Internet usage shows visible signs of growth in both ‘spread' and ‘depth'
If in 2005 the growth of Internet in urban India was mainly visible in its ‘depth' (increased usage by those who were already using the net), then in 2006 it has clearly shown visible signs of growth in both its ‘depth' and ‘spread'.
This year, 22% new users have got added to the pie of urban Internet users. These are the net users who have been online for less than a year now.
We estimate the current population of urban online Indians who use Internet with some regularity (at least once a month) at around 21.4 millions. This implies a growth of about 21% over the 2005 figure of 17.7 million.
If we also add the ‘occasional' users of the Internet to the 21.4 million regular users, we get the total online population in urban India of around 25 million. This implies a 10% penetration of Internet among the urban Indians. Assuming some marginal usage in the rural areas as well, the all India level penetration should be around 2.25% or so .
As the estimated base of urban Indians who already use a computer (at home, office, cyber café, school/college, etc.) is about 50 million, Internet is now being used by 1 out of 2 computer using urban Indians.
Internet is increasingly reflecting the ‘real' urban Indian consumer
With only 50% of the total Internet users coming from the top 8 metro cities, clearly Internet has become an ‘urban' phenomenon rather than remaining only a ‘metro' phenomenon. This geographical spread of the Internet is also reflected in the fact that the Internet is being accessed very highly from cyber cafes. 46% of regular net users access the net (non-exclusively) from a cyber café. In comparison, 53% are accessing it from offices and 40% from homes.
The popular misconception that Internet is the medium of the privileged breaks apart when one takes into account the socio-economic (SEC) profile of the net users. Almost 60% of the regular urban online Indians come from SEC B and C. Only 30% of them can be categorized as SEC A.
Three out of four Internet users have monthly household incomes of up to Rs.20,000 and 44% of them have a two-wheeler as their most expensive owned vehicle (only 24% of them own a car as their most expensive vehicle).
However, the fact that bulk of the Internet users come from SEC B and C does not take away from their economic strength as consumers. 90% of the regular online Indians come from a household that owns a TV, 85% households have a mobile phone, 77% have a cable TV connection, 65% have a two-wheeler, 55% own a washing machine, and 49% own a computer.
The need for ‘language' content is already staring the online content providers
Only 60% of the regular online Indians have English as the preferred language of reading, which is also the primary way they interact with the medium. 42% of the regular online Indians are already visiting language websites. 17% also indicate that they visit Hindi websites already.
The emergence of ‘blogging' as one of the biggest online phenomenon of the day
After emailing, checking ‘blogs' comes out as the second most popular online activity that net users undertake. 85% of the regular online Indians say that they check blogs.
This sudden popularity of ‘blogging' as an online phenomenon can be attributed to the volume of ‘searching' which happens online. Today, invariably when one searches for anything online using a search engine, a good proportion of the results captured are linked to blogs. That does not, however, discount the fact that the sheer interactivity and informality of blogs has captured the attention of the online audience.
Yahoo! is the biggest online brand in India
Yahoo! is the most top of mind online brand among the online Indians. 35% of them recall it as the first website that comes to their mind. Google follows next with a 21% top of mind recall. Rediff, Indiatimes and Hotmail complete the top 5 list.
The most popular websites for the 14 online activities surveyed are as follows:
| Activity |
Preferred website |
% usage |
| Emailing |
Yahoo |
38 |
| Job search |
Naukri |
49 |
| Matrimony |
Bharatmatrimony |
33 |
| E-shopping |
Ebay |
38 |
| News and events |
Indiatimes |
16 |
To sum up, the usage of Internet has shown growth in both depth and spread and Internet is increasingly becoming the ‘melting pot' of the big Indian middle mass of urban consumers.
However, the big catch is that the pot itself is very small currently and already full to the brim. The size of the pot needs to get bigger to fuel, capture and accommodate the future growth of Internet users in India. And that calls for breaking the barriers of both the software limitations (content, especially language content) and the hardware limitations (wider and affordable connectivity and access to the net).
The penetration figures have been calculated assuming the total current population of India at 1.2 billion and the total urban population at 250 million. |
