WhatsApp is the top smartphone app in India, Facebook is next: Nielsen

The first round of Consumer Rankings for India by Nielsen, launched earlier today, has revealed that Mobile messenger “WhatsApp” is the most engaging mobile app, while the site “Flipkart” is the top e-tailing website for urban Indian consumers. Finnish brand Nokia emerged as the preferred brand of mobile handsets in the telecom sector. Vodafone emerged as the top mobile operator. 

Nielsen India Consumer Rankings are based on popularity and consumer experience for six lifestyle categories, including smartphone apps, e-tailing sites, mobile handsets, mobile operators, books and International travel preferences of urban Indian consumers. These findings will be released at an All-India level for all six categories and select city rankings will be released for four categories (e-tailing, International travel, mobile handsets and mobile operators) across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune. 

Smartphone apps

Nearly half (47 percent) of the respondents engage with smartphone messenger service WhatsApp and spend 24 minutes a day chatting, making it the top smartphone app for urban Indian consumers. Coming in at the second position is social networking website Facebook, whch reaches out to over half the respondents (51 percent), but the engagement time on the smartphone app is 10 minutes a day.

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WhatsApp, not Facebook is the top smartphone app in India

At 9th place is Newshunt, a news aggregator app that allows a user to download news from different sources. The app has a low reach (14 percent) but reasonably high engagement at 6 minutes a day. Video sharing app Youtube ranks 5th, while “Tubemate”, an app that allows users to download Youtube videos, is at number 8.

The rankings are arrived at using Nielsen proprietary tools, current panels and in-depth surveys and studies where relevant across the country and are unique to each category. 

Mobile handsets

According to the study conducted across eight cities in India across 6000 consumers, in October 2012, nearly half (49 percent) the respondents use a feature phone, three in ten (30 percent) consumers use a Multimedia phone, while one fifth (20 percent) currently use smartphone devices. Based on current ownership and consumer satisfaction 88 percent respondents indicated they were most satisfied with the brand Nokia (1st), followed by  Samsung (2nd) and BlackBerry (3rd).

Mobile operators

Vodafone is the top ranking mobile operator, followed by Airtel (2nd) and  Idea (3rd). Network quality emerges as the most important driver of customer satisfaction, followed by customer service, service positioning and data services. Tata Docomo (5th) leads on satisfaction for SMS rates, data plans and value added services, while Uninor (8th) is the most “value for money” option for consumers.

E-Tailing 

Flipkart (1st), E-Bay(2nd) and Homeshop18 (3rd) are the top three E-tailing sites as indicated by over 1000 active Internet users and online shoppers as per data collected in Q4 2012. Cellphones and accessories (52 percent), books (50 percent) and clothing (49 percent) are the most popular categories to be purchased online. Deal-based site Snapdeal is at number 4. Multi category and multi-brand e-stores Jabong (6th), Yebhi (7th), Fashionandyou (9th) and Myntra (10th) indicate the growing acceptance of the online medium for shopping.

Books

Indian authors dominate the fiction rankings with Amish Tripathi’s “The Immortals of Meluha” and the sequel “The Secret of the Nagas” appearing in the top ten, as per data from point of sale, of over 400 retailers across the country. The Non-fiction book to top the list is S Hussain Zaidi’s “From Dongri to Dubai: Six decades of the Mumbai Mafia”. In the Children’s category, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series dominates the list, with eight spots in the top 10.

International travel

Singapore ranks as the most visited destination for both business and leisure travelers in the last twelve months. For business travelers, USA is the second most visited destination, and for leisure Nepal takes second position. In the coming twelve months, Malaysia tops the list for planned travel across both business and leisure categories, followed by Singapore.

“While we have always provided uncommon consumer insights for our clients, with this initiative we are taking insights from cities across the country, and giving  back to consumers” said Piyush Mathur, President , Nielsen India Region. “These rankings reflect the pulse of urban Indian consumers, and will provide a different lens to view the lifestyle choices that urban consumers are making every day. In sync with our view on innovation and complementing todays on-the-go lifestyle, the App created for these rankings is the right accompaniment  to the information on the website and allows access to consumers literally at the touch of a screen," he added.

“Nielsen has always been the curator of the consumer voice and these consumer rankings are a reflection of collective consumer intelligence, at the national level and for our top cities. These will enable the Indian consumer to validate choices and make empowered lifestyle decisions” said Ranjeet Laungani, Vice President , Nielsen India. “Nielsen consumer rankings acknowledge that the Indian consumers not only want to be heard but also be better informed. These rankings will provide the average urban Indian with a neutral, fact-based consumer view on everyday categories that are relevant to them” he added.