40 million Indians are online every day: IAMAI and BCG report

The report uncovers in-depth insights related to the changing face of the Indian internet user and its impact across all sectors of the economy.

The Internet and Mobile Association Of India (IAMAI), in association with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), recently released a report titled 'India@Digital Bharat - creating a $200 billion internet economy', which gives a detailed overview of the rise and changing face of Indian internet users, different kinds of internet users segmented on the basis of adaptability, affordability and reach of internet connection, along with its growing impact on all sectors of the Indian economy in the last few years.

The report states that from having just seven million internet users in 2001 to 60 million internet users in India in 2009, the current figures stand at a staggering 190 million in 2014, with a potential to grow to over 550 million users by 2018. Also, 40 million Indians are online every day, spending 40-45 hours over the internet per month. The report goes on to say that India is the second largest market for social networking giants such as Facebook and LinkedIn, with 58,000 new users getting connected onto a social network every day. The report adds that India already has 100 million active Facebook users.

In 2013 alone, as per the report, internet contributed 2.7 per cent of India's GDP, being one of the larger sectors in Indian economy compared to others like healthcare and military. Furthermore, the report throws light on internet economy being an 'employment generation engine' as the sector already employs 4-5 lakh people and expects to create nearly 15-20 lakh jobs by 2018. Also, consumers are increasingly using the internet as their first port of call in framing and driving purchase decisions.

However, on the flip side, the report states that the Indian economy has not yet fully realised the potential of the internet within sectors like entertainment, where only five per cent of the audience is impacted by digital.

Read the entire report below: