47% of Bharat comes from the metro cities: Jani Pasha, Lokal

In a session around accelerating brand growth in real Bharat at TechManch 2023 organised by exchange4media, Lokal’s CEO & Founder Jani Pasha delved into the unique characteristics of Bharat users and their buying patterns. He also explored how these users differ from their urban counterparts, and why it is so important for businesses to understand their needs and preferences. 

Pasha started the session by sharing that India has the second-largest internet user base in the world. “These internet users are further divided into two categories. One that is comfortable with consuming English content and the other are the Bharat audience who are comfortable with native languages,” he said. 

Bharat users as a segment are on the rise. In 2021, the Indic language user reached 536 million, clocking a CAGR of 18%. 

Pasha went on to bust some myths as well, around the Bharat audience. The perception that people have that says ‘rural India represents Bharat users’, is wrong. Pasha shared that while 53% Bharat users do live in non-metros, a whopping 47% come from the metro cities. 

Another myth is that ‘Bharat doesn’t spend online’. Sharing an example of gadget purchase, Pasha mentioned that 46% of Bharat audience purchased gadgets online in 2021. “While it may not be a big number, we are seeing promising progress in this area,” he said. 

The perception that ‘offline still rules Bharat’ is yet another myth that Pasha pointed out. He shared some data points highlighting how Bharat stays up to date with latest information – social media (39%), digital content (20%), TV (19%), family and friends (13%), print (6%) and radio (3%).  

The Bharat audience is also not conservative towards payments and investments, as is generally perceived. 56% go heavy on UPI, 49% on mobile wallets, 44% on mobile banking and all of this is on the rise. 

While the trend says one thing, translating sales out of this huge Bharat audience still remains a pain point for a lot of brands. The key here then lies to figure out how Bharat is purchasing. 

Pasha shared that local language digital content is more likely to reach and grab user attention. 90% of all video consumption happens in the local language, he highlighted. 88% are more likely to respond to digital ads in the local language and 70% find them relatable and reliable. 

A few brands have actually cracked the code. 

Pasha shared that Zomato claims to deliver 150,000 orders a month via regional apps. Meesho’s Hindi language has seen a high adoption rate of 20% and with vernacular language, cumulative reach for IPL live broadcast stood at 451 million unique audience. 

Along with ways to build awareness, the trust factor also plays an important role, Pasha added. “For a new brand, entering a new category, it is important for them to be nurtured in a way that they get the trust cycle accelerated,” he said.