Truth about blogging and bloggers in India
A curiosity to know how many ‘active’ bloggers are there in India and a quick Google search gave me stats that are pretty old and seemingly unauthentic.
A WATBlog article has a report dated 2007 mentioning that 14% of Netizens from India are into ‘active’ blogging. Here I’m assuming that by ‘active’ they would mean someone who updates his/her blog at-least once a month. On a safe assumption that we have now about 60 Million Internet users in India and the blogger universe average dropping to 10% - still it talks about 6 Million bloggers in India.
In the same article reference to another and a much more older (2006) Government of India report says that there are about 40K active bloggers and with another 400K ‘not regular’ bloggers. A safe assumption that the number of bloggers being directly proportional to the increase in the net users would mean we would be having a universe of close to 1 Million active bloggers from India.
The most interesting part of this article was the survey conducted by WAT Consult on the number of bloggers in India. The result averages at around 2% (urban and rural Internet users put together) of the Internet users are bloggers. Considering the rapid pace of Internet growth in India, and assuming that the blogger growth is not proportional to it; I would assume that this average would have dropped to 1%... which means we are talking about an active blogger base of almost 600K
While the stats have a point to prove basis their methodology and findings, I beg to differ.
I believe there are 3 truths about blogs and blogging activity. They are:
1) The user truth
2) The culture truth
3) The market truth
The user truth
Most blogs can be divided into 2 categories – personal and knowledge based. Globally, the personal blogs are the epitome of web logs. Most people use blogs as a personal diary in the cyberspace. They keep it as a source to update their near and dear ones about what is happening in their regular life. Some also use it for public consumption where everyone can view their blog updates.
Most of us Indians live a life wherein we are taught that what happens within a family remains inside the house (Ghar ki baat, ghar ke under); as kids, we are conditioned not be overt of what is happening inside our house or our lives to outsiders.
The childhood conditioning of importance of ‘family values’ plays a dominant role in an Indian individual. The consideration is thus on stable, strong, and close relationships. It is a common phenomenon across many Indian households that spouses (especially male) do not ‘share’ his personal experiences (past or current) with his counterpart.
With such conditioning most of us will be averse to put our personal life for consumption in the public space. What most of us would be comfortable in placing on public domain are – happy occasions (especially images/photos), or neutral updates that noway reflects our personal life
The culture truth
Some of the more successful blogs (corporate and Individual) are knowledge based. We will focus on individual ‘knowledge’ bloggers. We all blog about specific topic and subjects and this is usually done to enhance one’s social standing as a ‘knowledgeable person.’ Or there are people who blog out of sheer interest on their subject and want to spread the awareness about what their thought or point of view is.
A quick glance into the Indian culture and history shows that we always ‘treasured’ knowledge. In olden days, only the Brahmans and the royal class had access to education. This education (Vedas, sutras, etc) was imparted under stick secrecy and with code of conduct of not sharing the knowledge with any other class of people
Even during the medieval period the knowledge and education was closely associated with the religion of the day (Hinduism and Islam); It only changed when the British came, and along with them the missionaries who set up schools and freed the knowledge from being in control of a select few.
This control on knowledge has helped a few control over the vast populace, by creating myth and awe for centuries (and in some way even to date). The centuries of knowledge subjugation has left an undeniable mark in our minds on not being comfortable in sharing knowledge, as we feel sharing knowledge would be like sharing power
The market truth
The market truth is that the people have access to limited time, but unlimited options on the Internet. The latest is all about micro-blogging (Twitter) and Facebook updates. This is on the fly updation of ones status. This would make redundant the idea of blogging the classical way.
The newer platforms (SNS) with multiple functions and features have surely eaten into the bloggers time. The growth of Social Networking Sites and the ATS (Average Time Spent) on these sites increases… it would surely impact the blogging activities of the user
Slowly but surely most of so called ‘active’ bloggers too would lose interest in maintaining multiple exposure touch points on the net… and will stick to the one that is ‘cool’, and easily accessible… which currently happens to be Twitters, Facebook, and Orkut
Looking through the lens of these truths, I believe that the number of bloggers from India might not be as high as the stats say… I guess it would be a miniscule population of the Internet users from India. A guesstimate would be around 75K active bloggers from India. A simple dipstick is I look around in my office (a Digital ad agency) and of the 80 odd employees only 2 of us maintain a blog on individual basis (work related there are a lot)
Blogs heralded the arrival of web 2.0; It changed its form, shape and structure as it went along…. Now as we stare into web 3.0…. it is time for the blog (as we know today) to change its avatar
Till then I plan to keep typing, and keep sharing my thoughts and my point of view
Cheers
Santosh
A WATBlog article has a report dated 2007 mentioning that 14% of Netizens from India are into ‘active’ blogging. Here I’m assuming that by ‘active’ they would mean someone who updates his/her blog at-least once a month. On a safe assumption that we have now about 60 Million Internet users in India and the blogger universe average dropping to 10% - still it talks about 6 Million bloggers in India.
