Google, Facebook most trusted Internet brands in India: Study

The Brand Trust Report, India Study - 2013 in its research said that while Google remains India's most trusted Internet brand for the third year in a row, Facebook was a close second with only a miniscule gap.

This year's research was conducted in 16 cities generating 19,000 unique brands across 211 categories. The research also highlighted the advent of the online shopping brands and the ensuing trend.

N. Chandramouli, chief executive officer of the Trust Research Advisory said the online shopping category will see an accelerated growth over the next year.

"With most of the new brands entering the most trusted list this year being from online shopping or Internet services, there will be no stopping this sub-category from seeing accelerated growth over the next 12 months," he said.

Chandramouli also said that online brands rely significantly on trust more than any other factor as the the exchanges are without any physical interface, and the online world is cluttered with choices that make loyalty ephemeral.

An analysis of the All India Most Trusted ranks shows that Google (All India rank 44) fell 13 ranks and Facebook (All India rank 48) gained 17 ranks to bridge the gap.

Yahoo still stood as the third Most Trusted Internet brand despite its 62 rank fall in All India Brand Trust rank. Google's Orkut steadied at fourth rank despite a significant fall in daily visitors from India.

ebay follows as India's fifth Most Trusted Internet brand with a very small difference in BTI from the previous. The top six of last year are repeated in the same order this year as well.

The leaders in the various sub-categories are Naukri leading in Internet services, Youtube in online sharing, ebay in online shopping, Google in Internet tools and Facebook in social networking.

The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2013, is the result of a primary research based on the proprietary 61-component Trust Matrix.