Today, most FMCG categories (80%) are growing faster in rural as compared to urban India. This growing importance of rural India will also mean that competitors (both regional players and categories with a strong regional franchise) will influence marketing plans.

According to a study on social media usage by The Nielsen Company conducted in collaboration with AbsolutData, nearly 30 million Indians who are online are members of social networking sites and about two-thirds of them spend time on these social networking sites daily.

While food contributed more than half (52%) of the total fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales in India last year, key products within the non-foods segment around impulse, health and wellness, lifestyle and convenience themes registered more than 20 percent growth and are set to define the shape and direction of the future.

Latin America was the most confident region according to Nielsen’s latest Consumer Confidence index. Take a closer look at additional regional insights from more than a dozen countries.

Consumer confidence in the Asia Pacific region gained six points year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2010 to an index level of 97, according to the latest edition of The Nielsen Company’s Global Consumer Confidence Index.

Consumer confidence fell in 25 out of 52 countries in Q4 2010 as hope for a global economic recovery evaporated at the end of last year, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index.

Young people around the world love their mobile phones, but they use them in vastly different ways.

It is no secret that young people all over the world have embraced the mobile phone. But who pays for all those mobile services charges?

At Nielsen’s recent Consumer 360 conference in India, acclaimed speakers from across the world and industries spoke on topics ranging from social media to government ID systems to consumer trends and 3G access.

The leader of India’s unique identification system has identified four critical changes taking place across India that are the backdrop to his rollout of access to key services for hundreds of millions of people.