The boom in the auto sector in India was reflected in the virtual world as well. A report by search engine Google shows that Indian consumers were ahead of US and Europe in using the Internet to research for car and bikes purchases in 2010. Web searches related to auto grew faster than those for travel, consumer electronics and finance.
According to the report, vehicle shopping queries accounted for 49% of all auto related queries on Google. The entry and mid-segment cars in the price range of Rs 2-6 lakh were the most searched while the SUVs were the second most searched category followed by luxury cars. Search queries for bikes saw over 96% in query volumes in 2010.
Search queries for diesel cars saw 52% growth in April to May 2011 when petrol fuel prices increased by Rs 5 per litre.
“We have seen over 150% growth in revenues from the auto sector in 2010 and we expect the share of auto advertising spends on digital to grow significantly in the next few years,” said Rajan Anandan Vice President and MD of Google India.
The report also looked into the search habit of mobile internet users for the auto vertical. Mobile searches for auto related queries grew at over 300% in 2010. The trend of using smartphones for doing product related searches is also showing a significant growth, said the report.
