Urban India Web Users

 

By Enid Burns, The ClickZ Network

 

Urban areas of India are home to 30.32 million Internet users according to a report by JuxtConsult. The Internet population rose 28 percent from April 2006 to April of this year.

Of the 30.32 million Web users, 25.17 million (83 percent) log on at least monthly, while 5.15 million (17 percent) are occasional users who go online less frequently. About 20 million users access the Web daily.

Internet penetration stand at 9 percent. Much of the growth of Internet adoption came from new home-based Internet users. Home usage accounts for 59 percent of Internet use, up 19 percent from the previous year. Place of work including offices, schools, and colleges accounts for 78 percent of Internet use, up 16 percent from last year. Internet cafes, thought to be an access point for those who can't afford a home computer or Web access accounts, remained stagnant with 47 percent of Internet usage, up 1 percent over the previous year. Cyber cafes serve as the only Internet access point for 1.4 percent of the regular Internet-using population

Urban India Internet Users by Type, 2007
	2007 (M)	2006 (M)	Growth (%)
Total urban Internet users	30.32	23.60	28
Regular Internet users (at least once a month)	25.17	21.95	15
Occasional Internet users (less than once a month)	5.15	1.65	212
Source: JuxtConsult, 2007

Broadband reaches 77 percent of home Internet in urban India, and 74 percent of office-based Internet users. While broadband adoption continues, two out of three Internet users complain of opening Web sites is slow. Difficulty connecting to the Web is the complaint of 35 percent of Internet users.

Survey participants use the Web for communication, networking and entertainment. Of the 10 most popular activities online, five are communication and networking such as e-mail, instant messaging, chatting, e-greetings, or dating and friendship activities. Four additional popular activities encompass entertainment activities such as news, sports, music, and games.

Urban India Online Activities by Regular Internet Users, 2007 (%)
Rank	Online Activity	2007	2006	Change
1	E-mailing	95	94	1
2	Job search	73	53	20
3	Instant messaging	62	37	25
4	Check news	61	53	8
5	Online music	60	48	12
6	Chatting	59	49	10
7	E-greetings	58	57	1
8	Check sports	57	35	22
9	Online games	54	35	20
10	Dating/friendship	51	27	25
Source: JuxtConsult, 2007

JuxtConsult conducted a land survey in April of 2007 with a sampling of 10,000 households in 31 cities with populations of 20,000 or larger. The survey reached four major regions across India, and was conducted to estimate Internet usership and derive weights to make online survey data representative of the entire online urban population. Data were compared to an online survey conducted in May 2006 with a sample size of over 14,200 respondents.