MUMBAI: Around 57 Majority of Indian Internet users (57 per cent) prefer to check bank account and other financial holdings online, reveals a recent research carried out by global research firm Ipsos.
Accessing information on the net on products and services that people are thinking of buying comes second at 53 per cent while half 50 per cent shop for products online and more than four in ten (42 per cent) have surfed to look for jobs in the last three months.
Ipsos India head of marketing communication Biswarup Banerjee said, "Online banking has made things much easier for the people and it saves a lot of time. It has eliminated the hassle of traditional way of banking where one had to stand in the queue and fill up several forms."
"Most of the banks in India have introduced customer friendly online banking facility with advance security features to protect its customers against cybercrime. The easy registration process for net banking has improved customers access to several banking products, increased customer loyalty, facilitated money transfer to any banks across India and has helped banks to attract new customers," he added.
Banking and keeping track of finances, shopping and searching for jobs are the main tasks of Internet users around the globe. Nearly 60 per cent of people in 24 countries used the web to check their bank account and other financial assets in the past 90 days, making it the most popular use of the Internet.
Also, according to the Ipsos poll globally 41 per cent people went online in search of a job.
Around 48 per cent people used Internet in past three months ‘to buy products or services online‘. For the same, 50 per cent Indians used Internet while Germany and Great Britain have the highest percentage (74 percent each) of people buying products and services online.
"It is telling that the top four countries are all traditionally developed western countries," said Banerjee. "It‘s really been under 10 years that this technology has been around."
Almost 61 per cent people have searched the web for information about products they are thinking about buying. Online shopping was the least popular in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Hungary and Russia, where 28 per cent or fewer people buy online.
Polls were the most likely to log on to look for a job, with 61 per cent searching online for work, followed by Hungarians, South Africans and Mexicans. But only 17 per cent of Japanese and a quarter of South Koreans and French have chosen the web for their job search.
Banerjee noted that the findings shadow very closely the number of people who said they knew someone who has lost or is looking for a job. "For almost all of them (countries) it mirrors who has the most job anxiety," he added.
The poll revealed that older people, between 50-64 years of age, with higher incomes and education were the most likely to do their banking online, online shoppers were also better educated and bigger earners. But about half of online job searchers were under 35 years old, unmarried and had smaller incomes.
Ipsos interviewed 19,216 adults in India, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.
