Local language content picking up on Internet in India

Durgesh Gupta - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
Local language content is slowly picking up on the Internet in India and future growth markets in India on the Internet will be through local language content, which is the trend in many other foreign countries, according to an senior official of Google India.

Speaking to Televisionpoint.com, Rahul Roy Chowdary, product manager, Google India, says, "There are about 180 million English speakers in India, but only 40 million are online. But there can be a larger number of the population who use the Internet in India. China has the world's largest online population and most of their content is local language driven."

According to Rahul, the major segments that has seen tremendous growth in the last two years has been news and entertainment. While declining to put any numbers to the growth, he said,"Growth is accelerating in these two segments and has seen a faster growth compared to other segments. The main driver for this is the availability of content in local language. Its amazing how the vernacular news portals are developing."

However, he pointed that the overall local language ecosystem had to develop. "Much more content in Indian languages should be available online. We are also seeing a quick rise in searches for local content. A virtuous cycle is developing fast. This is how English language content developed."

"Suddenly there is a large number of blogs available in local languages. For instance, Tamil and Hindi blogs are quite active. There is a greater amount of interest in people in literature, culture, poetry, short story, festivals and such stuff. These are better expressed in local language and are emerging as major drivers for local content online." Rahul explains.

Rahul points out that IT hardware manufacturing companies need to understand that there is a large market available for local languages. There can be dual language keyboards. People need to be given options to use the language of their choice, which can drive the market more.