Internet Usage Statistics of India-A 2010 Report

Internet is emerging at a rapid pace and it’s already been a part in the field of business, economy, entertainment, social groups all over the globe. The rise of Internet usage all over the world unlocked various new businesses, products, services. Internet is constantly changing the way consumers shop and businesses sell their products. Every business related to any niche knows the importance of Internet and creating a website to show their products to potential consumers.

But still in India – a country of billion people has lot to do in the area of Internet usage to catch up with the global pace. According to a report by Point Topic in 2009, Hongkong – a region with a population of only a million people has more broadband connections than India. But year of 2010 can be a silver line in dark clouds as far as the Internet in India is concerned.


In December 2008, the number of broadband subscribers was only 5.52 million that was far short of target set by broadband policy in 2008. Our neighboring countries including China, South Korea and Japan are far ahead of India. This is mainly due to high broadband rates and the quality in our country. The average rate of Broadband connection is very expensive when it is compared to China, Japan, Western Europe and USA. The main reason for such expensive rates in India are a fraction of wages in the US – the minimum wage in US is approximately Rs.327 per hour while in India, it is only Rs.10. One more reason is Indian ISP’s are paying much higher costs for high speed Internet links to connect to the Internet worldwide.

But, Internet usage figures are increasing nowadays, because pricing are lowering down in comparison to 2008 prices. Still, these are on higher side in comparison to other countries.

Let’s see some interesting Statistics about Internet usage and penetration in India (2010):

◦1,173,108,018 (1.1 billion) population and 88,000,000(88 million) active Internet users in 2010
◦Total of 6.9% penetration rate (6.9 persons using Internet out of 100)
◦India has 10.52 million broadband users (till Oct.2010), constituting 6.0% of the population.
Diving dip in to these 88 million user base, we can get very important information and insight in to the penetration, usage, age/gender diversities and habits. Let’s find out.

Statistics about Internet usage considering Age Group and Gender :

◦2/3rd households have ‘multiple’ users in them
◦97% are regular users and 79% use daily
◦70% of people who know computer have used Internet
◦19-40 years age group constitutes nearly 85% among Internet users
◦85% of Internet users are male
◦11% of working women, 6% non-working women and 2% housewives use Internet which is not a very good sign
◦46% of net users are graduate, 26% are post-graduate
Statistics about Internet usage considering cities :

◦Mumbai has most number of Internet users nearly 3.24 million
◦Delhi holds the second place with 2.66 million
◦Top ten cities having most number of Internet users are Mumbai, Delhi, Banglore, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Surat and Nagpur.
◦These 10 cities has 37% of the total numbers of Internet users in India.
Statistics about Internet usage considering browsing habits :

◦94% of total users use Internet for Email purposes
◦72% of total users use Internet for download music (73%) followed by Chatting (56%)
◦Other major purposes for using Internet are job searching (56%), social networking sites(54%) and finding information on search engine (52%)
◦13,188,580 Facebook users on August 31/10, 1.1% penetration rate of total Internet users
◦Cyber cafes account for maximum Internet usage with over 37% of all users accessing Internet through cyber cafes
Major concerns about Internet usages in India :

◦Only 6.9% people use Internet in India which is on very lower side.
◦Most of the users are male, female users need to be increase
◦Low number of broadband connections
◦Internet popularity in urban areas is very less
This is the overall condition of Internet usage in India. I cant’ deny the fact that Internet popularity is increasing but still it’s very low because of high Internet charges, low broadband penetration and speed. The major reason behind there are India use foreign satellites that increases the end user cost.

If we want to have cyber revolution in our country, government has to use own network and satellites to strengthen the Internet infrastructure , then only the cost goes lower. If cost reduces the penetration will increase automatically. If you remember mobile was luxury when it was first come in India, it was viable to common man only when mobile usage charges become cheaper. So, we have to hope that Internet usage charges become cheaper and Internet become common for common man.