Usage of Social Media in Rural India has grown by 100 per cent: IAMAI

There are 25 million social media user in rural India. Meanwhile, urban India registered a relatively lower growth of 35 per cent with the total number of users at 118 million as on April 2015.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International have released a report that reveals some surprising facts about usage of social media in rural India.

As per the report, usage of social media in rural India has grown by 100 per cent during the last one year with 25 million users in rural India. On the other hand, urban India registered a relatively lower growth of 35 per cent with the total number of users at 118 million as on April 2015.

According to the Social Media in India 2014 report, there were 143 million social media users in India as on April 2015. The report also finds that the top four metros continue to account for almost half of the Social Media users in urban India.

According to the latest report, the largest segment accessing social media consists of the college going students with 34 per cent followed by young men at 27 per cent. School going children constitute 12 per cent of the social media users. College going students and young men still form the 60 per cent of the social media users in urban India.

The report further finds that 61 per cent of these users access social media on their mobile device. The fact that almost two thirds of the users are already accessing social media through their mobile is a promising sign. With the expected increase in mobile traffic the number of users accessing social media on mobile is only bound to increase.

According to the report, maintaining a profile on social networking sites are a top activity of users followed by updating status. Commenting on a blog site is the third most popular activity among users in social networking sites.