Online Automobile Industry in India and Web Analytics Status
Alright! so after really enjoying writing about Online Travel industry in India, it’s time to switch to the Online automobile market in India.
India has been the scene of some of the most frenetic deal-making, big expansion announcements, and new car launches in the global auto industry. Consider that in the last few years alone General Motors (GM), Fiat (FIA), Honda (HMC), Nissan (NSANY), and Hyundai have announced Indian investments valued at roughly $1.5 billion.
And recently TATA , India’s biggest vehicle maker bought British brands Jaguar and Land Rover.
Ask any auto executive, and he or she will tell you that outside of China, India is the most intriguing emerging market opportunity out there. And US-based consultancy Keystone-a subsidiary of LaSalle Consulting Associates-has forecast that India will become the world’s third largest automobile market by 2030, behind just China and the US.
The projected size for China is 62 million and for US 23 million. The size of the Indian vehicle market is forecast to cross 20 million (assuming a consistent GDP growth rate of 6%) from the one million plus vehicles sold in 2004. This amounts to a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 12%.
So Before we go ahead and review few leading sites in India, here’s a look at how internet and review sites help a customer/prospect take decision
It’s time for us to review the major players in online automobile industry in india and their web analytics status.
Gone are the days of used car lots and car showrooms, depending on whether the purchase is an old or a new car. Now all one needs to sit back sip a cup of coffee and take a look at the brand and the type of car you looking for!
There’s been many sites which have come up in the last couple of years which help you look up for new and old cars and give you a sneak preview of lot of features now mind you this is apart from the “company” brand sites advantage being you get “expert opinion”, customer reviews, ratings and comparison to other models in the same category.
Carewale:
A very “simple” UI as their tagline goes!, i love the way the Carwale team is used the whitespace and good mix of RIA and other great features. Coming to Web Analytics and the tool used, Carwale uses Google analytics and pretty much seems to be the default code from GA. The Tabbed browsing looked but looked into code to see if it’s being tracked it wasn’t!. Hopefully they’ve set some goals and tracking campaigns
So there lies “enormous” oppurtunity for Carwale to be a step (mile) ahead from other competitors and web analytics can help them be there. Hopefully they are listening 
Carazoo is a clean and simple site and undoubtedly clear competition to Carwale, It’s got some great features and wonderful search and UI. What attracted my attention was how they offer feeds a way for user to come back, and a blog. You can also register to become a member. Some really neat features
Web Analytics Status: Carzoo uses Google Analytics ( ga.js) and to add to it Quantcast. So which probably helps them understand traffic and demographics. There are lot of Internal Campaigns run to register and download wallpers etc and seems to be tracked via adserver. Oppurtunity exists to track RSS and Blog readers to understand effectiveness of these features.
Gaadi.com has an amazing interface!, nice graphics with some wonderfull features. Now there are some great features couple of them include the recommendations and also valuations. This coupled with other great features make Gaadi.com leading site
Web Analytics Status: Gaadi.com uses Google Analytics for their site, It’s intresting that gaadi and other sites have different engagement section (forums, pictures, news, blog) and also finance, insurance and my gaadi. There’s huge oppurtunity to track how these section help in site goals by effectively using Google Analytics.
Indiadrive is one of the sites which comes up in most “natural” search resluts, certainly very seo freindly. Apart from four wheelers it does offer more information and reviews on latest two wheelers. Indiadrive caters to two different segments and indeed a simple and effective site.
One intresting thing which i probably must say is different is it’s Car Pool efforts for different cities ( how often would you see that on a car review site?)
Web Analytics Status: Suprisingly none exists, even google analytics (atleast for the pages i viewed). This leads to a fair assumption that they depend on logfiles. However a combination of both does no harm. Hopefully they are listening and set up Google analytics
CarDekho is another site which has some neat features, apart from normal things you would expect at a car review site. CarDekho drives community and also has good comparison features.
Web Analytics Status: CarDekho uses Google Analytics (old), and seems like just to measure and collect traffic information. They can move a step ahead in analytics by using other rich features in google analytics.
In the next post! again related to online automobile industry in India will focus on the latest trends and marketing efforts done in India. This will then be followed by KPI and best practices in web analytics! Stay Tuned.
What do you feel about the automobile Market in India?, will it grow or it’s just the hype ? Pen down your comments/feedback/critics
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Comments
2 Comments on Online Automobile Industry in India and Web Analytics Status
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navin on
Sun, 7th Sep 2008 10:10 pm
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Anil on
Mon, 8th Sep 2008 5:20 am
Of all the ones you reviewed i liked the last one CarDekho the most, owing to its simple flow to reach the car model details. The related cars that show up when i see a model details is great as those were the ones i had in mind to compare before i make the buying decision hence the comparison happened quickly without me looking for options rather they were just there in front of me. I think these guys should learn from carwale, carazoo, gaadi and introduce more content - forum, blog. The new and used car scene in india is growing and will go a long way. Lot of sites coming up and it clearly indicates a positive energy in indian automotive scene.
Navin
Thank you for your comment.
Yes certainly there’s lot of opportunity exists since this vertical is new and imparting best practices from others will certainly be a great move as you pointed out for the growing automotive online industry.
Your Comments, Critique, and views are welcome!...
