70% Students Own Smartphones Nationally: Survey

India’s ‘Post-Millennial’ generation seem set to overtake the preceding ‘Millennial’ generation or ‘Gen Y’, taking communication over social networks like Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging modes like Whatsapp to newer extremes, according to the findings of the TCS survey 2012-13.

The findings of India’s largest survey of nearly 17,500 high school students across 14 Indian cities – the first such survey of an exclusive Post-Millennial audience – reveals that smart devices and unprecedented levels of online access are making this generation the most connected yet. This is changing the way they communicate with each other and transforming both their academic and social lives.

Commenting on the TCS Survey, N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD said, “Urban school students today are gaining greater online access with more affordable bandwidth and smart devices on offer. They are an ultra-connected generation, using the power of the internet for education as well as collaborating through social networks and building virtual communities. As significant employers of India’s talented youth, it is important for us to understand these social and digital trends to create engaging careers for this generation.”

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Releasing the survey, Ajoy Mukherjee, Executive Vice President and Global Head HR said: “The survey shows the increasing comfort levels that the Post-Millennial generation exhibit with digital technology, social networking, smart phones and gaming, which helps us create conditions to unleash their creativity and innovativeness. This can help us not just attract the best of their talent but also aid in keeping them engaged and energised.”

Survey Highlights:

The TCS GenY survey 2012-13 shows remarkable common trends among urban high school students across the country but also reveals differences between metros and upcoming Tier II towns which are emerging as mini-metros:

School–2–Social: Nearly three out of four students cited “Research for School” as the main reason to access the Internet followed by social reasons like chatting/connecting with friends (62 percent). Still, Post-Millennials are showing themselves to be even more focused than Millennials, with accessing e-mail growing as a preference (49 percent vs 44.54 percent in 2011-12) at the cost of listening to music (45.47 percent vs 50.27 percent in 2011-12).

Home is where we connect: About 84 percent of students go online from home compared to just 58 percent (in 2009)

• Use of Cybercafes as an online access point has dropped dramatically, falling from 46 percent in 2009 to 14 percent cent today

• Nearly one in five respondents spend between a whopping 2-3 hours on the Internet daily, while one in four spend between 1-2 hours

Gr8 Networks: Social networks like Facebook are the primary and clear favorite among Post-Millennials to connect with their peers with 92 percent cent of respondents preferring this social platform. Interestingly, preference for Facebook is equally high among respondents in both metros (92 percent) and mini metros (91 percent). Other social platforms like Orkut have taken a backseat with a 28 percent preference.

• Tweeting as a medium of communication is now being used by one in three Post Millennials in the TCS survey though only two percent cent listed it as their preferred site.

Made 4 Mobility: Nearly seven out of every 10 high school students own mobile phones and nearly 20 per cent use mobile phones to access the internet (compared to just 12 percent in 2009).

• An emerging trend is the use of tablets with almost 19 percent using these new devices with users in metros (20 percent) outnumbering their peers in mini metros (17 percent)

• Mobiles (18.17 percent) have emerged as the fastest growing mediums for accessing the Internet among Post-Millennials, at the expense of home (72.03 percent vs 84.29 percent last year), School (14.41 percent vs 22.08 percent) and cyber cafes (13.57 percent vs 20.54 percent).

Smarter with smartphones: Nearly six out of 10 Post-Millennial respondents own a smartphone, but what is remarkable is the fact that the difference in ownership patterns between metros (58.50 percent) and mini metros (59.36 percent) isn’t much, with the smaller cities scoring over the larger ones.

Type, don’t Call: The TCS Survey makes it clear that increasingly India’s urban Post-Millennial generation is turning to text and chat as alternatives to voice. 74 percent of those surveyed said they use Facebook the most to communicate, while 54 percent used SMS – both significantly higher than the number of students who said they used voice calls (44 percent) for the same purpose

• Reflecting poorer connectivity levels, use of email (44 percent) in Mini-metros continues to higher than metros (40 percent) but respondents from the latter scored higher in the usage of Facebook and SMS.

Tablets no bitter medicine: Post-Millennials are clearly ahead of the curve preferring tablets, which are fast climbing the charts as the favorite gadget (18.41 percent all India vs 5.83 percent last year) with this generation

• Tablet ownership made an entry this year with 38 percent owning a device, with 40 percent metro-based respondents owning one compared with 35 percent in mini metros

Brand is in: The new generation also is as clued into brands are the Millennials before them, if not more. Top mobile/tablet brands are not too far apart in terms of desirability both for respondents in metros and mini metros. Preferred electronic devices in order of preference are: Samsung (48.28 percent), Nokia (46.46 percent), Apple (39.56 percent) and HTC (36.54 percent).

Shopping from home: Not only do Post-Millennials know what they want, but they also are clear about how to shop for it. Four out of 10 respondents shop online now while one in four respondents buy clothes and accessories online.

• Respondents from mini metros shop online more than their peers in metros for movie tickets, books/DVDs/music and airline/train tickets but respondents in metros are more fashion conscious, shopping more for clothes and accessories.

Career@IT: The Post-Millennial generation is far more conscious than their predecessors before. They seem to clear about what they would look for in a future job. IT remains the top career preference amongst youngsters irrespective of geography with Engineering and Medicine following. Media /Entertainment is emerging as a clear urban favourite but the biggest gainer has been banks and financial services.

Linking in: Early use of career sites like Linked-In are more popular in business centric metros (20.22 percent) compared with mini metros (8.86 percent) where Linked-In is still catching on.

Post Millennials: Globally, post millennials refers broadly to the demographic cohort born from 1996 and afterwards, when the Millennial generation (1975 to 1995) or generation Y (gen Y) ended. This is the first nationwide survey of this new demographic cohort carried out not just by TCS, but perhaps by anyone in India and as such reflects that the new generation is perhaps a more extreme version of the previous one – bring more technology savvy, focused and aware.