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News >> Technology >>
Indians get net savvy
By siliconindia
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Friday, 22 September 2006, 19:30 IST
Mumbai: Indians are becoming more and more net savvy with Internet users in the country reaching the 3.7 crore mark in September, up from 3.3 crore in March in 2006. A joint study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International says the number of active users has risen from 2.11 crore in March to 2.5 crore in September.
The primary survey for the study was conducted early this year amongst 16,500 households, covering 65,000 individuals across 26 major metros and small towns in India, with additional coverage of 10,000 business and 250 cyber cafe owners. The survey did not include rural areas.
According to the survey, youth are the main users of Internet in India and college students and those below the age of 35 are the biggest segment on the Internet.
The growth in Internet use has also been fuelled in small towns, and smaller metros and towns are increasingly embracing the Internet evolution, says the study. Smaller cities and towns have shown a whopping 142 per cent year-on-year growth and now account for 25 per cent of all Internet users.
Commenting on the survey, IAMAI president Dr Subho Ray said, "Although there is a marginal revision of the earlier IAMAI number for the year, given the rapid growth of Internet business and Government's massive e-Governance programme, it was time to look into the numbers more stringently. This will help better business decisions on part of the industry as well as better resource planning by the government."
Predicting on the future development, IMRB technology group vice president and country manager Mohan Hrishnan says, "The next round of growth will be driven by new and innovative applications such as blogs, P2P, video-on-demand and online gaming."
"The old favourites such as e-mail and chat will drive first time users to the medium," he adds.
The study estimates that Internet user base is likely to cross the 4 crore mark by March 2007.