It's no surprise that internet penetration is low in a country as underdeveloped as India. The United Nations estimates that only 1.1 of every 100 people in the country has access to a broadband connection. Yet, India's massive population ensures that the absolute number of people going online regularly is still huge.
So huge that, according to new figures from a report by an industry body, if India's online population were its own country, it would be the fourth-largest nation on earth. Although there have been questions about the exact details of the estimation, the report, published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International, claims that internet usage in the country is growing by 32% every year.
To put that in context, that's almost as large as the entire population of the United States, both online and offline.
According the report, over 302 million Indians will access internet by the end of December 2014. This will make the population of people who are online in the country second-largest in the world, next to China’s 600 million internet users.
The rate at which new users access the internet is set to accelerate as penetration increases in rural households. India’s internet population rose by over 100 million in just a year this time, while it took 10 years to go from 10 million to 100 million users.
The rate of growth is skewed in the favour of urban users. By the end of this year, 37% of those who are online from India will come from rural India while 63% of them will be from cities and towns.
In urban India, 93% of the respondents use internet mainly for search, social media and communication. Entertainment is the primary reason for accessing internet in the rural India, the report added.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
So huge that, according to new figures from a report by an industry body, if India's online population were its own country, it would be the fourth-largest nation on earth. Although there have been questions about the exact details of the estimation, the report, published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International, claims that internet usage in the country is growing by 32% every year.
To put that in context, that's almost as large as the entire population of the United States, both online and offline.
According the report, over 302 million Indians will access internet by the end of December 2014. This will make the population of people who are online in the country second-largest in the world, next to China’s 600 million internet users.
The rate at which new users access the internet is set to accelerate as penetration increases in rural households. India’s internet population rose by over 100 million in just a year this time, while it took 10 years to go from 10 million to 100 million users.
The rate of growth is skewed in the favour of urban users. By the end of this year, 37% of those who are online from India will come from rural India while 63% of them will be from cities and towns.
In urban India, 93% of the respondents use internet mainly for search, social media and communication. Entertainment is the primary reason for accessing internet in the rural India, the report added.