As a young basket-baller during mid 70’s, I often used to get the opportunity of visiting Bombay (now Mumbai) from Bangalore and play in tournaments in Matunga. And once you are in Bombay, you can’t resist going to the famous VT Station. It was here that when I used to stand on the balcony of the VT station from where you could see almost all the railway lines ending at VT station itself, I would see a local train coming in almost every alternate minute and terminating at VT station. The moment the train stopped, out came a large swarm of people, in thousands perhaps, and quickly moved towards the exit. At the same time, another swarm of people, waiting on the platform, got into the train and within minutes the train departed to some unknown destination. And then another train came and went, then another and another, it was a non-stop inflow and outflow of thousands of people to and from the VT station. Often I used to observe this pattern of people movement from one location to another and wonder as to from where are they coming and to where are they going and why?

Fast forward to today’s Bangalore. When I stand near the side of any main road, I see a road full of vehicles each trying to out beat the other. Every inch of road space is filled with vehicles till there is no more space left. It’s like water getting filled in a canal. It’s no different in other metropolitan cities of India. Once again, I get the same question in my mind; from where are they coming, going where and why? Is there a solution to this mad traffic at all? Will road expansions and traffic streamlining solve the problems at all? My thoughts on the reasons and possible ways to explore solutions:

Why does someone venture to travel?

Of course, there could be hundred reasons for someone to venture out of his/her house and travel towards another part of the city. But if we want to identify at least a few major but commonly occurring needs, they could be:

• Adults going to work
• Children going to school/college
• Family goes to cinema/shopping/functions/visit relatives, friends
• People going to airport/railway/bus stations

As the concept of finding a house or place of work or getting admitted into a school or college has rarely any importance on proximity, it is a common practice for people to travel from one part of the city to another for one or more reasons mentioned above. People travel from North to South and vice versa. It is quite natural that the criss-crossing of vehicles choke the central part of the city.

Another interesting phenomenon is the setting up of large establishments employing large work force at one outskirt location of the city. For example some of the large IT companies have workforce exceeding 15,000 setting up their campus say in electronic city of Bangalore. Employees from all parts of the city start moving towards electronic city simultaneously in the morning and converge on to the last few miles of road at the same time thus causing a literal choking of the entire stretch of road. I call this chicken’s neck and it takes just one blockage on this road to disrupt the entire movement of traffic. This also results in huge loss of working hours to the affected companies.

The city authorities could keep demolishing buildings including shops, houses etc. and keep expanding roads but it will only further increase traffic for all those who have earlier given up traveling will start venturing and more will move in too. And some day when all houses and shops have been demolished and all roads fully expanded, we may have a city full of broad and nice roads, flyovers and metros but with no one living inside the city!

Home-Swap-Home

It’s human to expect someone else to solve my problems. And we keep waiting for that to happen eternally. Is there some way the traveler himself can contribute towards reducing his traveling needs so that it contributes to the overall reduction in traffic density, even if it is only 10% less?

Why not look at simply swapping homes and moving in to locations that would reduce traveling by at least 30% – 50% on a daily basis? As seen in the diagram, suppose resident – 1 staying in the north part of the city has two traveling needs towards south of the city and similarly the opposite for resident-2 then would it reduce the traveling significantly if these two residents swap homes? Now whether the swap is only on rental basis and how do we arrive at rental figures and agree for a differential payment based on which rent is higher or lower is a separate process.

If people show the interest to explore this concept then there could be incentives provided by the city authorities, employers and others to encourage this. Also real estate web sites like say magic bricks or similar ones could have a separate section for swap homes people. Reduction in travel will directly contribute to lesser pollution and a better and greener city. The endeavor should be to encourage people to live in the proximity of maximum of their daily needs and as far as possible avoid crossing across the city on daily basis.

Does this sound like a crazy idea?

[This post has been written by Mr. M.A. Parthasarathy. He has over 30 years experience in field of I.T and has won many accolades through-out his career. You can get in touch with him at partha.ma@gmail.com]

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I guess it is true that you can take an Indian out of India but you can’t take his / her love for India. The traffic statistics for leading Indian local news sites does suggest that no matter which part of the world they are, Indians love catching up with what’s happening in India.

