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Quick Summary: I use data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and compare it to Forrester Research’s social technographics profiles for Metro China.

In my previous post, I had compared the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on why the social web is not flat.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Ladder classifies consumers into six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media –

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

I ended the post by wishing that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India –

However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits.

Well, I have spent a few hours in mashing together data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and here’s how it looks –

- Metro India: I have defined Metro India as the top eight cities in India in terms of population (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune). The total population of Metro India is 52mn (as per World Gazette estimates).

- Active Internet Users in Metro India: IAMAI’s I-Cube 2007 report there are 46mn Internet users in India (with 70% or 32mn active users), out of which 38% or 17.5mn are in Metro India. Assuming a higher active internet user percentage of 80%, the number of active internet users in Metro India can be estimated at 14mn (80% of 17.5mn).

- Creators in Metro India: The number of blogs in India has been estimated between 0.5mn and 1.2mn (see JuxtConsult India Online 2006, Ankit Maheshwari of Instablogs in The Hindu, Amit Ranjan of Webyantra, Debashish Chakrabarty of Indibloggies in Asian Age), even though most sources agree that the number of active blogs in India is much less than 50000. Starting with this baseline, and factoring in users uploading self-created content on photo-sharing and video sharing sites, we can estimate the number of Creators in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Critics in Metro India: India’s largest product review site Mouthshut claims to have 2.3mn registered users out of which 50% or 1.2mn are in Metro India (link). Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Critics in Metro India at a maximum of 5mn.

- Collecters in Metro India: India’s largest social voting site site IndianPad has less than 50000 users. Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Collectors in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Joiners in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2008 report, 50% of all internet users in India use social networking sites, putting the size of the user base for social networking sites in India at 16mn (I had recently estimated it at 10mn). Assuming a higher social networking usage percentage of 60%, the number of Joiners in Metro India can be estimated at 8.4mn (60% of 14mn).

- Spectators in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2006 survey, 85% of all Indian internet users regularly read blogs. Assuming that 85% of all Internet users in Metro India engage with social media in some form, the number of Spectators in Metro India can be estimated at 11.9mn. This is also intuitive because at least some internet users who are not on social networking sites must still engage with social media in some form.

- Inactives in Metro India: Once we have estimated that out of 14mn people in Metro India, 11.9mn are Spectators, the number of Inactives in Metro India can be safely estimated at 2.1mn.

To provide a context on how small these numbers are, here’s the social technographics profile for Metro China from my previous post –

It is evident even from a cursory look at the two charts that social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

In my upcoming posts in the series, I’ll try to understand the reasons for such a difference between social media usage in India and China. Stay tuned.

• The Social Web is Not Flat (Part I): Forrester Research Social Technographics Profiles (6)
• Everyone is a Creators Now! Really? (0)
• The World is Not Flat and Neither is the Social Web (7)
• Six Levels of Web 2.0 Participation (0)
• Blogworks Report: An Overview of Internet, Blog & Social Media Environment in India (1)