Asian youth changing with time

That cricket is a religion for Indians is a well-known thing. But that nearly three-fourths of us also love watching documentary movies on regional television may come as a surprise to many.

India-Synovate, a global market intelligence company, released data to this effect from their first ever Young Asian Survey, which covers eight markets including India.

In India, the survey was conducted among 958 respondents in three cities -- Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore -- from March 6 to April 30 this year. It was a face-to face survey for 8 to 11 year olds and was an online survey for the other youth Indians.

The survey tried to find out the attitudes of young Asians (12-24 year old) about media, about brands and regarding their income and spending habits, which included both for those working full-time and those who were not.

The survey also tried to analyse the youngster's consumption clout, their personal product ownership and their worries and aspirations. Finally, the survey also tried to find out about their worries and aspirations, about their leisure visits in past six months and about World Peace (undisputedly, this one was voted as the number one change by the younger generation).

The main Internet growth markets in the region will be India, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

As of now, only 6 per cent of the country's youth engages in online transactions compared to 9 per cent regionally. 42 per cent of young Indians named television as the most helpful medium for product and service information. 35 per cent viewed Internet as the preferred medium while only 17 per cent thought about the same of newspaper.

Indian youth's pocket money was the least at $23.30 a month in the entire region. Taiwan's youth received the most pocket money with $121.94.

The golden arches seems to hold its position even in our country, as 20 per cent named McDonald's as their favourite fast food brand.

Pepsi seems to have won a closely contested battle 30 per cent Indians named it as their favourite soft drinks brand as opposed to 26 per cent in favour of Coca cola. But in snacks food, Pepsi food's Lays' was overwhelmingly voted by 30 per cent of Indians as their favourite snack.

Sony still seems to hold its numero uno in Digital camera and MP3/ Portable Music Devices as 34 per cent and 38 per cent Indians respectively voted it as its favourite brand.

When it comes to sports shoes and sportswear, Nike took the top honours though in casual wear, Lee Cooper was the preferred brand.

The survey was conducted in conjunction with MSN, MTV and Yahoo!.