India's Growing Internet Penetration and the Power of .com

India is in the midst of a phenomenal internet boom. According to Mary Meeker's 2016 Internet trends report released in April 2016, India's Internet user growth rate is four times the global user growth rate. India now has 277 million Internet users surpassing the US and second only to China, the report says. Of course, there is plenty of room for growth given that only about 22 percent of the Indian market is penetrated. The number of web users in India is expected to see a twofold rise at 730 million by 2020 against 350 million at the end of 2015, according to 'The Future of Internet in India' report by Nasscom and Akamai Technologies.

As more consumers get online, businesses are becoming more aware about the importance of having their own online real estate in the form of a website. Recently, a study published by Google and KPMG reinforced this fact when it found that small businesses in India with a web presence grow their revenues twice as fast as those that without one in 2016. SMBs with a web presence are able to hire up to 5 times more employees than offline SMBs. In addition, the report also found that increased digital adoption by SMBs would potentially increase SMB contribution to the country's GDP by 10 percentage points to 47 percent by 2020.

Greater awareness and an orientation towards technology have an impact on online presence. According to a Zinnov report on the ‘State of the Domain Name Industry in India,’ services & manufacturing enterprises are key segments buying domain name to establish online presence. Also, not surprisingly, states with a high penetration of internet users indicate a higher domain name adoption in the country. For example, Maharashtra, Delhi/NCR and Karnataka account for 38 percent of the registered domain names in India.

Choosing the right domain name

As awareness about various usages of domain names (websites, emails, social media page, etc.) goes up, it will drive adoption of websites. But picking the right domain name matters too. As per the Zinnov report mentioned earlier, about 95 percent of SMBs bought a domain name similar to their company name, which makes absolute sense because your online entity should be a reflection of your identity. Choosing the right domain name has a greater impact than most people realize. Taking a short-term view based solely on cost, is quite simply, a bad idea.

Choosing the right domain extension also matters. 79 percent of the SMBs in India currently prefer .com over other TLDs. Trust and the need for a professional image are the primary reasons driving this preference. This is in line with the global trend, where .com remains the most widely used TLD across the world.

Verisign conducted a study in 2015 to study the impact of keyword-rich domain names on search. The study revealed that if a domain name includes at least one of the keywords in an Internet user’s search query, they are almost twice as likely to click on it; as compared to a domain name that does not include any of the keywords in their search query. Not surprisingly, the list of the most expensive domain names sold in 2016 includes names such as hotels.com, beer.com, diamond.com etc.

So, even if you need to pay a little extra to get the domain name of your choice, it is almost always worth it. Acquire the right .com for your business, with the services of a domain broker and get the perfect name suited to take your business online.

Getting online helps Indian SMBs in two important ways. On one hand, it helps them target the ever-growing number of Indians using the Internet for work and leisure. At the same time, it also opens them up to global markets by mitigating geographical barriers.

Whichever way you choose to look it, India’s growing online penetration spells a world of opportunity for Indian small businesses.