One of the top confusion in India online world is the total number of Internet users – 45mn? 30mn?

Here are the latest India Online statistics from Juxtconsult – paints a not-so-merry picture of India online world:

• ‘All’ internet users down at 47 million (39 million urban, 8 million rural)
• Drop of 6% from last year (lapse of around 3 mn occasional users)
• Just 10% growth in ‘regular’ users base*, reaching 38.5 mn (33 mn urban)
• +3.5 mn regular ‘urban’ users over last year, +0.4 mn regular ‘rural’ users
• 28% growth in ‘daily’ internet users (+7 mn in last 1 year to reach 32 mn)

Access Point:

• Exclusive cybercafé user base shrink to become just 6% of all internet users
• Office continues to be the place from where internet is accessed the most (68% at ‘multiple’ access point level)

Challenges:

• 1 out of 3 computer user still not using internet
• Most new broadband connections are ‘replacement’ connections
• Still only 4 mn internet users access it through mobile phones

Class/Demographics of Indian Internet Users

• Only 13% of existing internet users prefer to read in English
• More importantly only 20 mn Indians (<2% of all) prefer to read in English
• 4 out of 5 online Indian are in the ‘prime’ of their life (19-35 years)
• 3 out of 4 of them belong to the ‘consuming’ and ‘aspiring’ class (almost half of them belong to SEC ‘A’ and ‘B’)

Online Shopping

• 91% of all regular online Indians ‘shop’ online (search or buy)
• 20% have also bought online in last 1 year, i.e., ‘active’ online buyers base of 7.5 million
• 74% of travel buyers have bought train tickets, 34% air tickets
• Credit card is the most popular mode of online payment at 50%
• Less than 1 in 5 ‘non-buying’ online shoppers cite ‘fear of misuse of credit card’ as a reason for not buying online

Top 10 Online Activity:

• Job search    72%
• Instant messaging/chatting    68%
• Check general news    63%
• Dating/Friendship    56%
• Check sports (other than cricket)    53%
• Check cricket content/score    53%
• English info search engine    50%
• Matrimonial search    50%
• Listen/stream music online    49%
• Download music    48%

Top 10 Sites:

• Google    35%
• Yahoo    25%
• Gmail    11%
• Orkut    7%
• Rediff    4%
• Indiatimes    1%
• Moneycontrol    0.7%
• Hotmail    0.6%
• Youtube    0.5%
• Sify    0.5%