Not sure about young consumers? Check out their online habits

By Indian Retailer Bureau

New Delhi: With the increasing popularity of social networking sites websites, there has been a change in the urban culture and online consumer behaiviour. According to a recent  Gen-Y survey  by Tata Consultancy Services 2012-13, today's youth are collaborating through social networking tools and building virtual communities aided by affordable bandwidth and smart devices.

The study reveals that with the increasing popularity of social media a  majority of youth are associated with some or the other networking sites  As they feel more connected through such interactive platforms.

Off late, facebook has more followers as compared to other networking websites. According to the survey youth find it interesting because of its easy and interactive features.

Twitter seems to lose its sheen as teenagers find it less user-friendly and complex

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48% of the urban teenagers post on Facebook once in every three days. Facebook has emerged as a social playground by influencing the youth culture and evolving as the lifeline of communication.

Acciording to the recent report facebook is the most preferred social networking playground, 76% have an account.Nearly three out of four students cited "Research for School" as the main reason to access the Internet followed by social reasons like chatting and connecting with friends (62 per cent), it added.

The survey said the urban post-millennial generation is increasingly turning to text and chat as alternatives to voice.
Seventy four per cent of those surveyed said they use Facebook the most to communicate while 54 per cent conceded to use SMS, both significantly higher than the number of students who said they use voice calls (44 per cent) for the same purpose.

The TCS GenY survey was undertaken during the nationwide TCS IT Wiz program held between July to December 2013, across 14 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune, with a total base of 18,196 high school students aged 12-18. The primary data was collected from the participants by means of a questionnaire at each of the locations.