MUMBAI: More than four in ten Indians (45 per cent) use the Internet to search for information on entertainment and hobbies due to diverse and vast amount of information that is available in the Internet these days, according to a new study by leading global research firm Ipsos.
Downloading and streaming media – music (43 per cent), movies (39 per cent) and television (27 per cent) – is a popular pursuit, as are video games (28 per cent) and gaming online for money (26 per cent).
Ipsos in India Head of Marketing Communication Biswarup Banerjee said, "While the internet may be a place for business and commerce, it is also a place for play. Growing popularity of internet has shifted search for information from traditional print media to the dynamic, comprehensive and on demand internet search engines".
Well over half (57 per cent) of people globally use the Internet to search for information on entertainment and hobbies. But usage in the 24 countries surveyed varied widely, with 72 per cent of people in Turkey saying they visited sites for hobbies, while only 35 per cent in Saudi Arabia did.
Other heavy personal-interest, web-surfing nations included China, Hungary, Japan, South Korea and Sweden, while Argentina, Spain, India, Brazil and Mexico were among the lowest users.
The Web as a Source for Media: Downloading and streaming is a popular activity, particularly of music: four in ten (43 per cent) of global citizens online say they have downloaded/streamed music in the last three months while three in ten (34%) say so about movies and two in ten (22 per cent) do for television.
China is the world leader on all three forms of media by considerable margins. Majorities of Chinese Internet users say they downloaded/streamed music (72 per cent), movies (71 per cent) and TV (55 per cent). Turkey (62 per cent music, 58 per cent movies, 34 per cent TV) is also a global leader on this measure.
"It‘s remarkable to think that the file-sharing technology, popularised for music only in recent history, is now being done by four in 10 internet users in 24 countries. Even in countries at the bottom of the global ranking lists, one quarter still do it" adds Banerjee.
On the flip side, only handfuls of Japanese web surfers say they downloaded or streamed media in the last three months (24 per cent music, nine per cent movies, nine per cent TV). France is also at the bottom of each list: music (24 per cent), movies (15 per cent) and TV (seven per cent). Notably, even the lowest-ranking countries show at least one in four have downloaded or streamed music online.
A Place to Play: Three in ten (27 per cent) say they have ‘played video games online’ and 13 per cent have done ‘online gaming or playing for money (e.g. poker, bingo).’ China is also the world leader of online video gamers (61 per cent), followed at some distance by Poland (47 per cent), Turkey (38 per cent) and Mexico (33 per cent). The Swedes (13 per cent) are least likely to play video games online, joining South Korea (16 per cent), Hungary (17 per cent), Japan (18 per cent) and France (18 per cent) at the bottom of the list.
“Online games are increasingly becoming popular among teens and young adults and it promises to be a booming industry,” added Banerjee.
With online gambling for money, Indians are the most keen among the 24 countries surveyed: one in four (26 per cent) say they did so in the past three months. Saudi Arabia (23 per cent), Poland (21 per cent), South Korea (20 per cent) and Sweden (20 per cent) are next. Those connected online in Italy (six per cent), Germany ( six per cent), Mexico (seven per cent), China (seven per cent) and Australia (seven per cent) are least likely to say so.
