling like making your way through a battlefield, there is no way comfort of online shopping can be resisted.
Vaibhav said
Nice blog guys, I guess full of information only
Though there are some question asked by Prakash but according to me Indian market is going very good in terms of internet marketing. India is a potential market whereas countries like US is matured market. Now I can see average ppl or below avg ppl use Internet banking.
Taking about the rural area, again I will say this is the old natural imbalance. Technology is also like money which has a very alike distribution in India and primary reason is again education.
Over the past 10 years, internet speed increased quite a good in India and soon it will be revolutionary, which makes the word “Computer is the internet”.
I would like to see some more data here: what is the percentage growth of internet market in other countries and there comparison with India. Because the stats speak in self
novice critic said
I have popped up again. Karan, the points you have put forward to Parakash’s post looks reasonable, but on a second thought they don’t look realistic.
It’s not about how easily you can access Internet. It’s about building the confidence even among the tech savvy people, let alone rural India.
Majority of urbanites in India are not taking full benefit from e-shopping. The kind of transactions they usually make are for travel tickets, movie tickets, where one has to stand in a long queue. So, people look for e-shopping only when they don’t have any comfortable alternative.
You see all the retail shops emerging up. Big Bazaar, Store 18, Dollar Store have already expanded their empire. There are few more in the pipeline like Wal-Mart. Why would people choose e-shopping when they have wide variety of outlets in close proximity? Why would they choose a shopping option where they can’t feel the product, can’t see it in actual?
What we are talking about is a bit abstract. There should be a completely different model of Internet marketing, which is customized to attract Indian crowd. In present scenario, I feel it will take some time before producers and consumers understand the power of this domain.
karan said
Hi Novice critc,
u dont seem novice to me
Actually its not about E-shopping. Brands which you talked about do not need internet marketing at all. Its about expanding the markets of small to medium size businesses both on internt and in real world, using internet. And business on internet does not mean an intention to replace their offline counterparts, they are an opening to a new, huge and untapped market.
novice critic said
Well, I was mainly talking about your third point:
“Why Indians dont shop online ?”
I think I digressed a bit.