India's Gen Y prefers social networks like Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging to connect on the move, shows a survey conducted by TCS.
Facebook was the clear favourite among students in metro cities. Students from mini-metro cites like Kochi, Ahmedabad, etc preferred using Orkut, Hi5 and iBibo, said the survey.
Gen Y prefers sending text messages over voice calls. The survey shows that 50 per cent of those surveyed in the metros use SMS to communicate and 45 per cent use instant messaging. The use of e-mail in mini metros is as high as 55 per cent as compared with metros which have a usage of 34 per cent.
Tablets have emerged as a gadget used by 14 per cent of the students to access the internet. Around 40 per cent of the high school students use mobile phones to browse the web.
All India figures show that 33 per cent of Gen Y spends 30 minutes to one hour on the internet in a day. 73 per cent of the students use the internet for research work, 67 per cent use it to chat/connect and 50 per cent use it for music.
Television is losing its sheen with Gen Y, with only 0.71 per cent of the respondents giving a ‘thumbs up' to it. In Mumbai, 99 per cent of high school students own mobile phones and also rank it as their favourite gadget, shows the survey.
Nearly 80 per cent of the employees in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will belong to Generation Y by 2015. At present, Gen Y makes up 69 per cent of their workforce (with an average age of 28 years).
“We have created portals so that employees can communicate within the communities. We are constantly keeping in mind the needs of Gen Y so that we can cater to their aspirations,” said Mr Ajoy Mukherjee, EVP & Global Head – Human Resources, TCS.
The survey covered over 12,000 students across 12 cities in the form of an online questionnaire. It was conducted between July and December 2011. (People born between 1980 and 1999 fall in the category of Gen Y.)