Local search stats for Indian Market
Local search stats from Comscore [June - August 2008 data]
Numbers:
- UUs in ‘000
- PVs in mn (*)
Few insights:
- JustDial is ruling, but saw sharp decline in PVs number from July to August (almost half)
- Both Asklaila and Yahoo are head-to-head.
- Burrp’s PV/UU seems to be the highest (they are focused on content, and not really ’search’ per se – esp. in categories beyond lifestyle)
*Approx Calculations:
- Comscore doesn’t shows Google’s local data – hence assumed that 3% of query results in traffic to local.google.co.in
- Ditto with Guruji (as it’s a web search engine) – assumption made: 10% of queries/traffic is of pure local intents (as they are supposedly a search player specific to India).
- Sulekha: Search UUs are assumed to be 10%, and PVs to be 30% [quite high, since they have a strong ‘explore’ feel rather than search).
- Comscore doesn’t have data for other players like yulop, onyomo, metromela etc. – in general, comscore doesn’t record traffic from cybercafes – so take these numbers with a pinch of salt (and pepper)!
Leaving aside the accuracy of numbers, what’s your take on these players?
What makes a local search successful?
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Related posts:
- Traffic Stats of Indian Local Search Services – Who is Heading North?
- India’s Local Search Market in 2009 – Milestones/Failures & The Road Ahead
- Sulekha expands local search to 20 Tier II cities
- AskLaila to power local search on Airtel – Mobile, Airtel Live and DTH
- NCRHunt – Local search player for NCR Region
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
I'd love to see more...
Three cheers for Burrp! I love their website!
Hey Ashish – Nice comparison.
Just wondering – how come Sulekha wasn’t included in this comparison. Would have been nice to know how the local search sections of the site stacked up.
Should have included that (and will do that)!
On a psyche note – my perception of sulekha has always been a great content/community portal..
Will check out comscore and see if sulekha’s search has a separate node.
Timely post on Local Search services.
I was just considering listing my uncle’s Ayurveda Clinic in Hyderabad in a few of local search engines.
Overall, I think Google will win. Because users generally search for even local information on the mail search engine http://www.google.co.in. And Google lists its local results first. I tried searching for “sonyworld mumbai”.
I find that most of the local information is outdated. Like I tried calling Sonyworld phone number and it actually went to HCL because HCL has replaced Sonyworld sometime back at that place. To overcome this issue, they must verify the validity of information and the listers should be reminded to renew the information periodically say every 1 year.
I wonder how much time did the author spent on writing this post. I see that people have missed some very interesting things that these figures suggest:
1. Without a significant decline in any player’s UUs there is a significant increase in many players UU, so this suggest that either users use multiple sites to get the best results or this market is very new and is growing giving space for new players as well.
2. Without any significant decline in the UUs there is a significant decrease in the PVs. This indicates that either the players have really improved the search alogs. that the user gets results without many attempts or the initial trial phase for these services is over when the user generally tests the service and hence results in higher PVs.
3. For general readers UU = Unique users and PV = Page views.
4. Top 4 obviously are Just Dial, Google, Yahoo and MSN (i.e. asklaila). If you add to this JustDial’s phone queries, no one can even come into consideration.
5. Its not these figures that are important. What is more important is how they convert these figures to revenue. Just Dial seems to have the most potent model as of now.
There are many more but then I would want to charge for my consultation
Awesome analysis!
I did noted couple of these points, but didn’t articulate it so well.
Great work!
-Ashish
I same i was thinking of point 5. Good Analysis.
thanks for note 3…
Anurag!
Great analysis man..Well this proves that the local search is actually heading as a great market, not just for justdial and google..but also for players who could provide quality information.
I completely agree with your phone search where Just dial just scores hands down. Google with its entry in this space..just in Hyd and Delhi has miles to cover to match Just Dial dominance.
Inspite of biggies, Looks like there are more players emerging in this space – I recently read an article, there are players like khojguru.com and more emerging.
Is this space heading for a round of consolidation ??
naaaaaaah, consolidation happens when there is intense competition where one player cant beat another but the 3rd player seems great potential which fits in to first player so first player will eat 3rd to compete[kil] another. Or during tech bubble big fish will eat small floating fish.
correct me if i am wrong.
stay pluggd.in
You guys should check out this app on facebook that’s in beta right now. it’s called locomi and it has the best interface by far compared to all these engines. only if they can refine their data a little bit, they’ll be leading the charts real soon.
In local search business, data is the most important thing that matters, not really the usability. And it’s tough to acquire quality data as well.
So no matter how well designed the interface for another facebook app may be, users won’t really use it if they figure out that data is quality deprived.
Great analysis Anurag .. and thanks for the post Ashish.. quite insightful. Anurag for our sake I hope you are right about point number 1
[...] Must Read: Local search stats for Indian Market [...]
Ashish – JustDial claims 1 MN searches on the web a month … how does that reconcile with this numbers listed here?
these are totally flawed numbers. There is no rational to believe 3% of query results in traffic to local.google.co.in.
Google shows local results on google.co.in and scale at which Google is operating is far bigger than any other guy. So even a 0.1% deviation in assumption can lead to huge deviation in estimation. Another thing is that, people use Google for practically everything so they might already be asking Google for local searches. That gives unfair advantage to Google over all other guys.
fullhyd.com, a 1 city (Hyderabad) player, is bigger than onyomo and metromela in all cities put together (they have put up the numbers on their website), and than anyone including justdial.com in Hyderabad.