comScore: Indian search market study released

comScore has released findings from its latest study into the online search market in India. Three guesses who has the major market share.

by Helen Leggatt

India ranks second to last when it comes to the number of searches conducted per person per month. The global average is 93 searches per person, per month, whereas Indian Internet users conduct just 53.

"Though India represents more than 15 percent of the world's population, it accounts for less than 2 percent of global Internet searches," said Flanagan. "It will be interesting to see if this gap narrows as more people in India gain Internet access and ramp up their use of search over time."

And which search engine are the majority of Indians using to conduct their searches? Why, its Google sites with over 1 billion searches served in India during June 2008, representing 81% of the market.

Far behind in second place is Yahoo with 9.4% (117 million searches), followed by Ask.com sites with 1.9% (24 million searches) and Microsoft with 1.7%, or 22 million searches.

So what about local Indian players? “Indian web portal Rediff.com attracts slightly less than 2 percent of all searches indicating that there is substantial room for growth among the local Internet brands,” said comScore executive vice president, Jack Flanagan.