No porn in Indian Cyber Cafes
By Techgirl

Indian company Ideacts specializes in advertising in the tens of thousands of Cyber Cafés in the country.  By all accounts, Ideacts is a professional outfit with the business acumen of identifying such a niche but valuable market. Nielsen does all kinds of surveys around the world. Ideacts hired Nielsen to survey the men and women who frequent Indian Cyber Cafes.

While some results are what we would expect, some are surprising (even bizarre).

The study claims to have done online surveys of 11989 Cyber Café surfers in Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

According to the survey document, these were online interviews with “no quota sampling in this method’.  The document also says that the profile, conducted between Sep 08 – Jan 09 in 3500 Cafes, “is true representation of universe of that location – without any bias”.

(Yes, you need to be a stats and legal expert to understand that this simply means that the results are based only on the people who volunteered to do the survey. As you can imagine, women would not be too happy to participate in such surveys in cafes for obvious reasons)

The first results of the survey were that 90% of the audience in Cyber Cafes is Male. 90 percent of the surfers were between 15-35 years old.

(Nothing surprising in this)

The second result was that 52% of the audience is a Graduate or Post Graduate.  The breakup was Graduate, 36.40%, Post Graduate, 16.10% and Undergraduate, 47.50%

(Nothing out of the ordinary)

The third result was that more than 40% of the visitors to Cyber Cafes are employed.  The breakup was Service – Senior Management, 2.80%, Retired, 0.30%, Unemployed, 4.40 percent, Housewife, 0.90%,  Self employed, 17.90%, In Service – Junior Management, 11.20%,  In Service – Middle Management, 10.90% and Student, 51.50%

(Who would have thought that so many Senior Managers and Middle Management prefer to surf in Cyber Cafes rather than home?  Understandably, many students flock to Cyber Cafes and pay a few rupees to surf the internet.)

The fourth result was that more than 70% of audience takes the decision for buying electronic appliances.  Nearly 60 % take decisions for buying Household durables.

(Possible)

The fifth result was that 61 percent of the Cyber Café surfers owned a personal computer and 30 percent also owned a laptop.  39 percent said they owned an iPod.

(This sounds somewhat illogical.  Why would 61 percent of people who own personal computers and 30 percent who have the money for laptops visit a Cyber Café to do what they can do at home?)

Why do Indians visit Cyber Cafes?  According to the survey, 85 percent do if for email/chat.  65 percent to search for information.  51 percent to download music/movies.  40 percent to search for a new/better job. 30 percent to play games.  25 percent to buy tickets.  The rest come to access social networking sites, online shopping bills, blogging and even visiting matrimonial websites.

(Presumably, 51 percent are only downloading legal music and movies.  A big relief to hear that no one watches porn in Cyber Cafes even as other surveys show that porn drives large segments of the Indian male habits on the internet)

There are stats and dammed stats.  And surveys.  And ‘searching for information’ but not looking for porn.  What do you think?

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog
http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com