Businesses in emerging economies have stolen a march on their western counterparts in the use of social media, according to the latest findings from Grant Thornton's International Business Report (IBR).
In India, 64 per cent of businesses use social media in some capacity, the fourth-highest in the 39 economies surveyed and well ahead of China (48 per cent) and Brazil (44 per cent).
Advertising (33 per cent) is the main reason businesses in India use social media, followed by communication with customers (24 per cent). Across the BRIC economies just 19 per cent of businesses use social media for advertising purposes, although 15 per cent use this channel for recruitment compared to just 7 per cent in India.
“The results are fascinating to note. They show businesses in emerging markets embracing social media much faster than their peers in mature markets. They appear to have much more faith in the impact that an active social media presence can have on their relationships with clients, with customers, and ultimately on their bottom line,” said Aseem Vohra, Head of media and entertainment at Grant Thornton India.
The research reveals that 43 per cent of businesses globally use social media. However, this rises to 53 per cent in Latin America and 50 per cent in the BRIC economies. In mature markets the figures are much lower, at 40 per cent in the G7 and just 35 per cent in Europe.
The results are a wake-up call to business leaders reluctant to embrace digital opportunities, who could lose out in an e-commerce market expected to be worth $1.4 trillion by 2015, said the report.
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"Use of the internet among the wider population in the emerging markets still lags behind Europe and North America, but the sheer size of those populations represents a huge market and therefore an enormous opportunity. The situation in India is even more pronounced: less than 10 per cent of the population access the internet, meaning a potential market of more than 1 billion people. The increasing accessibility of mobile devices mean an ever-expanding customer base for those businesses which invest in these channels,” said Vohra.
The IBR also indicates that despite the rapid proliferation of new media, 91 per cent of business leaders in India still read a newspaper at least three times a week, above the global average (79 per cent). Hard-copy newspapers (68 per cent) are also the preferred source of news in India, followed by television (11 per cent) and online newspapers (8 per cent).