Even as the Indian Internet advertising market touches Rs 1,000 crore (about 4% of the overall ad spend in India), the options for digital advertising are growing:
- Internet search and banner ads: where Google is the market leader. Yahoo is a distant #2. With Facebook also growing, the result is that a significant component of the spend is sucked out of the Indian content ecosystem.
- Mobile: with a diversity of options (sms, outbound voice, mobile Internet). With 3G, this spend will grow.
- Social: Facebook and Twitter are leading the charge here in terms of usage, with Facebook 10X bigger than Twitter in India. Spends will increase not only on ads, but also on creating Fan pages and social media strategists.
- Video: YouTube is growing fast in India, but ad spends are still small. With better broadband and 3G, video consumption will increase.
- Email marketing: This is relatively new in the Indian context, but with companies now starting to build email databases, the options here too will grow.
So, even though the Internet search-display combo accounts for the bulk of the digital ad spend today, we will see new options coming into play in the coming year.
