Experian Launches Hitwise Internet Measurement Service For India

Experian launches Hitwise Internet measurement service for India
• Experian Hitwise will report on more than 200,000 sites across 119 industries and over 6 million search terms in India
• Launch further expands Experian’s digital marketing capabilities in India and globally
• Hitwise analysis shows that Google, Google India and Facebook are the most visited websites in India, when combined accounting for 1 in every 4 Internet visits

Mumbai, India and New York, N.Y., Jan. 5, 2011 — Experian, the global information services company, has further expanded its global Marketing Services footprint with the launch of Experian Hitwise in India. Experian’s Internet measurement service will help domestic and international marketers operating in India to improve their online marketing, content development, affiliate strategies and search tactics.

Experian Hitwise reports on more than 200,000 websites across 119 industries and over
six million search terms, based on the anonymous and aggregated Internet activity of an opt in panel of Indian Internet users across the country.  Used by some of the world’s best known brands, Experian Hitwise also operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, France and Brazil.

Navin Chandani, Managing Director of Experian Marketing Services in India, said: “The launch of Experian Hitwise today, and the recent introduction of CheetahMail, underlines our commitment to investing and growing our market-leading portfolio of digital marketing services in India.   India has the fourth largest Internet population in the world and one that is growing rapidly and Experian Hitwise will provide marketers with the kind of competitive intelligence to help them accurately measure and drive even greater returns from their digital marketing activities.”

“The continued global expansion of Experian Marketing Services to India demonstrates our commitment to the marketing industry,” said Matt Seeley, group president, Experian Marketing Services, North America. “Experian understands consumers and guides clients on the best ways to use the data and connect with them.”

Google, Google India and Facebook are the most visited websites in India, when combined accounting for 1 in every 4 Internet visits
During the week ending Jan. 1, 2011, Google (www.google.co.in) was the most visited website in India, representing 11.13% of all Indian Internet visits – equivalent to 1 in every 10. Second and the 4th position are retained by Google network site (www.google.com) & Gmail. YouTube is the 6th most visited website in India. This makes Google as the most popular group of websites on the Internet with approximately 25% of all Indian Internet visits – equivalent to almost 1 in every 4 visits.

Facebook is the 3rd most visited website in India, representing 5.26% of all Indian Internet visits during the week ending Jan. 1, 2011. The site accounted for more than one third of all Indian visits to social networks over the same period, picking up over twice as many visits as second placed YouTube. Orkut (www.orkut.com) is still active in India as the third most popular social network.

Search engines are the most popular sites in India

Search Engines are the most visited category of websites in India, representing for 19.59% of all Indian Internet visits during the week ending Jan. 1, 2011. Social networks and Forums rank second, representing 12.57% of India Internet visits. Banking and Financial Institutions is the 10th most visited category of websites.

Google.co.in accounted for 87.36 percent of all searches conducted in India for the 12 weeks ending Jan. 1, 2011. Google.com received 5.43 percent of searches while in.search.yahoo.com received 3.60 percent and search.yahoo.com 1.08 percent, respectively.

Navin Chandani commented: “Search engines, social networks and email services are the top categories on the Internet. In India, marketers have realized the importance of search engine based marketing strategies and in the past few years we have seen almost every one taking up Search Engine Optimization. However, Hitwise Clickstream data suggests that social media in India is still gaining momentum and it will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming months and how marketers start to develop their social media strategies.” 

Visit the Experian web site at: www.experian.in for more details

Contact:
Matt Tatham
Experian Hitwise Public Relations
1 212 380 2939
matt.tatham@hitwise.com

About Experian Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million Websites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.

Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), http://www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at http://www.hitwise.com.
 
For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Research Blog at http://www.ilovedata.com and Hitwise Data Center at http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter.

About Experian India
Experian India provides information, analytical tools and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of their commercial and financial decisions. Experian India offers solutions to its customers to manage the entire credit and customer lifecycle from customer targeting and engagement to customer acquisition, customer management and collections & recoveries by combining its wealth of information assets and expertise with an unrivalled range of products and services.

Experian established its operations in India in December 2006 and since then has introduced it key businesses in India including Credit Services, Decision Analytics and Marketing Services. Experian Credit Information Company of India Private Limited is a 49% joint venture with seven of India’s leading banks and NBFCs and on 12 August 2010 became India’s first Credit Information Company to be operational in compliance to the Credit Information Companies Regulations Act of 2005. It is the 16th consumer credit bureau run by Experian globally.

For more information, visit http://www.experian.in 

About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing Services delivers best-in-breed data, analytics and platforms into multiple regions around the globe. It is focused on helping marketers more effectively target and engage their best customers through email, digital advertising, customer data management, customer and competitive insight, data enrichment and list rental, modeling and analytics, and strategic consulting. Through these capabilities, Experian Marketing Services enables organizations to encourage brand advocacy, create measurable return on investment and significantly improve the lifetime value of their customers.

About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 90 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2010, was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.