India has over 800 mn internet users; most use tech for OTT services: Study

Communication and social media second and third most common reasons people use internet for

India has more than 800 million internet users and 86 per cent of them avail of over-the-top (OTT) audio and video services – the top use for the technology in the country, said a report on Tuesday.

More than 90 per cent of Indians use the internet daily and on average spend around 1.5 hours there, according to the Internet in India Report 2023. However, the growth of the internet user base is decelerating, according to the report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar.

Nationwide internet penetration grew 8 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in 2023. In rural India, which has been driving internet growth for years, the expansion was 11 per cent YoY.

 

India had 820 million active internet users reached in 2023, meaning more than 55 per cent of the country used the technology last year. Rural India comprised 53 per cent of the total user base (442 million).

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While activities such as internet commerce, digital payments, and online learning are more urban-centric, OTT, communication, social media, and online gaming are more “democratised”.

Communication (621 million users) and social media (575 million) are the second and third most popular services availed of by Indian internet users. OTT refers to audio or video streaming either from subscribed or user-generated content (UGC) platforms, while communication refers to text/voice/video chat or used email, video conferencing, etc., using an online website or app in the last year, said the report.

The rise of digital entertainment is bolstered by non-traditional devices (smart televisions and speakers, Amazon Firestick, Google Chromecast, Blu-Ray) which grew 58 per cent in 2021-23 nationwide. For the first time in the country, there are more people accessing video content over internet-only devices – a generation called 'cord-cutters' and numbering 208 million in 2023.

The report was released by Harsh Jain, chairman of IAMAI and chief executive officer and co-founder of Dream Sports, at the inaugural session of the India Digital Summit 2024, in Mumbai.