India may soon overtake US in number of internet users

The number of Internet users in India reached 205 million in October this year and will hit 243 million by June 2014 - overtaking the US as the country with the second-largest internet base in the world after China, according to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB International.

According to the report, the number of internet users in urban India was 137 million in October and is estimated to touch 141 million by December 2013.

Observers are however taking these figures with a pinch of salt – for one thing, the study includes people using the web just once a month as 'active users'; for another, the World Bank estimates US internet penetration to be over 80 per cent or a little over 250 million users.

India is nowhere near these levels of penetration, given the pathetic connectivity and speeds witnessed by most of the Indian population that lives outside the metros and large towns.

According to the IAMAI report, rural India has seen a growth of 58 per cent of active Internet users since June 2012.

China takes the first spot with 300 million users, while the US takes the second spot with 207 million.

Mumbai has India's largest internet population, with over 12 million users. Delhi is second with 8.1 million users, followed by India's 'silicon city' Hyderabad with 4.7 million users.

Chennai and Kolkata are in the number four and five spots with 4.5 and 4.4 million users respectively. But Kolkata registered the highest growth of internet users among all the top cities in India.

Rajan Anandan, chairman of the IAMAI, said, "The internet in India took more than a decade to move from 10 million to 100 million and only three years from 100 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".

Indians use the net mainly for communications and entertainment, with social media a close third, finds the study.

Online shopping does not appear to be popular outside the big cities. And most importantly the vast educational resources on the net are not being properly leveraged in a largely uneducated or under-educated country.

Giving reasons for the pre-eminence of Mumbai in internet usage, IAMAI associate vice-president Nilotpal

Chakravarti said, ''The primary reason is the increasing use of the internet by college students. There are various factors which have been instrumental in bringing about this change, with the major ones being the increase in mass media exposure and also the rising number of social networking apps targeting youth.''

Chakravarti however admitted that a significant portion of Indian users do not access news online, use e-commerce sites to buy their goods, or even use social media or networking sites. But ''There is every reason to believe that they will turn into active users in the near future,'' he added.