A woman walks past a logo of Google at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) 2015 in Beijing, China, April 28, 2015. (Photo : REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON)
There's no valid argument against the rapid growth of the Internet in India. The largest democracy in the world is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest Internet market in the world. It will trail China, which has 600 million Internet subscribers.
A report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB International revealed Indian Internet users will rise to 402 million by December, which represents nearly 50% growth over 2014.
From the approximately 400 million 351 million will go online daily. While the first mileston will be to surpass the U.S., India has the capacity to overtake China's claim over the highest market.
"The growth in the number of Internet users is great news for the industry because the mass base is growing," the Economic Times reported Nilotpal Chakravarti, IAMAI, Associate VP as saying.
“With smartphones in India now available for under 5,000 INR (less than $100),” IAMAI’s Nilotpal Chakravarti said according to an interview with TechCrunch, “we expect that the upsurge in overall Internet penetration will be driven by mobile.”
The mobile has been a primary driver behind Internet growth in emerging markets and the trend is the same in India. According to the report, in October 2015, India had 317 million Net users. About 276 million, the equivalent of 87 percent, access the Internet from mobile devices.
Mobile-based use is supposed to go up to 371 million by June, 2016. That figure will tag India's online users at 463 million. These figures are still low for India, which hosts a population of 1.2 billion. While remote areas and villages have the least amount of Internet use, the coverage in these areas is growing rapidly.
