CHENNAI: The number of
internet users in India will reach 500 million by June 2018, a
report by IAMAI and Kantar
IMRB says. At the end of December 2017, India had 481 million users, growing 11.34% from 2016.
According to the findings of the report, urban India witnessed growth of 9.66% from December 2016 and is estimated to have around 295 million
internet users as on December 2017.
On the other hand, rural India witnessed growth of 14.11% from December 2016 and is estimated to have around 186 million internet users as on December 2017.
Even though the growth rate of rural India may seem higher, it is mainly due to the low base effect; given overall internet users in rural India are still critically low, the report said.
Internet penetration in urban India was 64.84% in December 2017 as compared to 60.6% last December. In comparison, rural internet penetration has grown from 18% last December to 20.26% in December 2017.
In terms of numbers, urban India with an estimated population of 455 million already has 295 million using the internet. Rural India, with an estimated population of 918 million as per 2011 census, has only 186 million internet users. Thus, there are potential 732 million users still in rural India, the report said.
There are over 182.9 urban users who are accessing the internet on the daily basis while 98 million users in rural areas are daily users.
Internet user market is still a male preserve in India. There are estimated 143 million female internet users overall, which is approximately 30% of total internet users.