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Finance-related queries on the Internet growing 43% year on year

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Mobile phones are increasingly becoming the most preferred platform for Indians to search for finance-related information, with mobile queries growing three times faster than desktop searches, according to a Google report on the financial services industry. As per the data, one out of 10 finance-related queries is generated via mobile phone.

The total search volume for finance-related queries on the Internet is growing at more than 43 per cent year on year according to the report, compiled by Google India based on Google trends in the country during 2011-12 and a research by independent research firm TNS Australia.

About 58 per cent of the people surveyed said that the Internet helped them in their initial research while more than 62 per cent used online medium for intense research before purchasing products.

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The report also suggested that financial services should to adopt a new approach to engage and serve the requirements of digitally savvy customers, as more than 99 million urban Indian users are now active on the Internet.

The study also revealed that banking queries grew at 85 per cent from the year earlier, with HDFC scoring over others, while search for investment-related information grew 105 per cent and insurance queries grew 75 per cent on mobiles. Also, the influence of Internet research was the highest for home loans (75 per cent) while queries related personal loans stood at 73 per cent.

"India today has over 137 million Internet users and a very high percentage of those users are urban users (99 million), with high disposable income," said Rajan Anandan, managing director and vice-president (sales and operations) at Google India.

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"Given the reach of Internet to high-value customers and its influence on decision-making for financial products, we believe that financial services can create significant value by innovating on the digital medium and adopting an 'online first' approach to serve the needs of digitally savvy customers," added Anandan.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)


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