Comscore recently published a report on visitation to local Indian sites highlighting a key trend especially when it comes to leading local news portals in India,

Among the top local news destinations in India, most brands saw non-residents contribute a significant share of global visitors

Leading new sites like Times Of India has an international traffic amounting to as much as 36.2% of the total, while 31.76% of OneIndia’s traffic comes from outside the country. Mid Day.com and DeccanChronicle.com seem to be getting as much as 45% of their total traffic from an international audience.

Indian Newspaper Site Traffic [India & Worldwide]

Interestingly, almost every news site gets high double digit traffic from outside India. One clear explanation for this is the fact that these news sites become a window to millions of Indians residing abroad into what’s happening in India.

What is even more interesting is whether these news sites are aware of this trend and more importantly whether they are doing anything specific to cater to this audience. For example, the recent trend of reverse brain drain among senior executives is one example wherein these news sites could further the cause and awareness by reporting on the emerging opportunities in the Indian marketplace etc.

Another angle to this contribution from international traffic on local news sites is monetization strategy. I recall my conversation with a friend working with the internet ad sales of a  leading news daily and she did suggest that a variety of advertisement options are used along with a fixed price model based on total traffic numbers- irrespective of audience segmentation.

However,most leading dailies seem to extensively using the contextual advertisement via Google Adsense which works well to monetize both local as well as international audience.

If Comscore’s numbers are true the advertisers might be better off working on a audience segmentation pricing approach (if they aren’t already). Additionally, marketers can also consider the local news sites a vehicle to target a fast increasing international audience as well instead of solely focusing on the domestic audience

What are your thoughts on the growing international traffic on local news sites in India?

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I had to share these stats about trak.in for quite some time now, especially because we feature so many external Mobile usage related reports showing popular mobile devices and their OSes – however, one thing I have found with those reports is that most of them are skewed towards western markets.

Trak.in gets about 80% of its web traffic from India – and so is the case with mobile traffic as well – It will give a fair idea which mobile devices, mobile Operating System are popular with trak.in readers specifically and Indians in general.

Methodology

I have taken a sample size of 55,819 unique visitors who accessed trak.in in last 2 months on their mobile devices [These are not page-views, but unique visitors]. The reports are all generated using Google Analytics.

Popular Mobile Operating System

The report is very much consistent with the trends we have been seeing – Android devices are getting popular with consumers with close to 30% of all Mobile visitors visit trak.in on Android devices.

Nokia’s own operating system has 19% share followed by SymbianOS at 16.5%.  I remember that in late 2009 and until mid of 2010, Nokia was leading all the way with close to 40% share, which has deteriorated a lot over last 12 to 18 months.

Popular Mobile Brands

We have a problem here – Google Analytics shows that 32.3% if all phones don’t have the brand set on the phone (or GA cannot read it), but I’d have to assume that majority of them are Android phones, which is obvious from the previous chart that you see.

Even then, 30% of all the mobile visits are on Apple devices – honestly, I did not expect this as penetration of Apple devices is quite low in India. However, it may be possible that high percentage of our US / UK visitors would be accessing it on Apple devices.

Again Nokia has taken a major hit over last few months, with only 1 in 5 devices being Nokia branded. The same figure couple of years back was 3 in 5 devices!

Popular Mobile Devices

Android, being open creates lots of issues – Even in this report, we have cant get names of 32% of devices and I guess most of them are Android. Having said that Apple iPhone and iPad are the most popular devices on which trak.in visitors access it.

Touch Vs Non-Touch Mobile Interface

56% of all visitors that access trak.in on mobile, access it on touch-screen devices – If you compare this figure with 2009, it was less than 10% back then.

Conclusion:

Its simple, Android is fast gaining popularity, especially among Indian mobile users. The growth is fuelled by the fact that you can now pick-up android based phones for as little as Rs. 3000/- ($60). New low end Tablets now cost as low as Rs.7000 ($140). And with that kind of price range, if a mobile user can get their hands on an Android device – Nothing can stop Android from reaching the masses.

Currently Trak.in gets about 7-8% of its overall traffic from mobile devices – Looking at the past growth, I can confidently say that traffic from mobile device to trak.in will atleast double in next 12 months!

