A report by IAMAI and IMRB International has stated that India will have as many as 91 million active social media users before December 31, 2013. Their Social Media in India – 2013 report has also predicted that in October there will be as many as 86 million people who will connect with family and friends via social networks.
The urban regions of the country are expected to see a 19 percent growth in the people who have accounts on such websites within the period between June and December 2013. This is going to be a huge number and it should be noted that it concerns only the urban locations. We will not be surprised if this percentage is more than what has been predicted.
And what’s more, it has been found out that mobile devices are becoming the preferred means to access these social networking websites. About 19.8 million users in the urban areas use their handheld gadgets to keep tabs on their accounts. We cannot really blame them, the internet penetration and various affordable data plans offered by network providers across India has definitely boosted the usage.
Furthermore, this could also lead to vote swings in the country. The said researchers came to this conclusion after studying the number of eligible voters, data of voter turn out, field interviews and more and have forecasted that there could be a 3 – 4 percent swing in 24 of the Indian states. These are most likely to be young men and non-working women.
Younger women and college-going students are the pre-dominant groups who use social media, while working women aren’t very interested in engaging in online activities.