'India most important online market, not China'

[drbiohealth]

Interesting read:

http://us.rediff.com/money/2006/feb/...q=tp&file=.htm

[OldIDNer]

I think India is gonna be huge too (but I would never count China out as top economy in the future). I'm seeing small amounts of type-ins on some english .in and .co.in names that I have. And the clicks pay ok too. I'm always surprised when I read about India and look at the many websites based there about how much of an english speaking country they are. It seems many do speak english and their english is often pretty good, I guess they have a good education ethic. Of course, history explains why English is so infused but I look at maps there and everything, streets and stores - many have english names. I think I recently read somewhere that there are more english speakers (people capable of English) in India than in the USA and UK combined.

[kenne]

I agree, india is going to be big. Though the guy just mentions it without backing up.

I was told that people from different area would rather talk english than hindi in communicating with each other. Probably more so in the educated class.

Any one from India can tell us:
1. How big a population speak Hindi native?
Hindi: 180M-500 million ; Tamil:74 million

More than 180 million people in India regard Standard Hindi as their mother tongue, making it the fourth-most spoken language in the world. Another 300 million use it as second language. In the same wiki page, there are also data of 500M native, 800M uses (some variants of) hindi.

Wiki Source as hunted down by OldIDNer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...total_speakers


2. How many years of Hindi lessons nonHindi speakers get as opposed to english?

3. Is english one of their official language? how prominent is it as opposed to Hindi?
English is the associate-official language.

4. How easy is it to type Hindi from keyboard?
Should be pretty easy.

5. drbiohealth cites the news of the first search engine devoted to hindi, multilingual maps and mobile games.
All happening in the last few months. This is going to be interesting But I think Indian action will happen
a bit later than the Chinese action (maybe 1 year delay)

6. What is the biggest online Indian news site in Hindi vs english? I'd like to look at its alexa traffic, though alexa
traffic is admittedly unreliable. Chinese internet companies take alexa seriously, too seriously, so that could easily
distort the data.

[OldIDNer]

here is a link regarding languages spoken in India:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...uages_of_India

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by OldIDNer

I think I recently read somewhere that there are more english speakers (people capable of English) in India than in the USA and UK combined.

This may be true, but it is unlikely to be very relevant. The big question is:

How many people will access the internet in English by choice?

My research suggests that is less than 3%, which may not be a sufficient number to generate signficant web content, so the real answer maybe virtually none.

However, I should point out that I have never been been to India, as I doubt has the person who compiled the CIA statistics, which seem to suggest that it is just the 53rd State. My advice would be to sound opinions of those on this Forum that are actually conversant in at least some of the Indian Languages.

[drbiohealth]

This should help a bit.

http://www.bhashaindia.com/patrons/n...bileGames.aspx
http://www.bhashaindia.com/patrons/n...ionbridge.aspx
http://www.bhashaindia.com/patrons/n...bileGames.aspx (reliance is the biggest private telecom operator)
http://www.bhashaindia.com/patrons/n...s/Indicus.aspx

Originally Posted by kenne

Any one from India can tell us:
1. How big a population speak Hindi native?
2. How many years of Hindi lessons nonHindi speakers get as opposed to english?
3. Is english one of their official language? how prominent is it as opposed to Hindi?
4. How easy is it to type Hindi from keyboard?

Same for tamil urdu and others... Though they are more regional.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by OldIDNer

here is a link regarding languages spoken in India:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...uages_of_India

Well that article seem to start off with a misconception that English is an Official Language. It may be in effect but for political reasons would never be called one as such. It has Associate Status, whatever that means.

[OldIDNer]

here is a breakdown of the languages, from the same wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...total_speakers

This suggests that the number of english speakers maybe lower than some claim.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by OldIDNer

here is a breakdown of the languages, from the same wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...total_speakers

This suggests that the number of english speakers is lower than some claim.

Well we can only assume that remaining 250M only speak English then, which is probably how the CIA derived their figures.

[OldIDNer]

Originally Posted by Dwrixon

Well that article seem to start off with a misconception that English is an Official Language. It may be in effect but for political reasons would never be called one as such. It has Associate Status, whatever that means.

