India’s internet user growth four times more than global rate

In a significant boost for India’s internet usage, the user growth rate in the world’s fastest growing economy is four times the global user growth rate, according to KPCB partner Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet trends report. The internet users in India grew by 40 percent to 277 million users during 2016. This is an increase from 33 percent in the previous year as compared to a flat 9 percent global Internet growth rate to reach 3 billion Internet users. In fact, if India is excluded, the global Internet growth rate dipped to 7 percent for the year.

Another reason for the growth in India’s internet usage is the increase in access to smartphones. However, the global smartphone shipments growth rate slowed down dramatically to 10 percent year-on-year (YoY) from 28 percent YoY following five years of high growth. The smartphone install base growth rate also slowed down to 21 percent YoY from 31 percent YoY. In Asia, the install base growth rate declined to 23 percent YoY from 35 percent YoY.

Tech giants such as Google and Facebook, who have a base in India account for 76 percent of the online advertising growth in US and online advertising has been witnessing a steady growth. Google ad witnessed a revenue growth of 18 percent YoY while Facebook’s grew by 59 percent YoY. Other players saw 13 percent YoY ad revenues growth.

The growth in internet usage in India also augurs well for the government’s flagship programme such as ‘Digital India’.

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