"Search queries originating from India have grown 20 times in the last five years, Rajan Anandan, VP-Sales & Operations at Google India, adding that for Google, India is the third biggest Internet market in terms of users, with over 100 million internet user base, adding that 40 million people in India access the Internet from work, and 30 million from Cafes, apart from 11 million households that have a broadband connection installed. Anandan, speaking at the VC Circle E-Commerce Forum, held in Delhi last week, made a strong pitch for the Internet, saying that the amount of time that an average user in India spends online is now on par to TV viewing time at 16 hours in a week. On the Mobile Internet, Anandan said that more than (according to Google estimates) 40 million Internet users in India access it through their mobile phones and there are 30 million app downloads in one week. The number of search queries originating from mobile phones have grown four times in the last 12 months and 50 times since 2007. Anandan predicted that more than 300 million people in India would be hooked on to mobile internet by the year 2015. Segment Specific Search Trends Anandan emphasized on the fact that Indians go online to search for product information and believe in Research Online and Buy offline. He gave an estimated breakup for various product categories: - Auto - 33% Research online Buy Offline and 3% Research and Buy Online - Healthcare- 39% Research…
