Women, villages and the less affluent drive internet growth

The message from Nielsen's latest India Internet Report is that media planners need to get out of the reach game and get more creative to leverage the new type of audiences coming online

- VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR

Women, rural India and lower-income homes are among the fastest-growing cohorts of internet users in India. Nearly half of rural India is online and usage here went up by 40 per cent in 2022 over 2021. In the same period usage went up by 35 per cent among women and by 30 per cent among NCCS D, E audiences (those at the lower end of the income and education spectrum). Across India smartphone sharing is high. And digital payment is among the fastest growing applications. It grew 43 per cent in 2022 over 2021.

These are the key takeaways from Nielsen's India Internet Report 2023. It reinforces the ubiquity of the internet in our lives. But more importantly, it indicates that media firms and advertisers need to start thinking differently about how they are using it, reckons Dolly Jha, managing director, Nielsen India. "The profile of audiences coming online will require a more focussed effort on creative and measurement," she said. For instance, vernacular platforms are rising in reach. The number of platforms across short video, music or social media is multiplying.

"Advertisers will need to experiment with other platforms," says Jha.