ICICI Bank pips HDFC Bank to take the lead: ViziSense Report

ICICI Bank has leaped ahead of HDFC Bank by 2.4 lakh monthly unique users as per the latest data reported for the month of March 2011. The jump is significant as HDFC Bank has dominated the online banking category for a large part of the 2010-11 including as late as February 2011. These figures were reported today by ViziSense, India's leading online audience and ad measurement platform, as they released their March 2011 data for India on April 23, 2011. The report analyzed the user activity on the websites of both public and private sector banks.

According to the data released yesterday, 57.4 lakh unique users visited the HDFC Bank website in January 2011. This number significantly increased to 62.5 lakh users in February 2011 and then dipped to 57.1 lakh unique users in the month of March 2011. In comparison, there were 49.8 lakh unique users on the ICICI Bank website in January 2011. This number increased by 16 % in March 2011 where the number of unique users on ICICI Bank properties was reported as 59.6 lakhs.

According to the latest figures from the report, the Online Banking category has witnessed a growth of 41% year-on-year in January 2011 and the overall size of the category has grown to 1.85 crore users in March 2011 (constituting 28% of the online user population)

The report also showed a great shift in the geographic access of online banking sites in favor of the non-metros. As per the March 2011 data, only 48% of users are from metros and a huge 52% come in from non-metros on banking sites. This has seen a shift from the 57% users that were came in from metros just an year back. This is also in line with the growth of the Indian internet population which has seen a larger participation from non-metros in comparison to metros.

According to Amit Bhartiya, Business Head, ViziSense, "Our Feb 2011 data showed how HDFC Bank has consistently been leading within the Online Banking category. However, our March 2011 data released yesterday shows ICICI Bank overtaking HDFC Bank by 2.4 lakh monthly unique users and snatching the leadership position within this category. It's fantastic to see both these banks compete as aggressively within the online space as much as they do offline. This however continues to have a positive impact on the adoption of online banking in India."