I just found some interesting Internet usage statistics for India.
Estimated Indian Internet users:
- Sept 2006: 37m ever users and 25m active users
- March 2007: 42m ever users and 28m active users
- March 2008: 54m ever users and 43m active users
( “Active user” is defined as someone who has used the Internet at least once in the last 30 days, while “ever user” is someone who has used the Internet at least once.)
Compare these numbers with MySpace which registered its 100 millionth user on August 9th, 2006. The Wikipedia page for MySpace says that MySpace currently has atleast 154 million users – which means that by March 2007, the number of MySpace users would probably be more than 3 times all Indian Internet users combined.
By Sept 2006, the number of school-going kids using the Internet was estimated to be 1.6 million and college-going students at 3.4 million. India had 188,600 broadband subscribers as of 1Q/2004. Broadband usage in India is growing at 20% per month.
The reports indicate that in India, the time spent on the Internet increases with the increasing age of the user. However women seem to be leading the usage numbers. Here are the estimates about the time spent by various sections of users:
- School going kids spend an average of 322 minutes a week online.
- College-going students spend an average of 433 minutes a week.
- Older men spend an average of 580 minutes a week.
- Working women spend an average of 535 minutes online a week.
- Non-working women spend 334 minutes a week.
According to the estimates, here is what Indians do online:
- e-mail and IM (98 percent);
- job search (51 percent);
- banking (32 percent);
- bill payment (18 percent);
- stock trading (15 percent); and
- matrimonial search (15 percent).
Hmm, but I wonder what the stats for activities by age are.
It was estimated that 60% of the users regularly access the Internet via the country’s more than 10,000 cybercafes.
Mobile phones have taken over India in a much bigger way than the Internet. The number of mobile phone users in India was 149 million by the end of 2006 – that is more than 4 times the estimate for the number of Internet users.
