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Banking Sites See Strong Growth as More Indians Turn to the Web for their Personal Financial Needs
Mumbai, India, August 18, 2010 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its June 2010 ranking of the top Business/Finance sites in India based on data from its Comscore MMX service. The study found that 19.7 million Internet users in India visited Business/Finance sites, representing a 45-percent increase from the previous year, as a growing number of Indians turned to the Web for business and finance-related content including online banking, trading and the latest news on financial markets. Males accounted for 72 percent of visitors to the Business/Finance category, driving 78 percent of total page views and 78 percent of total minutes spent at the category, with the highest skews among males age 25-34.
“With India emerging as a vibrant global financial center, online finance is beginning to attract significantly more attention and drive more transactions than ever before in this market,” said Will Hodgman, Comscore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. “With half of India’s online population visiting a business or finance-related site during the month, there is an opportunity to reach and engage financial consumers in a way that was not possible before. Financial companies must focus now on devising effective digital strategies to help attract and retain these important customers or risk losing them to their competitors.”
ICICI Ranks as Most Visited Bank in India
In June 2010, 19.7 million people age 15 and older visited a Business/Finance site from a home or work location in India, an increase of 45 percent from the previous year. Nearly all of the top 10 most visited Business/Finance sites witnessed double-digit traffic growth in the past year as more Indians turned to the Web for financial information. ICICI Bank led as the top Business/Finance site in India with 4.7 million visitors, an increase of 40 percent from the previous year. HDFC Group followed as the second most visited site with 3.5 million visitors (up 58 percent) with the State Bank of India grabbing the #3 spot with nearly 3 million visitors (up 84 percent).
Top Business/Finance Sites by Unique VisitorsJune 2010 vs. June 2009Total Audience, Age 15+ - India Home & Work Locations*Source: Comscore MMX
Total Unique Visitors (000)
Jun-2009
Jun-2010
% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience
34,601
39,171
13
Business/Finance
13,633
19,708
45
ICICI Bank
3,365
4,725
40
HDFC Group
2,217
3,496
58
State Bank of India
1,598
2,944
84
MoneyControl.com
1,674
2,264
35
Indian Overseas Bank
N/A
2,064
Citigroup
1,136
2,027
78
Yahoo! Finance
707
1,343
90
Axis Bank
839
1,308
56
Bombay Stock Exchange
917
896
-2
PaySeal.com
304
889
192
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Further analysis of the most-visited online banks revealed that the top three received a significant portion of site traffic from markets outside of India. ICICI Bank saw 12.3 percent of its traffic originate from other markets, with the U.S. accounting for 5.4 percent of overall visitation to the site, the U.K. at 2.5 percent and Canada with 1.0 percent, leading as the three largest markets for visitation outside of India. HDFC Group received nearly 6 percent of its traffic from other markets (top three: U.S. 1.5 percent, U.K. 0.7 percent and Singapore 0.3 percent). While State Bank of India received 6 percent of its traffic from other markets (top three: U.S. 2.3 percent, U.K. 0.5 percent and Singapore 0.3 percent).
Visitation Origin to Three Largest Online Banks in IndiaJune 2010Total Audience, Age 15+ - India Home & Work Locations*Source: Comscore MMX
% of Unique Visitors in India
% of Unique Visitors Outside India
87.7%
12.3%
94.3%
5.7%
94.0%
6.0%
“Several banks occupied top spots in the category, pointing to the popularity and growing interest in online banking in India,” continued Mr. Hodgman. “With the top banks attracting a significant number of visitors from countries outside of India, these visitors, most likely non-resident Indians, represent an important segment for banks to address when developing and executing their digital strategies.”
Visitors Show Strong Engagement at MoneyControl.com and Bombay Stock Exchange
On average, Internet users in India spent 53 minutes on Business/Finance sites in June 2010, consuming 92 pages of content and frequenting the category 6 times during the month. Of the top 10 most visited Business/Finance sites, visitors to MoneyControl.com displayed the strongest engagement, averaging more than one hour on the site during the month, visiting the site 5 times and consuming 57 pages of content. Visitors to Bombay Stock Exchange also exhibited strong engagement, averaging 42 minutes on the site during the month and consuming 97 pages of content. Among the major banks, ICICI Bank led with the largest amount of time spent per visitor at 26 minutes.
Engagement at Most Visited Business/Finance SitesJune 2010Total Audience, Age 15+ - India Home & Work Locations*Source: Comscore MMX
Average Minutes per Visitor
Average Pages per Visitor
Average Visits per Visitor
723.4
1,118
29.8
53.3
92
6.3
26.3
4.0
20.6
51
3.9
16.6
28
3.4
65.3
57
5.0
4.8
10
1.9
12.0
21
2.5
17.0
15
4.3
16.2
32
3.6
42.2
97
5.8
0.8
6
1.6
About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
Contact:Sarah RadwanickDirector, Regional Product MarketingComscore, Inc. +44 (0) 20 7099 1784worldpress@comscore.com