Entertainment sites popular among Indians

New Delhi, Aug 14: Gaming and entertainment websites

are popular among mobile Internet users in the country while

their counterparts in the US and Europe prefer news and

weather portals, says a report.

Around 38 percent of Indian mobile Internet users visit

gaming sites and 21 percent to surf entertainment sites

whereas users in ...

information on their handsets, said research firm Nielson in

its report 'Mobile Media Marketplace'.

While entertainment, gaming and music websites rank in

the top five categories visited by mobile users in all four

BRIC (Brazil, India, Russia and China) countries, they are not

popular in US and Europe, the report said.

"Users in the growing BRIC markets have not had the

benefit of broad-based content distribution thereby limiting

their exposure, and filling the service gap by embracing

mobile transition into a personal entertainment platform,"

said Vice-President Mobile Media Nielson Jeff Herrmann.

On the contrary, in the developed countries like the US

and Europe, email, weather, news and search are the preferred

categories, added the report.

Though India on an average is adding about eight million

users every month in terms of mobile Internet penetration it

lags other BRIC countries.

The mobile Internet penetration in India stands at 1.

percent, where as it is 2.6 percent in Brazil, 6.

in China and 11.2 percent in Russia, the report added.