India is Searching

Google ranked as the top search property in India with more than 1 billion searches conducted in June, representing 81 percent of the market. Yahoo! ranked second with 9.4 percent, followed by Ask (1.9 percent) and Microsoft (1.7 percent).

Indian Internet portal Rediff.com ranked fifth.

Top Search Properties in India
June 2008
Total India -- Age 15+, Home/Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

                                        Searches      Share of
                                          (MM)        Searches
Total Internet                                     1,242          100.0
Google Sites                                       1,011           81.4
Yahoo! Sites                                         117            9.4
Ask Network                                           24            1.9
Microsoft Sites                                       22            1.7
Rediff.com India Ltd                                  18            1.5
FACEBOOK.COM                                          10            0.8
People Group                                           9            0.8
CNET Networks                                          5            0.4
Wikipedia Sites                                        5            0.4
AOL LLC                                                3            0.2

"The Indian search market is dominated by global brands, with Google attracting the wide majority of searches," said Jack Flanagan, of comScore. "As the top local player in the search market, Indian web portal Rediff.com attracts slightly less than 2 percent of all searches, indicating that there is substantial room for growth."

Search Intensity Lags in India, Indicating Opportunity for Growth. Despite being one of the most rapidly emerging Internet markets in the world in terms of overall usage growth, India currently exhibits less frequent search behavior than its global counterparts. Of the 37 countries individually reported by comScore, India ranked second to last with 53 searches per searcher during the month, well below the worldwide average of 93. India also had significantly fewer search visits per searcher (14.7 vs. 23.6) and searches per search visit (3.6 vs. 3.9).

    India Search Market Overview
June 2008
Total India -- Age 15+, Home/Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch

                Unique                    Search     Searches
    Searches   Searchers    Searches    Visits Per  Per Search
      (MM)       (000)    Per Searcher   Searcher     Visit
Worldwide      74,217     802,267       92.5        23.6         3.9
India           1,242      23,416       53.1        14.7         3.6

"Though India represents more than 15 percent of the world's population, it accounts for less than 2 percent of global Internet searches," added Mr. Flanagan. "It will be interesting to see if this gap narrows as more people in India gain Internet access."