The Dawn of Internet Business in India and What it Means for the Job Market

The past few years have witnessed a phenomenal rise in Internet Businesses in India. Using various strategies like online interview platform, it is an emerging source of employment. So, let's take a look at this sector and what sort of careers one can expect in it.

The Internet Business Revolution

India is currently witnessing a sort of Internet Business revolution. Currently, 12 million people are employed by the sector, and it has a market size of sixty billion dollars (''Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023'' by Taggd). The rapid commerce business, with a current market worth of $700 million, is likely to increase to reach $5.5 billion by 2025, according to the report ''Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023'' by Taggd. That is a rise of 15 times within the next couple of years. 

A Bain & Company analysis estimated the gross merchandise value (GMV) of social commerce in India at over US$ 2 billion in 2020. As for the e-retail market, Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023 by Taggd predicts it will maintain its rapid expansion too by drawing another 350 million customers raising its GMV to US$ 100–120 billion by 2025.

The Reasons for This Growth

The increasing penetration of the internet, the trend of smartphones becoming a sort of necessity, the inexpensive data rates and an increasing digital literacy are among the reasons behind this phenomenal rise. However, the sector remained a primarily niche market limited to the tier-1 city market until the COVID-19 pandemic when tier-2 city consumers adopted it. However, it is still to reach India's vast rural parts.

Employment Trends in Internet Business Sector

Internet Business sector in the country can still be considered in its fancy, and thus though some trends are visible, they might not hold as the players are still experimenting. With that caveat, the following are some of the common trends in the India's Internet Business Sector:

• Rise of the gig economy

India is witnessing the growth of the gig economy, under which there is a growth of contractual recruitment. The Internet Business sector is among the biggest drivers of this mode of recruitment. Temporary or contractual employment is ideal for logistics and other similar jobs, the demand for which increases during peak seasons, such as during holiday seasons or around festivals. The current gig recruitments in the sector employ both white-collar and blue-collar workers. According to ''Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023'' by Taggd, the sector employed 8 percent of its workforce as gig workers.

• Reforms for gig workers

With so many gig workers in the sector, businesses are also affected by regulations introduced by the government for the benefit of these workers. Blue-collar employees' lives, in particular, will improve due to these reforms as they will have social security advantages.

• Other innovative employment models

'Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023 by Taggd also suggests a higher demand for other innovative employment models. According to the report, only 68 percent of the workforce is permanent. Apart from contractual employment (8 percent), employers are also experimenting with other models, including third-party employment (15 percent). 

• Skills required

A few in-demand skills in the business sector are Blockchain expertise, Enterprise Resource Planning, Forensics and Cybersecurity.

• Mode of recruitment

'Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023 by Taggd has claimed the following as primary sources of recruitment in breakdown for the recruitments from different sources: (I) Job Portals or online talent acquisition platform (27 percent), (II)) Campus placements (18 percent), (III) Company website and insider referrals (17 percent), (IIV) Consultants (16 percent), and Social Media (15 percent).

• Mode of work

Another innovative trend is the use of the hybrid (a combination of work from home and office) as the most popular mode of work. A phenomenal 60 percent of the workforce in the sector is a hybrid workforce, according to ''Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023'' by Taggd.

• Expected emergence of ONDC

ONDC stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and will give Internet Business platforms the ability to display goods and services from every platform. It will also synchronize search results across all of them. This would label the field and enable MSMEs to be more competitive. That, in turn, can mean MSME employing more staff.

• Tier-2 city jobs

Another trend noticeable in this sector is a predominance of non-tier-1 city workers in the industry. Some cities that saw a rise in employment were Noida, Mumbai, Vizag, Pune, Ludhiana, Lucknow, etc. While tier-1 cities too saw job growth, the jobs are increasingly more equally distributed as Internet Businesses expand their services to sub-prime markets. According to Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023 by Taggd, a 59% increase in hiring in the Internet Business sector will be seen in tier 1 cities in 2023, while a 38% increase in new hires is expected from non-tier one cities.

• Gender diversity

The Internet Business sector has done a phenomenal job of making its workforce more gender diverse, with 34 percent of the workforce now women (''Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023'' by Taggd).

Need for highly skilled workers.

The biggest challenge currently faced by the Internet Business sector remains a lack of highly skilled workers. The sector is unable to attract or hold on to highly skilled workers. That is also demonstrated in its high drop offers and attrition rates. 

According to ''Decoding Jobs Sectorial Report 2023'' by Taggd, the first half of 2022 saw a dropout ratio of 25 to 30 percent in technology roles in the sector. It was worse still at 35-45% during the busiest hiring period.

The solution lies in offering more competitive salaries to highly skilled workers as well as other incentives like flexible working hours and opportunities for job growth.

Get Taggd to get a job in Internet Business Sector.

Internet Businesses is a big employment recruiter that offers jobs to men and women alike, and the location doesn't matter either. The jobs are available across a plethora of roles, and Taggd is the best online recruitment portal for getting a job in it. With over 500 placements, including over thirty in critical roles as well as leadership roles like AGMs, GMs, Unit Heads, Regional Heads, etc. (Taggd Capability Deck), Taggd's record speaks for itself.