Google Sites which include various online properties like Google Search, Youtube, Blogger, Google+ etc ranked as the top destination among Indian users reaching nearly 95 percent of the online population while social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter reigned as the top online activity accounting for 25.2 percent of all online minutes. The ranking was published in a study by comScore, on the top online sites and activities in India on its comScore Media Metrix service.
According to the study in June 2012, Google Sites ranked as the top online destinations in India reaching 57.8 million people age 15 and older accessing the Internet from a home or work computer. Second position was taken by Facebook.com with 50.9 million visitors (83.4 percent reach), followed by Yahoo! Sites (65.5 percent reach) and Microsoft Sites (48.1 percent reach). Indian web properties also performed well to secure several spots in the top 10 ranking, including Times Internet Limited, reaching 33.7 percent of the online population, Network 18 (29.3 percent reach), Rediff.com India Ltd (25.2 percent reach) and NIC.in (21.8 percent reach).
World’s top social networking site Facebook.com ranked on most visitors engagement, spending an average of nearly 4 hours on the site in June. Followed by 2.5 hours spent by visitors on Google sites, with YouTube accounting for a strong share of time spent on the property. Taking on the Indian online properties Network 18 led as the most engaging property with visitors averaging 31.6 minutes during the month.
Another interesting stats from the study says, Social networking accounted for 25.2 percent of all time spent online by users in India on June, an increase of 0.8 percentage points from the previous year. Entertainment sites ranked second, accounting for 10 percent of minutes (up 1.2 percentage points from the previous year), while Online web Portals accounted for 8.8 percent of total minutes. Although it represented just 2.0 percent of total minutes, time spent on Retail sites grew 0.5 points in the past year as online shopping continued to gain adoption. Email usage and Search/Navigation ranked fourth and fifth position on time spent online.
*Does not include visits from public Access computers, such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs