Majority of Indian Internet users aren’t sure of Internet’s utility?

January 28, 2009
By sinha

As of September 2008, India has 45.3 million active internet users (i.e. have used the internet at least once in the last one month), though the total number of claimed Internet users stands at 57 million.

Growth of Internet User Base

Internet User Base in India

Utility of Internet

It’s surprising that 47.5% of Claimed Internet users do not know how Internet can be a useful tool. Other barriers to usage includes:

  • Cost of access – cyber cafe charges are high (11.7%)
  • Lack of access points – no good cafe nearby (8.9%)
  • Dial-up costs are too high (5.5%)
  • Need guidance (5.2%) – IAMAI

Barriers to Internet Usage in India

Lack of local language content also plays a significant role in(not) building up the utility of Internet, especially for the common mass.

Infact, the whole discussion goes back to one point – what is that one single most utility that will accelerate the penetration of Internet in India?

Isn’t Internet penetration a function of PC adoption? Will mobile Internet change the numbers?

Share your opinion.

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2 Responses to “ Majority of Indian Internet users aren’t sure of Internet’s utility? ”

  1. Namma on January 28, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    check out oo-ha.com or just google for ooha services… in fact they presented the ideas at proto.in last week. It is a very interesting concept and also at the same time is generating revenues

  2. The real India « Newsynews on January 28, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    [...] Majority of Indians don’t find the internet useful – this is because most of websites / applications developed today are not very relevant or useful. They are too elitist, I don’t visit too many Indian websites, most are a waste of time or impractical.  Have the internet experts ever thought of how people who are not like them think? [...]

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