Nine out of 10 Indians on the internet are non-English users
The India Internet 2019 report also stated that nearly 72 percent of India's urban internet users and 57 percent of rural users access the internet daily.
At present, nine out of 10 new internet users in India consume content in Indian languages, a Google official said.
Nearly 40 million users of the internet, who were added in 2015-18 are Indian language users, said Nidhi Gupta, Senior Product Manager, Google India.
She also informed that Hindi web consumption has grown over 90 percent during 2015-16 while English content growth was 19 percent.
In a press release, Gupta said that after English, Hindi was the second most used language across all Google products platform.
"There were limited options for products, services, and content for Indian language users on the internet. Google recognised the growing demand for Indian language content and integrated greater Indian language support across existing products and services," she said.
According to a recent study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India now has 451 million monthly internet users, second only to China.
Titled India Internet 2019, the report also stated that nearly 72 percent of India's urban internet users (approximately 139 million) and 57 percent of rural users (about 109 million) access the internet daily.
Those aged between 16 to 29 are the most frequent users, IAMAI added.
However, despite the huge user base, internet penetration in India is only about 36 percent, indicating "much headroom for growth".
The report also suggested that gender disparity continues, with male users accounting for 67 percent of the country's internet population. The divide is starker in rural India, where only 28 percent of the users are women.
In a huge improvement in the last three to four years, 85 percent of the users have 4G connections. This can be credited to the Jio network, which now has 360 million users.
A recent study by KPMG India and Google has two key findings –
- Indian language internet users are expected to grow at a CAGR of 18 percent vs English users at a CAGR of 3 percent.
- Nine out of every 10 new internet users in India over the next five years are likely to be Indian language users.
(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)
