Survey on Indians' social media usage pattern throws up curious findings

Logo of ShareChat app
(Image credit: ShareChat)

A survey report, which sought to understand the behaviour and profile of English (India) and native language (Bharat) social media users, has found that 78% of Bharat engages in social media activity like watch/upload/create content during their leisure time. It further said that 73% of internet users sign into social networking platforms everyday and they are most active between 7 pm and 11 pm.

The study, named ‘Understanding India’s Next Billion Internet Users’ was carried out by ShareChat, one of the leading social media platforms in India, along with Nielsen India as its ‘Knowledge Partner’.  

The study, done to understand the overall social media usage, consumption and online behaviour, had 3788 respondents across 81 cities in India, with 40% of respondents coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities.

The study found users spend over 5 hours a week, signing in at least 3 times everyday on social media platforms. 

Videos remain their most preferred format, and users spend up to 2 minutes on every video. 49% of users post content daily, images being the highest uploaded format closely followed by videos. 

The report said entertainment and networking were the major determinants for people to hop on social media platforms. 

Speaking on the findings, Satyajit Deb Roy, Director - Sales, ShareChat said, “(the findings) have indicated a paradigm shift in the online consumption behaviour among ‘Bharat’ audiences and highlighted how Bharat internet users have evolved into a mature internet audience, though they prefer to interact in their native language. Moreover, the report has also suggested that the Bharat users have a higher spending propensity, are comfortable shopping online, and are equally well-versed with investment.”

What are the people spending on?

The study also found that messaging, banking and payment, delivery, and online shopping are the top 4 digital apps used by at least half of all social media users.

Bharat users are more prone towards investments, scoring more than the Indian users in every category. Savings Account and Life Insurance are considered among the top 2 investment instruments by both Bharat and India users. 

The report highlighted the fact that nearly 100% of households among the respondents interviewed had a colour television at home. On the other hand, more metro users owned air conditioners, sofa sets, Water Purifiers, Smart/ Android TVs, while more users from Bharat preferred air coolers.

Jio, the preferred telecom service

Data plans have become cheaper across the network, and hence 9 out of 10 use mobile networks to access the internet most of the time. Reliance’s telecom offering, Reliance Jio emerged as the network of choice of Bharat given its affordable data plans.  

Bharat consumers seem brand conscious, with Xiaomi and Samsung turning out to be the brand of choice for the majority.

Via: ShareChat

Balakumar K
Senior Editor

Over three decades as a journalist covering current affairs, politics, sports and now technology. Former Editor of News Today, writer of humour columns across publications and a hardcore cricket and cinema enthusiast. He writes about technology trends and suggest movies and shows to watch on OTT platforms. 

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