Internet search for financial products growing among Indians, Google

HDFC Bank, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and ICICI Direct were the most popular financial providers Indian internet users searched for in 2011-12, according to internet giant Google.

HDFC BankBSE 1.04 % was the most frequently searched bank, followed by State Bank of IndiaBSE 1.87 % and ICICI BankBSE 0.43 %. Among insurance providers, LIC ranked the highest, followed by ICICI Prudential and Bajaj Allianz, and among brokerages, ICICI Direct was ranked the most-searched followed by Sharekhan and HDFC Securities.

"Indian consumers are doing a huge amount of research on the internet," said Rajan Anandan, MD and vice-president (sales and operations), Google India. From primarily being an entertainment and communication medium, the internet is becoming a utilitarian medium, he said.

This is borne out by a study conducted by TNS Australia, which found out two out of every three internet users went online to look for financial products such as home loans or motor insurance, even if they bought the product offline.

India has over 137 million internet users of which 20 million access the internet only through mobile phones and 50 million access it both on the mobile and from desktops or laptops, according to IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau).

"The internet is the first place they go to do research and throughout the purchase cycle," said Anandan. The TNS study surveyed 1,006 internet users in India between the ages of 18 and 60 years. Anandan said the number of searches done by consumers was exploding and it was impacting the purchase of financial products in India.

After researching the purchase of financial products on the internet, seven out of 10 users changed their choice. Anandan said it was, therefore, important for banks and other financial service providers to have a user-friendly and comprehensive presence online.

Increasingly, the mobile was being used to access the internet and it was important for banks to also have websites optimised for the mobile and even build native applications for different mobile platforms, he added.

Mobile queries on Google Search are growing three times faster than searches from desktops or laptops. One in ten finance-related queries in India are from the mobile.