MAM
Online gifts sites are popular among internet users in India
MUMBAI: More and more consumers are increasingly turning online to shopping portals. Gifts were among the first products to be offered online by shopping sites. Gifts acting as impulse buys were the key drivers in the initial e-commence initiative and continue to bring buyers, sellers and distributors to transcend geographical boundaries.
Online stores promoting gift giving to family and friends in the festive season have a special appeal for the Internet-savvy Indian diaspora wanting to connect with family and friends. The Internet offers a convenient, transparent, automated and credible way to send gifts. These findings were revealed by a survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (earlier known as Internet & Online Association of India).
Gift sending is not limited to the Indian Diaspora but has been accepted by the Indian community with open arms as well. According to the survey, metros like Mumbai and Delhi account for 44 per cent of gift purchases, followed by Bangalore (8 per cent), Chennai (7 per cent) and Kolkata (4 per cent). But gifts know no boundaries and the 27 per cent of online shoppers who come from ‘other cities and towns’ are an opportunity for gift marketers to spread their net wider.
The online shoppers, most of those who bought/ sent gifts Online came from the 18-35 age group (77 per cent). This comes as no surprise, since younger people tend to do a lot of gifting. The festival season is when the action gets really going on online gift sites. It isn’t just the young and romantically inclined that are going in for online gifts – 47 per cent of those who purchased gifts Online were in the ‘Married with kids’ category.
Shoppers who purchased gifts also purchased books (52 per cent) , accessories (47 per cent), railway tickets (47 per cent) and electronic gadgets (42 per cent) thus making a case for retailers in multi category e-shops to cross sell across categories and allows appropriate media buys.
Internet & Mobile Association Of India president Preeti Desai said, “Online gifting has become a popular phenomenon because it’s so convenient. Rs 295 million worth of gifts were bought online for the year 2004-2005 with Rs 530 million expected for the year 2005-06.”
“Many gift sites use technology to suggest additional products that were purchased by others, plus product bundling. This offers both value to the customer as well increases the order value for the gift shop. More than the range of gifts, the USP of the virtual shopping center lies in the services like 24/7 order tracking, pictures of delivery, the surprise element and sending gifts across boundaries to multiple locations which all facilitates the gifting experience,” she added.
For gift retailers, selling unique products and offering consumers with ‘honest-to-goodness’ pricing along with prompt delivery has acquired many customers and has lead to strong word-of-mouth publicity, which in a lot of ways has been the trigger for e-commerce activity around the world.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
