Nearly 20 mn Indians visited biz websites in June: comScore

An increasing number of people are going online for finance-related content, with 19.7 million Internet users in the country logging on to business websites in June, says a survey.

Males, especially those between 25-34 years, accounted for 72 per cent of the total visitors to business sites, according to web research firm comScore.

"19.7 million Internet users in India visited business/ finance sites (in June), representing a 45 per cent increase from the previous year, as a growing number of Indians turned to the web for business and finance-related contents," comScore said in a statement today.

The website of the country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, saw 4.7 million visitors, the highest for any business site in June, the report noted.

ICICI Bank is followed by HDFC Group at the second spot (3.5 million visitors) while the State Bank of India cornered the third position with nearly 3 million visitors.

Other most-visited sites include 'Moneycontrol.Com' (2.3 million visitors), Citigroup (2 million), Yahoo! Finance and Axis Bank (each seeing 1.3 million visitors.

The count of visitors does not include those accessing sites from Internet cafes, mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

As per the survey, the most-visited sites had a significant number of visitors from overseas markets.

"ICICI Bank saw 12.3 per cent of its traffic originate from other markets, with the US accounting for 5.4 per cent of overall visitation to the site, the UK at 2.5 per cent and Canada with 1 per cent," the report said.

The sites of HDFC Bank and SBI, each saw 6 per cent of their total traffic coming from overseas markets.

"With half of India's online population visiting a business or finance-related site during the month, there is an opportunity to reach and engage financial consumers in a way that was not possible before," comScore's Executive Vice President (Asia Pacific region) Will Hodgman said.