Emailing and job search show a decrease in the popularity among the top online activities in 2008. According to JuxtConsult, emailing lost 4% as the popular activity undertaken by the online users and decreased to 91% in 2008. Job search another top activity on Internet also decreased slightly by 1%. Download music/movies, check cricket score, matrimonial search and English information search engine are the new entries into the top ten popular activities online in 2008.
Emailing decreased in the popularity by 4% from 95% in 2007, and in 2006, the popularity was 94%. In 2008, 91% of the Internet users have done emailing, still considered as the most popular activity online with a considerable margin over the other activities.
Job search, another popular online activity is also unchanged at second position though there is a slight decline of 1% in its popularity. The popularity of online job search among online users is 72% in 2008, and it is 53% in 2006.
It can be observed that, communication and networking is the one of the biggest driver for the people to go online. Emailing and instant messaging/chatting occupies first and third positions respectively and dating & friendship occupies eighth position in the top ten activities.
Entertainment activities are gaining more popularity among the online users. Checking news has 63%, which had 61% and 53% in 2007 and 2006 respectively. Checking sports has 57% of popularity unchanged from 2007 and has 35% in 2006. Download music/movies has 54% of popularity, which replaced online music this year. Checking cricket scores is also popular in 2008 and has 50% popularity and is at seventh position in the top ten online activities.
The activities online music, e-greetings and online games could not find place in the top ten online activities this year. These are replaced by- download music/movies, check cricket score, matrimonial search and English information search engine, which are more popular in 2008. Communication/networking and entertainment activities combined, occupy seven out of the ten positions.
Emailing, job search, instant messaging and check news occupies the first four positions as the most popular online activities in India and are unchanged from the previous year. eCommerce activities such as online banking, buy tickets online and online trading are not so popular to find a place in the top activities, that clearly shows the immaturity of eCommerce in India. It can be observed that the popular online activities clearly have the impact of young online users, who form the majority of the online population.