If you have any questions on this report – I would be glad to answer them!

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It is always good to visualize the rise of internet and the pillars of internet such as social media, e-commerce etc. A lot of market research and database companies come up with quarterly or annual state of the internet reports providing a visual peek into how the Internet is evolving.

The folks at OnlineSchools have come up with a real-time State Of Internet infographic which apart from some amazing data points is unique that real-time features have been embedded for a lot of internet based activities. The infographic in itself is rather exhaustive so I am only including sections that make for interesting insights. You can see the complete infographic here!

Let’s dive into some really interesting stats highlighted in the infographic

Regions Of High Quality Internet, Of Social Networking Dominance and Of Low Internet Penetration

The infographic lists countries where Internet or parts of it are heavily regulated (termed Internet enemies) and also showcases regions where the quality of Internet stands out (South Korea with best broadband connectivity).

Then there is the penetration and adoption of various social networking sites across regions (no surprise that the blue of Facebook dominates globally). Another interesting aspect is the busiest internet backbones and Mumbai finds a mention here.

Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Linkedin Lead The Growth, Myspace, Friendster Losing Sheen

No real surprises here! Myspace is pretty much a goner and the usual suspects like Facebook, Twitter etc. continue to gains steam. In addition, Google continues to be the undisputed leader in search and accounts for 3 out of 5 searches in the US.

The infographic also sheds light on the usage patterns and how users are creating and sharing content on various websites and social networks. But the best part of the infographic is the attempt to co-relate the Internet and Money including valuations and e-commerce

Sky High Valuations For Social Networking Websites

If anyone needed any other proof whether Facebook is a force to reckon with, one look at their valuations and those doubts can be dissed. So much so that if you remove Facebook from the chart above, a the difference in valuation for other companies can be comparable to a certain extent.

Another interesting aspect is the real-time ticker for estimated dollars spend on E-commerce. I am not sure what went behind developing the ticker but it almost looked like I was watching the ticker for American National Debt or India’s Population increase :-) .

There is also a ticker for number of items sold on the e-commerce giant Amazon and some estimations on this number and the total spending on e-commerce can suggest the enviable position enjoys in the e-commerce space.

Even as the social networking sites or today may not exist tomorrow or the company valuations might see a downside going forward, one thing is sure – Internet is becoming a indispensable part of our lives!

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Petrol price hikes have been a nightmare for all of us. Combined with inflation, it is becoming hard for an average Indian to survive.

So it is high time that we adopt measures to use less fuel, so that the impact of price rise is minimal. Following are some practices when followed would save fuel and hence money.

Switching vehicles off at traffic signals

Switching off your car engines at long traffic signals is a must, especially when stoppages are more than 60 sec. Calculations show that each vehicle owner can save over Rs 3,100 annually just by ensuring that his or her car is switched off at every red light that lasts for more than 14 seconds which would hold for, perhaps, all signals.

So at a signal- Switch-off, wait and go!

Check the tire pressure

Under-inflated tires are one of the most commonly ignored causes of crummy mileage. Tires lose air due to time (about 1 psi per month) and temperature (1 psi for every 10 degree drop); under-inflated tires have more rolling resistance, which means you need to burn more fuel to keep your car moving.

Check tire pressure every month. Free tire checking facility is available at almost every petrol pump in India.

Shutting off the A/C

Consider shutting off the air conditioner, opening the windows and enjoying the breeze. It may be a tad warmer, but at lower speeds you’ll save fuel.

That said, at higher speeds the A/C may be more efficient than the wind resistance from open windows.

It is said that at lower speeds vehicles with Air conditioners on consume 10% more fuel than normal.

Downsize

If you’re planning for a new car, it’s time to re-evaluate how big a car you really need. Smaller cars are inherently more fuel-efficient, and today’s small cars are roomier than ever.

Small cars consume way less fuel, come at a cheaper cost and are easier to drive. With the Indian hatchback market hotting up, there are way more choices at attractive prices.

All these cars are feature rich. With European manufactures entering the market hatchbacks are a different class now.

So let go off the sedans & SUV’s… time for Hatchbacks!

