Blogging in India - Facts and Future

Looks like blogging is spreading like wild wire in India. Read the first blogging India survey done by MSN and Windows Live - an online survey of more than 1,000 MSN portal visitors in India!

Was trying to read into the numbers...and look ahead! The future looks promising and nothing like the past:-)

1.The numbers . Some 14% of India’s netizens actively blog! And a total of 39% are aware of blogs.
I think that's a very healthy number...Also, I suspect from now on they will grow exponentially.

Almost 90% of bloggers spent up to five hours per week reading blogs or updating their own blogs.
My personal average would be somewhere around 10-15 hours! What about you guys?

2. Male skew . Not surprisingly, the Indian blogosphere is heavily dominated by men(74:26). In the asia-pacific, blogging is fairly evenly matched between the sexes.

3. Youth skew. 54% of bloggers are between the ages of 25-34 years;
32% under 25 years and 15% over 35 years.

4. Trust factor. Close to 45% of the respondents believed that blog content was as trustworthy as traditional media!
I would fall in this category as well! Not just trust, I mostly find blog content to be 'more intelligent', more POV than facts. I also love the personal flavour and the interactive, dialogue nature of blogs!

5. Key drivers. (a) Fervour for self-improvement and personal development.
(b) A large majority of online users read blogs to stay informed about world events
The split between topics - Technology (32%), followed closely by news and education (24%). This is in contrast with the region where technology was ranked by only 19 % as the most interesting, with travel being second most popular ranked by 17%.

(c) Celebrity obsession of Indians continues in the blogosphere as well!
The Report revealed that majority of India’s online users found reading blogs to be an excellent source of entertainment, with those written by actors, popular music artists, and sports personalities rated as the most popular at a combined 77%.

I personally have only come across Shekhar Kapur's blog which I just visited once...
Which are the better celeb blogs? Meraj told me yesterday the bollywood director Anurag Kashyap has a nice blog. Must check it tomorrow!

I think celeb blogs could be the next killer app...I am sure Karan Johar will convince Shah Rukh to blog for his next movie...Kabhi Blog Kar Lena:-)
The making of the movie will not just be a DVD item but actually a director's blog during the scripting and shooting!
There can be a virtual 'Koffee with Karan' in the blogosphere!

(d) Having a platform for self-expression factored heavily into the motivation to blog in India with 58% of bloggers starting a blog because they wanted to express passionate views and commenting on the world around them .
But this I guess is the fundamental reaosn why anybody, anywhere would blog.

(e) Some 40% of India’s bloggers do so to entertain others through their writing.
Don't know what this really means!

6. Favourite blogs . Blogs written by business leaders were found by half of all online users in India to be the most enjoyable to read. This is in contrast to the region where the blogs by business leaders and politicians were far less popular.

In my case, apart from Rajeev Karwal's(if you can call him a business leader) blog I haven't read any other's!

24% of respondents found blogs by politicians to be of regular interest :-)
Who are they? Does a Murli Deora, Sachin Pilot, Rahul Gandhi have one of their own?

7. Other Learnings . Aesthetics play a huge role in attracting and retaining an audience in the blogosphere.

Respondents indicated that a good blog should, firstly, be updated regularly and secondly, be well-written with eye catching pictures.

Amongst the most annoying aspects of blogging, India’s netizens listed badly written entries (42%), self-centered blogs (36%), and not knowing when a blog is updated (34%) as things that turned them away from blog sites.

For me the following are equally important.
- The 'newness of the ideas' discussed in a blog.
- Element of surprise and interesting-ness
- Honesty of writing
- A conversational tone
- Great conversation threads( perhaps even more important than the actual post)

Guys, any other observations on Blogs R Us? Shoot, share...