Internet uses and gratifications: A survey in the Indian context Sanjit Kumar Roy * ICFAI Business School, ICFAI University, Survey No. 156/157, Dontanpalli Village, Shakarpalli Mandal, R R District, Andhra Pradesh 501 504, India article info Article history: Available online 11 April 2009 Keywords: Uses and gratifications Internet Indian context abstract Uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, aids in the assessment of peoples’ motivations for media usage, access and to understand their attitude towards a particular medium. In this paper this theory has been applied to derive the Internet gratification structure of Internet users in the Indian context. This study proceeds in four stages. First, six gratifications for Internet use namely self development, wide exposure, user friendly, relaxation, career opportunities, and global exchange were identified using the exploratory factor analysis. Then the factors were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. Next with the use of t-tests the study identified the gratifications on which males and females differ significantly. Finally, with the use of discriminant analysis it has been shown that the light and heavy users of Internet differ on some of the gratification factors obtained in the study. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Internet has become impossible to ignore in the past decade or so. Even people who do not own computers are increasingly using the new medium. With more than 50 million people esti- mated to be communicating on the Internet, communication researchers now consider this network as a mass medium. Until re- cently, mass communications researchers overlooked the Internet and the entire computer-mediated communication, staying with the traditional broadcast and print media (Stafford, Stafford, & Schkade, 2004). The utility of the Internet as a powerful telecom- munications medium is compelling, and the Internet is far more than just a conglomeration of web sites selling goods. Yet, given the necessity of attracting online buyers to support online market offerings, understanding why consumers choose to use the Internet has great relevance in case of online business. Most of the studies done on the U&G in Internet are in the American and the European contexts. This paper identifies the uses and gratifications structure of the Internet users in the Indian context. The gratifications iden- tified in this study can guide the management practitioners and scholars to understand why users are attracted to the Internet, as well as what they do on the Internet in a developing economy like India. An understanding of individual motivations may help media researchers to better understand media effects. The contribution of this study lie in the identification of the gratification structure of the Internet users in the Indian context and to understand the var- ious uses of Internet in this particular setting. The article is organized as follows. First, the uses and gratifica- tions theory is explained in brief. Then the literature review for the studies relating to the Internet uses and gratifications are provided. Next the research questions are mentioned. The research questions are set out as (1) what are the gratifications of Internet use for the cybercafé visitors in the Indian context; (2) what are the Internet gratifications on which males and females differ and how do males and females differ based on the perceived uses of Internet and (3) what are the gratification factors on which light and heavy users of Internet differ. Then the research methodology for the paper is described followed by the discussion of study results and limitations of the study. 2. Theoretical background and research questions 2.1. Uses and gratifications theory ‘‘Uses and Gratifications Theory” (U&G) also referred to as the ‘‘Needs and Gratifications Theory” is one of the influential theories in media research. The U&G theory is concerned with the way peo- ple use media. At the outset the media research focused on the influence and effect that the media had on the audience. It did not concentrate on the motives behind the media use. The theory has come a long way since its inception in early 1940s (Ruggiero, 2000). The theory considers not only the pleasure people search for in a media but also the attitudes of the audience towards the medium and its contents (Fagerlind and Kihlman, 2000). Severin and Taknard (1997) states that the uses and gratifications theory is a psychological communication perspective that focuses on indi- vidual use and choice by asserting that different people can use the same mass medium for very different purposes. This theory has 0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.03.002 * Tel.: +91 8417 236660/61/62; fax: +91 8417 236653. E-mail addresses: roysanjit2004@yahoo.co.in, sanjit@ibsindia.org URL: http://www.ibsindia.org Computers in Human Behavior 25 (2009) 878–886 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh