'Indian users ready to pay for online content'

Content is King, and if it is of high quality, Indians are ready to pay for it. Internet users polled in India are ready to pay for online content, particularly books, magazines and music, and professionally produced videos and television shows, said The Nielsen Company.

According to the survey, 70 per cent Indians are willing to pay for online content if they get the right to copy it and share it with others. About 63 per cent will pay if the payment system is easy to use and 61 per cent Indians are willing to pay for the same content online if the costs are comparable with what they currently pay offline for it.

The Nielsen survey polled more than 27,000 consumers in 54 countries globally and examined consumer attitudes to paying for online content. Results show that 29 per cent Indians have already paid for books, while 19 per cent have paid for online magazines, and 18 per cent have paid for music.

While most Indians believe free content on the Internet should remain free in the future (nine out of 10), many are ready to pay for books (50 per cent), magazines and music (47 per cent), and professionally produced videos, including current television shows (46 per cent).

"Internet is a huge space and content is available for free at the click of a button. Out there exists immense quantity of information but most of it lacks in quality, and this stress on quality by consumers will be a major factor in driving consumers to pay for online content," said Karthik Nagarajan, associate director -- Nielsen Online, The Nielsen Company.

The survey noted that nearly seven in 10 Indians (69 per cent) would rather pay for individual pieces of content, instead of subscribing to the entire website. Three-fourths of the consumers will stop using the website if they have to pay for the content because they can find the same information on a free site.

Conversely, a majority of consumers in India are not prepared to pay for consumer-generated content such as blogs (70 per cent), social communities (61 per cent), and consumer-generated videos (60 per cent), although, interestingly, Asia-Pacific consumers are more willing to pay for consumer-generated video than any other region.

"Consumers have a much higher propensity to pay for content which they know has been professionally produced such as music, movies, games, but are reluctant to pay for online content that has been generated by fellow consumers, such as blogs, etc. Considering the fragmented attitude of consumers to pay for online content, the content providers will have to offer multiple options to entice the choosy consumers," said Nagarajan.