In the same article reference to another and a much more older (2006) Government of India report says that there are about 40K active bloggers and with another 400K ‘not regular’ bloggers. A safe assumption that the number of bloggers being directly proportional to the increase in the net users would mean we would be having a universe of close to 1 Million active bloggers from India.
The most interesting part of this article was the survey conducted by WAT Consult on the number of bloggers in India. The result averages at around 2% (urban and rural Internet users put together) of the Internet users are bloggers. Considering the rapid pace of Internet growth in India, and assuming that the blogger growth is not proportional to it; I would assume that this average would have dropped to 1%... which means we are talking about an active blogger base of almost 600K
While the stats have a point to prove basis their methodology and findings, I beg to differ.
Remember, statistics might be accurate, but they need not be true.
I believe there are 3 truths about blogs and blogging activity. They are:
1) The user truth
2) The culture truth
3) The market truth
The user truth
Most blogs can be divided into 2 categories – personal and knowledge based. Globally, the personal blogs are the epitome of web logs. Most people use blogs as a personal diary in the cyberspace. They keep it as a source to update their near and dear ones about what is happening in their regular life. Some also use it for public consumption where everyone can view their blog updates.
Most of us Indians live a life wherein we are taught that what happens within a family remains inside the house (Ghar ki baat, ghar ke under); as kids, we are conditioned not be overt of what is happening inside our house or our lives to outsiders.
The childhood conditioning of importance of ‘family values’ plays a dominant role in an Indian individual. The consideration is thus on stable, strong, and close relationships. It is a common phenomenon across many Indian households that spouses (especially male) do not ‘share’ his personal experiences (past or current) with his counterpart.
With such conditioning most of us will be averse to put our personal life for consumption in the public space. What most of us would be comfortable in placing on public domain are – happy occasions (especially images/photos), or neutral updates that noway reflects our personal life
The culture truth
Some of the more successful blogs (corporate and Individual) are knowledge based. We will focus on individual ‘knowledge’ bloggers. We all blog about specific topic and subjects and this is usually done to enhance one’s social standing as a ‘knowledgeable person.’ Or there are people who blog out of sheer interest on their subject and want to spread the awareness about what their thought or point of view is.
A quick glance into the Indian culture and history shows that we always ‘treasured’ knowledge. In olden days, only the Brahmans and the royal class had access to education. This education (Vedas, sutras, etc) was imparted under stick secrecy and with code of conduct of not sharing the knowledge with any other class of people
Even during the medieval period the knowledge and education was closely associated with the religion of the day (Hinduism and Islam); It only changed when the British came, and along with them the missionaries who set up schools and freed the knowledge from being in control of a select few.
This control on knowledge has helped a few control over the vast populace, by creating myth and awe for centuries (and in some way even to date). The centuries of knowledge subjugation has left an undeniable mark in our minds on not being comfortable in sharing knowledge, as we feel sharing knowledge would be like sharing power
The market truth
The market truth is that the people have access to limited time, but unlimited options on the Internet. The latest is all about micro-blogging (Twitter) and Facebook updates. This is on the fly updation of ones status. This would make redundant the idea of blogging the classical way.
The newer platforms (SNS) with multiple functions and features have surely eaten into the bloggers time. The growth of Social Networking Sites and the ATS (Average Time Spent) on these sites increases… it would surely impact the blogging activities of the user
Slowly but surely most of so called ‘active’ bloggers too would lose interest in maintaining multiple exposure touch points on the net… and will stick to the one that is ‘cool’, and easily accessible… which currently happens to be Twitters, Facebook, and Orkut
Looking through the lens of these truths, I believe that the number of bloggers from India might not be as high as the stats say… I guess it would be a miniscule population of the Internet users from India. A guesstimate would be around 75K active bloggers from India. A simple dipstick is I look around in my office (a Digital ad agency) and of the 80 odd employees only 2 of us maintain a blog on individual basis (work related there are a lot)
Blogs heralded the arrival of web 2.0; It changed its form, shape and structure as it went along…. Now as we stare into web 3.0…. it is time for the blog (as we know today) to change its avatar
Till then I plan to keep typing, and keep sharing my thoughts and my point of view
Cheers
Santosh
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