Overall spending on internet and website-related products and services by Indian SMBs totaled $1.45bn in 2009 and is predicted to continue to rise in 2010, according to a study by consulting firm Access Markets International (AMI) Partners.
According to the study, increasing number of Indian SMBs have started using digital social media in a bid to be on par with their global counterparts. DSL and cable modem still continue to be most preferred lines by SMBs, with more than half of PC-owning SMBs in India not subscribing to any kind of broadband service.
The survey found that currently nine-in-ten internet-using SMBs in India use some kind of digital social media for business or professional purposes. Professional social networking sites and general social networking sites are among the most frequently used digital social media. Internet-owning SMBs are using these social media tools mainly for activities such as sales/marketing, keeping in touch with customers, advertising/business promotions and recruiting new employees.
The firm said that one in four India SMBs have websites, with most part of them hosted on third-party vendors’ or service providers’ servers. Significant proportion of India SMBs are using websites with the purpose of providing information about their organisation, provide products and service information/demonstrations and to respond to questions from customers and prospects.
Mr. Dev Chakravarty, assistant manager of research at AMI-Partners India, said: "AMI’s recent study indicates that India SMBs are not yet satisfied with their present connectivity infrastructure. Since improving internet or networking bandwidth/connection speed is the topmost priority of India SMBs in the next year.
"More than 70% of businesses echoed these sentiments. This indicates that ISPs still have some way to go before they are able to provide the ideal broadband services to India SMBs."
