India lower than China

India lower than China in English proficiency ?

Now, this information has definitely taken everyone by surprise – Isn’t India known globally for its large English speaking population ? Infact, that is one of the main reasons why IT services has seen such tremendous growth in India over past decade or so.

However, when I came across recently released EF EPI [Education First – English Proficiency Index], I was literally stunned. According to the EF EPI rankings, India is ranked lower than China in English Proficiency. While China ranks at 29th, India is ranked at 30th in the world for English language proficiency!

What is even more surprising is that countries like South Korea and Japan are ranked much higher than India. Among all the Asian countries, Malaysia ranks the highest and is even amongst the Top 10 most English proficient countries in the world. I had visited Japan (ranked 14th) few months back and I was in Tokyo. In my nearly 4 day stay, the biggest hurdle I faced was English. I just could not converse with any locals in English…at all!

On the contrary, if you visit any city or large town in India, you will always find people who know English – even if it is broken (with a real big Indian accent!).

If you go through the entire report of EF EPI – you will find no real reasoning for why India ranks so low in proficiency. Here is what the report says:

Asia’s English proficiency scores show that reputations are not always accurate. Take for example the nearly equivalent scores of China and India. Despite its British colonial legacy and reputation as an English-speaking nation, India is today no more proficient in English than rapidly improving China.

Indeed, although it is very difficult to measure the number of people who speak English in each country because of different definitions of proficiency, the British Council estimated in 2010 that India had anywhere between 55 and 350 million English speakers while a report published by Cambridge University Press estimates that China has 250 to 350 million English learners.

It appears that China is poised to surpass India in the number of English speakers in the coming years, if it has not already done so.

We always take such surveys and reports with a pinch of salt. Although the numbers are never accurate, they do tend to give the general representation of ground realities. However, this report seems to give the consensus is opposite direction.

The report also gives very vague idea of what methodology was used – The report simply says:

The index uses a unique set of test data from over two million adults who took free online English tests over a period of three years.

India probably has the most number of proficient English speaking people in Asia. There are many simple points which can prove that. Take for example the number of English Dailies in India and number of people who consume it. In Japan, you will not find more than 3-4 English dailies. I am not too sure of China, but I doubt if people read English dailies there. While in India, we have probably 15 – 20 major English Newspapers. Similarly, how many English TV channels does China or Japan have? We in India probably have more than 100 !

Mobile handset market in India

Mobile handset market in India to witness tremendous growth in next 5 years

The Indian mobile handset market is expected to continue its upward trajectory if a recent report by Frost and Sullivan is to be believed. The report continues to portray the happy sentiments in the mobile industry in the country.

India has reached the coveted position of the second largest mobile handset market in the world after China. And it is expected to become even bigger with 208.4 million phones being shipped by 2016 at a CAGR of 11.4% between the period of 2010 – 2016.

For people who were wondering whether the 2G scam resulted in the destruction of small scale players, Frost and Sullivan thinks that, there would be a threefold increase in the number of telecom participants by next year. In short, as of last year India had about 68 mobile handset players, and if the report is to be believed it will go above 200 !

This would result in further competition and squeezing of profit margins; though I personally wonder on the survival ability of these operators without proper infrastructure and network towers. Operators like Etisalat, Videocon, Uninor have struggled in every way to stamp their authority in the Indian market.

Another interesting part of the survey is the increasing use of smartphones by the Indian consumer. While the revenues in the urban areas are reaching saturation point, many mobile manufacturers like Micromax, Karbonn etc. have started manufacturing phones for the rural and semi–urban areas too. These phones are replete with all the basic features along with special features like insect repellant’s etc.

As was thought and has been discussed threadbare, the proliferation of Web 2.0 and Internet surfing is expected to rise across the country with the increase in use of smartphones.

This is the reason the mobile handset market expects the revenue to rise from US $255 billion to US $350 billion. The smartphone market is expected to grow tenfold to 30 Million units by 2016 from just about Rs 2.9 million units currently.

Another important analysis of the survey is the fact that more than 70% of the Indian population still consumes only voice services. But with the onset of 3G and cheaper data usage options, this is expected to change in the near future.

desi languages get more users

Online ads in desi languages get more users: Survey

 

Online publicity seems to be going the desi way, with advertisements in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and other regional languages attracting more internet users than English ones, says a survey.

According to survey by Ozone Media, internet advertising network and online advertisements in regional languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam outperform English creatives.

Moreover, resident Indians respond better to regional language ads as compared to English ads, by almost 30 per cent.

“Internet media, like Television and Radio is moving towards being a mass media. This is exhibited through the high response that language ads generate compared to English ads.

Consumption of regional language ad signifies the emerging trend in online marketing campaigns of the kind of spread and specific targeting brands adopt to reach their desired audience.

The survey titled - One Media Performance Users Study (OPUS) — noted that Tamil and Telugu in particular are driving conversions in language specific advertising across ad categories for performance campaigns.

The report reveals prolific usage of language ads by Banking, Finance, Services and Insurance (BFSI) and matrimony sectors.

For Matrimony category, non resident Indian’s (NRI) respond better to regional language ads whereas resident Indians respond better to English creatives.

In BFSI category however, the results are completely different from the matrimony category. NRIs’ prefer English language creatives over language based creatives as they would be most comfortable with English as a medium for addressing their financial needs.

The Survey said resident Indians feel more comfortable in one’s own language when it comes to simplifying any financial product that they wish to invest in or avail of. This trait possibly results in greater acceptance of language based ads for the BFSI category.

The survey is based on an analysis of close to 1,000 campaigns that were run on the Ozone Media network from January 2010 to December 2010. The sample includes responses from resident Indian and NRI across various ad categories.