According to a recent report ICUBE 2018 generated by market research agency Kantar IMRB, number of internet users in India is expected to record a double digit growth to reach a mark of 627 million in 2019.
It is for the first time that internet usage in the country has gone beyond half a billion people, secured at 566 million, driven by internet growth and usage in rural areas.
As revealed by the report that traces digital adoption and usage trends in India, the number of internet users in India has recorded an annual growth of 18% and is projected at 566 million as of December 2018 i.e. a 40% overall internet penetration.
The report estimated a double digit growth for 2019 and predicted that the number of internet users in India will get to 627 million by the end of this year.
The report also revealed that 87% or 493 million Indians of the total user base are regular users based on the number of users who accessed internet in last 30 days. Almost 293 million active internet users are from the urban India, while 200 million active users reside in rural India.
The report also talked about how 97% of users are using mobile phone as one of the devices for accessing the internet.
While urban India saw a 7% growth in internet usage reaching 315 million users in 2018, rural India is really seen to be propelling digital adoption with a 35% growth in internet users over the past year.
As per the estimations disclosed in the report, there are 251 million internet users in rural India, and the figure is expected to reach 290 million by the end of 2019.
“Increased availability of bandwidth, cheap data plans and increased awareness driven by government programmes seem to have rapidly bridged the digital gap between urban and rural India. Consequently, the penetration in rural India has increased from 9% in 2015 to 25% in 2018,” it added.
Talking about the states, with a growth of 35% over last year, Bihar recorded the highest growth in internet users across both urban and rural areas.
Moreover, with women comprising 42% of total internet users, the internet usage in India has become more gender balanced than ever before, as noted by the report.
“It is fascinating to note that the digital revolution is now sweeping small towns and villages perhaps driven by increased accessibility at affordable data costs. The increase in the usage of digital in rural India, where more than two-thirds of active internet users are now accessing the internet daily to meet their entertainment and communication needs,” said Kantar IMRB managing director Media and Digital Hemant Mehta.
Mr. Mehta also said that the high internet usage in the country will bring big opportunities for the marketers as they can use digital to reach their potential customers in both urban and rural India.
Source: ET Tech