Durgesh Gupta - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
With measurement tools already in place for print, television and radio, it is quite logical for something similar to be launched for the fast growing Internet industry in India.

IMRB International, member of the Kantar Group, WPP's information, insight and consulting division, will soon launch an audience measurement service for the Internet industry in India.

IMRB has already presented the product to members of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) recently. According to people who have been at the presentation, IMRB's plan is to distribute USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drives with pre-loaded software that will track users who are selected for the sample survey of their Internet browsing habits. IMRB proposes to use a sample size of 20,000 Internet users.

Neither Thomas Puliyel, president, IMRB International, nor Balendu Srivastava, who is heading the project at IMRB, have so far responded to Televisionpoint.come's questions regarding the proposed internet audience measurement tool.

Ratish Nair, a member of the IAMAI executive council, confirmed that IMRB has been in discussion with the industry body but declined to comment on the product. "There is simply a lack of research in the Indian internet space. To that extent, this is good, and IMRB proposes to cover the cyber industry as well," he said.

"It is important to have data from a third party and validation from independent and neutral agencies. It helps advertisers and media planners in their buying decisions. In general, it's a good thing for the industry," said Suresh Reddy, chairman and chief executive officer, Ybrant Digital, a Hyderabad-based digital marketing agency.

Atul Hegde, chief executive officer, Ignite India (formerly Connecturf), who was present at one of IMRB's presentations, said there is a need for one standard measurement system. "The industry is growing and it is time that the industry follows one benchmark and to that extent it is a good initiative. Whether the product will be a gamechanger is something that we have to wait and see." said Hegde.

While there is consensus among various players in the industry about the need for such metrics, it is believed that unlike measuring tools for print, television and radio, internet usage is different and it's more difficult to track behaviour patterns anywhere close to accuracy.

"It is important to see how IMRB will tweak the methodology to address various issues related to Indian internet user behaviour," said Shivanandan Pare, chief operating officer, BigAdda, a social networking site from the Reliance ADA Group. Pare foresees certain limitations when it comes to presenting a balanced representation of the 45 million member strong Indian internet community.

According to Pare, close to 60 per cent of the community accesses the internet though offices and cyber cafes, where it will be difficult to install USB drives with special software because of security and privacy issues.

Today, many Indian advertisers and media planners looking to advertise on the Internet depend on data from Google Analytics and comScore. This is in addition to data made available by publishers of various websites.