If the internet user base in India continues to grow at the rate at which it is growing currently, by next year the country will overtake the US to become the second largest in terms of web subscribers. China takes the first spot with 300 million users, while the US takes the second spot with 207 million connected people. And then comes India with its 205 million subscribers, says the I-Cube 2013 report by Internet & Mobile Association of India and IMRB International.
India reached the 205 million mark in October 2013, thus registering a year over year growth of a whooping 40 percent. And if the said report is to be believed, it is slated to reach 213 million in December 2013 itself. Rajan Anandan, Chairman of IAMAI notes that it took about a decade for India to reach the 100 million mark from 10 million, while to go over to 200 million from there onwards, there was a gap of merely 3 years.
Rural India has seen a significant year over year increase of 58 percent this year. The total urban and rural internet users in the country as of October were 137 million and 72 million, respectively. It is expected to grow up to 141 million and 72 million, correspondingly in December 2013.
And as far as mobile users are concerned, there were around 110 million people who accessed the internet through their phones. This number may cross 130 million by next month. There were about 80 million urban mobile internet users, while the corresponding rural number is 25 million for October. The report is expecting this number to reach 103 million for urban and 27 million for rural subscribers by December.
Moreover, about 50 percent urban users access the web on a daily basis and in rural India, about 70 percent of them have internet connection on their phones too. 32 percent of the users in villages access the web only via mobile phones.