Google tops most trusted internet brand list for 4th year in a row

Social networking titan Facebook falls by 194 ranks, and stands at fourth position

For the fourth consecutive year, Google, an American multinational corporation specializing in internet-related services and products has been declared as the most trusted internet brand by TRA’s The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2014.

TRA, a Comniscient Group Company, is a brand intelligence company dedicated to understanding and analyzing stakeholder behaviour. TRA is the publisher of BTR 2014 which listed 1,200 brands from 284 categories this year.

“Yahoo was a close second in the list bridging the gap of 145 ranks in the year 2013 to a 105 rank gap in the year 2014,” the report said.

YouTube grabbed the third position as it jumped 202 ranks. The social networking website Facebook, however, fell by 194 ranks and stood at the fourth position this time in the overall category from 2013 where it was placed in the second position. “Olx.in follows as India’s fifth Most Trusted Internet brand with a marginal difference in BTI (Brand Trust Index) from the previous brand,” the report said.

Compared with 2013, a significant change has been noted in the number of brands represented in the internet category that have gone up to 31 in 2014 from from 25 in 2013, said the report.

“The significant rise in the number of brands listed can be attributed to the sheer number of new entrants in the market. In addition to this, the dependency on the internet and internet apps (applications) in daily use, across demographics, could also be a contributing factor. Loyalty in context to the online world is essential as all exchanges happen without any physical interface, and as the dependency increases, trust also goes up, ” the report quoted N. Chandramouli, chief executive officer, TRA as saying.

Category wise, Naukri.com led in online job portals, Nimbuzz as an internet tool, Olx.in for the online shopping category, Facebook in social networking and Whatsapp in social networking application.

“With most of the new brands entering the Most Trusted list this year being from Online Shopping or Internet Services, there will be no stopping these brands from seeing accelerated growth over the next 12 months,” Chandramouli added. The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2014  was based on research conducted across 2,500 consumer-influencers across 16 cities.