India's netizens set to be world's second-biggest internet user base

At 243 million, the strength to be more than the US' by June 2014, shows survey

By June 2014, Indians might outnumber American internet users to become the world’s second-largest online community after China, said a report released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and market research firm IMRB International.

According to the report, released on Wednesday, India is expected to have 213 million internet users by December and 243 million by June 2014. Its netizen strength stood at 205 million in October and 190 million in June this year.

At present, China is at the top with a little over 300 million internet users, while the US (an estimated 207 million) is a distant second.

“The internet user base in India took more than a decade to move from 10 million to 100 million but only three years to double from there to 200 million. From here on, we can hope to develop a robust internet ecosystem, with a multitude of local and global players and a thriving internet economy. Internet is now, clearly, mainstream in India,” said IAMAI Chairman Rajan Anandan.

According to IAMAI President Subho Ray, internet penetration in India, given its population, is still low. That’s the reason for the growth rate here to be much higher than that in the US.

  “The growth in the US was slow, as it already had more than 200 million of its 300 million population using the internet. India, on the other hand, has a large addressable crowd. So, the growth rate is much higher here,” he added.

Interestingly, rural India has seen a 58 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of active internet users since June 2012.

The rural base, 68 million in October, is estimated to reach 72 million by December.

The report further finds that more than 50 per cent of the urban internet users access internet daily. Remarkably, however, this high-frequency usage is not restricted only to the youth and the working men. The habit of accessing the internet daily is seen among other demographic segments as well, including older men and non-working women, it shows.

In urban India, the report found, college-going students had overtaken young men in usage and now accounted for 29 per cent of all active internet users. Young men now accounted for 28 per cent. However, the most phenomenal growth was seen in the working women segment, which grew 43 per cent over last year and now accounted for a tenth of the active internet users.

According to the IAMAI report, much of the growth of internet user base in India is on account of increasing penetration of mobile internet. As of October this year, India had 110 million mobile internet users. This number is expected to reach 130 million by the end of December.

“Mobile internet, as of June 2013, had a penetration of 65 per cent among the 108 million active internet users in urban India. Going by the trend, it would not be long before mobile internet will become the primary platform for accessing the internet,” added Ray.

In rural India, according to the report, 32 per cent of the active users access the internet only on their mobile phones, while 70 per cent both mobiles and computers for the purpose. The community service centres and cyber cafes are the main points of access for 40 per cent of them.