Internet Users in India will cross 300 million subscribers by December 2014 according to ?Internet in India 2014? report jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International. The country has reported a year on year growth rate of internet subscribers at 32 percent.
The report attributes the acceleration of internet growth in India to the fact that the country took 10 years to move from 10 million to 100 million internet subscribers, three years then to increase from 100 million to 200 million subscribers, whereas the next 100 million subscribers? addition was achieved in just one year. Even if the same growth is maintained, India will reach 500 million users before end of 2016.
In comparison, China has around 650 million internet users accounting for around 43 per cent of their population. United States has roughly 279 million users accounting for roughly 47 per cent of their population. At 302 million internet users by end of December 2014, India will overtake United States as the second largest country in the world in terms of number of internet users with penetration of around 24 percent.
The report states that the healthy growth in internet users has been driven by rural Indians who are now increasingly accessing internet either on their mobile phones or computers. Rural India registered a growth rate of 39 per cent to reach 101 million users by October 2014, whereas urban India grew by 29 per cent to reach 177 million by October 2014. By end of December 2014, urban India will have 190 million internet users (63 per cent), while rural India will have 112 million users (37 per cent).
According to the report, 52 million new internet users will be added in first six months of 2015. Urban and rural India is expected to added equal number of users (26 million each). When it comes to frequency of internet usage, the report finds that 61 per cent of users are daily users. About 18 per cent access internet several times a day, 10 per cent users at least once a day and 33 per cent access on all seven days. Most of the users access internet for general search, social networking browsing and entertainment.
Further, around 173 million or 57 per cent of Indian internet users access internet from their mobile phones. The percent of mobile internet users has grown more rapidly than traditional broadband users. 49 million new mobile internet users have been added between October 2013 and October 2014.
