NEW DELHI, September 19: Rediff has emerged as the most popular portal of choice, according to the findings of Portal Perception Study 2004-05.
About 36.8 per cent of users surveyed said Rediff was their most favourite portal. The maximum number of users in New Delhi (40 per cent), Kolkata (40 per cent) and Chennai (35 per cent) favoured Rediff. Yahoo India was second placed in the popularity charts with 34.2 per cent. Indiatimes came a distant third with 16.4 per cent users mentioning it as their favourite portal. Yahoo India was the favourite in Mumbai (37 per cent) and Bangalore (48 per cent).
In terms of the favourite feature on their favourite portals, 84.48 per cent users said they used it for emails and chatting. Other features like search, downloads, games. news, and matrimonials were a distant third in this category. These findings have been revealed in the Portal Perception Study 2004-05 carried out by eStatsIndia, a first generation Internet research and consultancy firm based in New Delhi.
The study was carried out to understand the perception towards the portal market in India from the point of view of users. The study gauged the behaviorial aspects of users towards portals and their usage patterns, frequencies, and habits. Among the perception parameters studied were most favorite portal, most favorable feature of the portal, area for improvement, where users access the portal from, and the future of portals, among other things. Five leading portals � Rediff, Yahoo India, Indiatimes, MSN India, and Sify � were surveyed across five cities � New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bangalore.
Vikram Bhardwaj, CEO, estatsindia, said, "In today’s dynamic environment portals are no longer based on simple Internet models. Their business models are getting complex day by day. Features like syndication and aggregation, comparison shopping, intelligent bots, customised email solutions are becoming too important for a portal to ignore. These features today differentiate the winners in the portal market place."
The second most favourite feature for users after emails and chat was search and seek information with 94 per cent users saying so. This also indicated the fact that the basic use of portals of seeking information is sill of paramount importance for users after emails. Around 54 per cent users said that search for shop feature was the third most favourite feature on the portals.
According to the report, bottomlines as well the topline growth today are under severe pressure for all leading portals. Portals are being forced to identify new revenue streams, and channels and are willing to adapt to these changing times. For example, Rediff recently announced the launch of an online films ticketing channel and expects it to yield profitable returns in the near future.
The perception of Indian portals in the mind of users is "upbeat", according to the study. Users except an improvement in terms of basic features like emails and eshopping. At the same time, they want portals to constantly evolve and offer new features like personalisation in case of shopping and other new features available on portals worldwide.
When asked whether they felt that their favourite portals needed improvements, around 69.8 per cent respondents said that improvements were needed. Around 27.42 per cent users said that security is the most important feature that need to improve. Around 22.28 per cent users felt that the email features needed improvement, while 21 per cent felt the content reliability must be enhanced.
Internet access patterns also showed some interesting trends. Forty per cent users said they access their favourite portal on alternate days in a week. About 35 per cent do it on a daily basis, while 24 per cent access their favourite portal once a week. Some 75 per cent of the users in Bangalore access the portal on a daily basis.
Maximum users access their portal from office � 38.7 per cent do so. Around 31.15 per cent do it from cyber cafes, and 26.01 per cent from their homes. A very minimal 4.6 per cent access portals or site features through PDAs or other access devices like handhelds, etc. Around 75.8 per cent users felt Indian portals need to scale up their services up to global standards.
