A sudden boom in Internet users may see India overtake US as the second largest Internet market.
The booming internet market in India is currently valued at 213 million users as of December 2013. However, a recent report published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB states that they forecast the internet usership in India will rise to 302 million by the end of December 2014. This will take the country to the number 2 spot, ahead of the United States which has an estimated 279 million users.
A lot of this rise has to be attributed to the popularity of mobile devices with Internet connection. India is a country where there are about 57 different spoken languages and companies are now realizing the worth of it and are building phones and computers that cater to the minorities that speak regional languages. This also has an effect on the usership.
The report also states that the userbase will further increase to about 354 million by June 2015. China is currently the world leader with an estimated 600 million users. The rise of people using the internet in India has been slow and steady in the past. It took the country a little more than a decade to grow from 10 million to 100 million. It took another 3 years to increase from 100 million to 200 million. However, since then, the rise has been exceedingly fast – it took only a year to move from 200 to 300 million.
In a statement, IAMAI-IMRB said, “Clearly, Internet is mainstream in India today.”
