Internet user base up 54% in 2005
By agencies   |   Wednesday, 07 December 2005, 20:30 IST
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MUMBAI: For the financial year 2005-06, the Internet user base has registered a 54 percent growth with 38.5 million users as compared to just 25 million in 2004-05. This shows that more people are becoming net savvy and are harnessing the power of the Internet. At present, the total e-commerce market in India is estimated to be of $268.18 million (2005-06) and by 2006-07 online commerce is estimated to grow to $522.72 million, an over 100 percent increase. The impact of the Broadband policy is evident from these growth figures. The policy has helped focus in on ushering Internet penetration right across the country with Broadband prices as low as $4.52 per month. This internet growth can also be attributed to the IT and Telecom Ministry's focused pursuit of introducing sub $227.27 PCs, in association with hardware manufacturers, thereby enabling the common man to overcome the first hurdle of accessing the Internet. To overcome this hurdle of communication in the various states, the IT and Telecom Ministry has already kicked off several initiatives towards development of language fonts, thereby removing language barriers and localizing the content. Reduction in license fees and revenue sharing agreement from 15 percent to 6 percent has also enabled players like GAILTEL and RAILTEL and POWERGRID to come together to address the growing broadband demand. Email (98 percent) and chat have become a ubiquitous part of online Indians daily routine; Services like online banking (32percent), bill payment (18percent), stock trading (15percent), job search (51percent), matrimonial search (15percent), each delivering their own USP, has seen tremendous rise in usage. Indians are regularly doing online content research for work (62percent) and personal (70percent) use. Adding to this, the growing e-commerce industry also makes a sizeable contribution to the growth.

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