Avoid driving as far as possible!

Now that’s a no-brainer isn’t it – But most of us forget it. We still take out our Cars / bikes for very short distances!

How about walking or cycling to market, and using the metro or bus to office. I know it’s a tough call for most us. But many of us can do this once in a while. You don’t pay for fuel when you are not using it at all. Walking or biking is good for your wallet and your health.

And before you get in your car, always ask yourself: "Is this trip really necessary?"

Any more tips you want to add?

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Deals & Coupons sites have been creating buzz over past 12 to 18 months – Thanks to Groupon’s (rumoured) Billion Dollar valuation, there has been a sudden surge in deals, discounts & group buying sites across the web. In last 2 months alone, I have heard over 5 new similar sites coming up in India alone (and there are many which I have not heard of..).

There are close to about 20 sites which are currently operational in India and probably equal number are coming up in next few months – This space looks completely jam packed.

Sites like Snapdeal.com, who came in early in this space have cashed in on their first mover advantage. With most sites spending hugely on advertising & marketing even consumers are flocking them in good numbers. According to recent report released by Comscore, close to 10% of all internet users have visited deal sites in month of June 2011, and the numbers are growing.

According to the report, 4.6 million Internet users in India aged 15 and older accessed the Coupons category from a home or work computer, reaching 10.4 percent of the entire online population. SnapDeal.com, which has tripled its audience in the past year, led the category with 1.5 million visitors during the month, followed by Dealsandyou.com with 990,000 visitors and MyDala.com with 952,000 visitors.

Indian Deal Sites Market Share (June 2011)

Indian Deal Sites Unique Visitors (June 2011)

Deal Site User Demographics

Male users dominate the deal site userbase – 61.8 percent visitors are males compared to 38.2 percent females. Visitors between the ages of 25-34 accounted for the largest percentage of the Coupon category audience at 43 percent and were 5 percent more likely to access a coupon site compared to an average Internet user!

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Indian Ecommerce space has been growing consistently over past few years, and is expected to grow even fiercely in coming years. However, it is dominated by one sector – Online Travel Booking. Infact, OTA command more than 80% of all the entire Indian Ecommerce Market share.

By December 2011, it is expected that Ecommerce in India will touch 47,000 crore, out of which 37,890 cr. is spend online on travel alone!

Comscore recently released the growth figures for Online travel audience in India, and it is clear that online travel audience are growing at much faster pace.

According to the report, Travel Site visits grew 32 Percent in the Past Year and Indian Railways got majority of these visitors.

Indian Online Travel website growth

In April 2011, 18.5 million online users age 15 or older visited a Travel site from a home or work location, an increase of 32 percent from the previous year.

Each of the top 10 websites in the Travel category experienced strong growth in the past year. Indian Railways led as the most-visited Travel destination with 8.4 million visitors, an increase of 8 percent from the previous year.

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) secured the remainder of the four top spots in the category. MakeMyTrip reached nearly 3.9 million visitors (up 63 percent) followed by Yatra Online with 3.5 million visitors (up 82 percent) and ClearTrip.com with more than 2.1 million visitors (up 80 percent).

U.S.-based Expedia Inc. secured the 5 position with 1.8 million visitors (up 12 percent).

MustseeIndia & Redbus were the two sites which grew at much faster pace than other travel sites.

Top Sites in the Travel Category by Unique Visitors April 2011 vs. April 2010 Total India – Age 15+ Home or Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)
	Apr-2010	Apr-2011	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	38,399	43,269	13
Travel	13,982	18,517	32
Indian Railways	7,749	8,399	8
MakeMyTrip	2,377	3,864	63
Yatra Online	1,933	3,520	82
ClearTrip.com	1,194	2,147	80
Expedia Inc	1,640	1,832	12
TravelAdNetwork	817	1,456	78
Mustseeindia.com	442	1,049	138
Indiarailinfo.com	647	922	42
Redbus.in	405	807	99
HolidayIQ.com	452	725	60

Audience Overlap Among the Top Three OTAs

It is interesting to note that of the 7.1 million people visiting the top three OTAs, MakeMyTrip, Yatra Online and ClearTrip.com, in April, more than 2 million users (29 percent) visited two or more of the three sites.