From that page:


As drafted, English ceased to exist as an official language (on par with Hindi) in 1965, after which it was intended to continue as an "associate additional official language" until such time that a duly appointed committee can decide on a full-scale transition to Hindi, based on a periodic review. However, due to protests from some states like Tamil Nadu where there is low Hindi penetration, the "twin language" system is still in vogue. Due to rapid industrialization, and a bustling multinational influence in the economy, English continues to be a popular and influential means of communication in the government and day-to-day business, and moves to replace it have effectively been shelved.

[drbiohealth]

Indicus launches Hindi search engine

The search for regional languages on the Net has just got more competitive with the Republic Day launch of Raftaar.com, the first dedicated Hindi search-engine on the lines of Google.

Though touted as a nationalistic endeavour, the search site - developed by Delhi-based research firm Indicus Analytics - is backed by data that points to the growing number of online users that want to find Hindi content on the Net.

"The idea germinated after Juxt Consult (a sister concern of Indicus) conducted a random sample study in 2005. Of 31,382 Internet users in the study, 44 per cent wanted to see Hindi content," says Laveesh Bhandari, Head, Indicus Analytics, and promoter of Raftaar.com.
Source:Indian Express, India
Posted on: 03/2/2006 3:12:15 PM

[OldIDNer]

Be interesting to know the breakdown of what the other 56% wanted to see.
Seems hindi is the language to go for, and maybe top english keywords, in terms of speculation.

Wot, a well known domainer, has made a small fortune selling english .co.in names. At least that is what I have read/heard.

[IDNCowboy]

hold on to your english .in .co.in names

do your math as soon as the indian internet population grows by alot in a decade(there are 1 billion ppl there) then even 3% speaking english is HUGE.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by OldIDNer

From that page:


As drafted, English ceased to exist as an official language (on par with Hindi) in 1965, after which it was intended to continue as an "associate additional official language" until such time that a duly appointed committee can decide on a full-scale transition to Hindi, based on a periodic review. However, due to protests from some states like Tamil Nadu where there is low Hindi penetration, the "twin language" system is still in vogue. Due to rapid industrialization, and a bustling multinational influence in the economy, English continues to be a popular and influential means of communication in the government and day-to-day business, and moves to replace it have effectively been shelved.

I have been through these arguments many times. English is undoubtedly widely spoken, but it the language in which the Indian Worker addresses him family when he gets home that is the key issue here. If that is English, then online future in India is undoubtedly English and my IDN portfolio in Indic scripts is worthless.

[touchring]

India needs English to be united as a single country.... Of cos, English is only a business/government language, Tamil people still speak Tamil with friends and at home. Local newspapers are also in local languages. This is what i observed of my Indian friends and business associates.

[drbiohealth]

Star TV (of Murdoch) started their operation in India in 1991 initially in english for a few years. They went almost went bankcrupt. Later, they realized their error...soon changed their content to hindi and now they are one of the most watched channels. Almost all big channels have gone hindi like, CNBC, discovery, national geography, infact all major ones...in print media....india's leading publishing house India today started their publising in english....later they turned to hindi and printed the same mag in hindi...there are just numerous examples like these....things seem to be changing.....the only drawback in india as of now is broadband penetration which ofcourse is just a matter of time....

Actually, the biggest (in literal sense) backer of local languages in India is big billy (Microsoft). I can say only one thing about them looking at their action....."they are bloody smart guys"..... no questions

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by touchring

India needs English to be united as a single country.... Of cos, English is only a business/government language, Tamil people still speak Tamil with friends and at home. Local newspapers are also in local languages.

Yes, but the key question is, what languages are they going to browse the net and go shopping online in?

[OldIDNer]

I think that a few langauges may have worth, as opposed to an either or situation. Seems hindi names may do very well.

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by OldIDNer

I think that a few langauges may have worth, as opposed to an either or situation. Seems hindi names may do very well.

What about the Tamil ppl?

Seems like english won't be the key then but probably a mix of tamil/hindi

[drbiohealth]

There were times when the west used to view india as "the land of snake charmers". Which goes to say how little they know about India...