Online videos are "reshaping the way" Indian consumers gather information and make purchase decisions, and the audience for online videos is poised to touch 500 million by 2020, a report by Google Thursday said. According to Google's 'Year in Search - India: Insights for Brands' report, about one-third of all searches for online videos are entertainment related. Other categories like lifestyle, education and business have also shown 1.5-3X growth in the last two years, it added.

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"Online video is reshaping the way consumers gather information and make purchase decisions. It is playing a big role in the car-buying path to purchase, with 80 per cent of car buyers using it as a research destination," the report said. There has been 270 per cent growth year-on-year in voice searches on Google's platform and consumers across categories are fast adapting to this new search tool for seeking information and discovering content, it said.

Also, nine out of 10 new internet users in India are likely to be Indian language users, it pointed out. An estimated 40 million Indians are joining the internet bandwagon annually, and this rate of expansion is among the fastest in the world. The average mobile data usage per subscriber is pegged at about 8 GB a month, which is at par with the consumption seen in developed markets, the report said.

The rise in online search volumes in non-metros is now trumping metros. Consumers in non-metros are using the internet to search for information regarding insurance, beauty and travel more than metros, the report said. For example, 61 per cent of all searches on Google's platform across banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) are coming from non-metros, while 55 per cent of all auto-related searches are from non-metros.

"The online space in India has never been more vibrant. India has become the fastest internet consuming country in the world and the internet has now become the bridge to Bharat's aspirations," Google India Country Director Vikas Agnihotri said. He added that the growing influence of online video, increase in usage of language and voice, along with a rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence are opportunities for brands and marketers.