Among the remaining 71 percent of visitors checked in at only one of the three sites during the month demonstrating relatively strong brand loyalty among the top players.

I am surprised not to see ixigo.com in the list of top 10 travel websites – and quite surprised to see little known websites like MustseeIndia and Indiarailinfo!

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Google India today announced on its twitter stream that it will be kicking-off the much awaited Google street view imagery collection using Google branded cars and Google Trikes.

It will be interesting to watch how Google goes about this in India. In most of the western countries it is a different thing all together. They have much better roads and much lesser traffic than in India.

It sure if going to be challenging for Google cars and trikes to wade their way through traffic in Indian cities, especially in places like Bengaluru, Mumbai or Pune. The Google cars may be stuck in traffic for so long or probably will have to take diversions on India roads so very often that there mapping / imagery system may go for a toss!

One important aspect that Google India tweeted was – Street view imagery in India will have all the number plates as well as faces blurred (due to privacy issues) – It has already faced a lawsuit for this earlier!

Google street view Trikes

Interesting, along with Google street view cars, Google branded Trikes will also be used for collection of street imagery – I guess for India trikes may be a much better option as long as the driver is ready to put up with all the pollution & dust & heat etc.

The project will kick-off on Bengaluru streets from tomorrow, so better watch out for them if you are in the city and let us know if you spot one of those – would love to hear about them !

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[This is a guest post by one of regular trak.in readers – Ravi Dawar]

It’s a royal pain in the A*** when I have to get out of my home in this scorching heat and driving on the Indian roads adds to my agony. I live in a society, which is clean as per Indian Standards and my workplace is only a few blocks away from my house. So driving to and fro the office is not much of a deal, however, the moment I have to step out of my society, the hullabaloo starts and I have my reasons for it.

First, I am not a summer person. I perspire a lot, five minutes in the Sun and I may loose a liter of my bodily fluids through sweating. One solution I figured out for this ‘sweating’ problem is to give away my beloved bike and to buy a car. The Air-conditioned Car will solve my ‘Sweating’ problem but will actually create a bigger problem of ‘Getting stuck in Traffic’. A bike can be easily maneuvered in traffic jams but if I am driving a car, it will take a Vodafone Super zoozoo to help me out if I get stuck in a jam. Therefore, I would rather have to stick with my bike.

[Image Flickr source]

Second, to my utter dismay, the condition of Indian roads is so deplorable that I would advice the ‘Lost and Found’ department to search the ‘lost’ Indians in the potholes. Some streets are extremely clean, especially if a politician lives there. Other streets are a mess — it’s like walking into a teen-age boy’s bedroom, but with no pictures of Pamela Anderson. The situation deteriorates further when driving at night as the street lights work once in a blue moon and I am left dependent on the headlight of the vehicle behind me to watch out for the dreaded potholes. I guess I will soon have to buy an IR vision as the ghost hunters wear.

Third reason – I am scared to drive on Indian roads is the ubiquitous presence of “Spitters”. I understand that Indians cannot wait to part with their bodily fluids and saliva is no exception but there has to be at least a right time and a right place to split. Indians do not need either of the two, they spit while waiting on a bus-stand, they spit from the window of the bus while riding, and they spit when they have nothing else to do. The auto-driver will slow down the auto to spit on the road; the taxi driver would not even care to look behind before spitting. Spit! Spit! Spit! Sometimes, I think there is a spit Olympics going in which every Indian is participating to bring out his frustration on India’s poor show in Olympics. It’s my onus to always be in the spit Olympic dress code: a rain coat.

Finally, there is the traffic nuisance, which I can say is a menace shared by every Indian. No one follows the traffic rules in India and it totally is a Chaos out there on the roads. Jumping lights, driving on the wrong side of the road, walking on a highway, crossing the road without a zebra crossing are the rights, which every Indian considers his birth right. Those few who care to follow the rules are crushed ruthlessly by rule violators. Given all the above reasons, I would rather order my pizza online.

P.S The reasons expressed above are my personal opinions; not everyone may agree to them. In my next post, I will try to propose some solutions to the aggravating problem of traffic in India.

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