Asian Giants Online: E-Commerce Implications for Businesses in Emerging Markets

With a population over 2.5 billion people, China and India represent a potential gold mine for businesses. It would behoove these firms to understand and take advantage of consumer trends and spending, especially in the online environment. Given the proliferation of technology, online commerce is becoming a critically important venue for commerce, especially with today's technologically savvy students who represent a potentially long term customer base. This study explored the amount of time university students in China and India spent on the Internet and where they accessed the Internet. Their favorite online sites, how often these sites were visited, what items were purchased online, the reasons for shopping online and how the students responded to banner ads were also discovered. Statistical comparisons were conducted to determine if any significant differences existed between the students of the two countries. Implications for marketers are also discussed in these two most populous nations.