ShareChat releases report on ‘Understanding India’s Next Billion Internet Users’

Key highlights of the report are Reliance Jio is the most preferred network for Bharat users. Music, Comedy and News are the most followed content genres on social media.

78% of language first internet users are on social media during leisure time

ShareChat on Tuesday released a report that aims to shed light on the overall social media usage, consumption, and online behaviour. Nielsen India conducted the primary research for the report titled ‘Understanding India's Next Billion Internet Users'. The study covers 3,788 respondents across 81 cities in the country, with 40% of respondents from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

The report also focuses on the behaviour and profile of India (social media users who prefer only English for using the social network) and native language (Bharat) social media users. According to the study, 78% of Bharat social media users engage in activities such as watching, uploading, and creating content during their leisure time.

About 73% of internet users sign into social networking platforms every day with the most active time being between 7 PM and 11 PM. The study says that users spend more than five hours a week, signing in at least three times every day. Unsurprisingly, videos remain the most preferred content for consumption with users spending up to 2 minutes on every video. It further says that about 49% of users post content on a daily basis. Images are the highest upload formats followed by videos.

Apart from actively using social media, users spend the most time on entertainment and networking on these platforms. Messaging, banking and payment, delivery, and online shopping are also among the top four digital applications used by at least half of social media users.

Here are some other highlights of the report:

Fashion, Mobile Phones, Non-Electronic devices, and Media are among the top bought online categories. Bharat users bought more categories when compared to India in the last three months.

Buying pattern of Bharat vs India users  (ShareChat)

Buying pattern of Bharat vs India users  (ShareChat)

On average, Bharat users invest in 4 different investment plans while India invests in 3. The top 5 investment categories include Savings A/c, Life Insurance, Fixed Deposit, Mutual Fund, Gold/ Silver.

Samsung and Mi are among the top smartphone brands  (ShareChat)

Samsung and Mi are among the top smartphone brands  (ShareChat)

9 out of 10 use the mobile network to access the internet. The usage of Jio is higher among Bharat when compared to India. Samsung and Mi are the top 2 mobile Brands used overall.