India Continues To Hold The Third Position In Internet Usage

It was 2013 when the world came to know that India had become the third largest internet user in the world, after China and US, with a whopping 74 million users.

In 2014, the country has secured its place in the same position with more than 243 million users and an annual internet population growth rate of 14%, as reported by internetlivestats.com. Various data sources like International Telecommunication Union and World Bank have revealed that in 2014, internet penetration in the country’s population base has been 19.19%.

This indicates a steep increase as according to 2013 data, India had 15% of its total population with internet access. The most interesting fact is in spite of standing in the 3rd position, India is way ahead of China and US, the first and second rank holders respectively, in terms of annual growth rate of internet users.

China has 4% growth rate/annum while US has 7% for the same. But of course, these two countries have internet penetration, two times and four times higher than India. Almost 87% of US population have access to the internet and in China it is 46%.

Still, we can say that the internet population base is under a rapid expansion in India and many reports speculate that within two to three years the total number of people using internet in India will reach 500 million.

With these developments, the country has become one of the most potential e-commerce markets in the world. The Smartphone revolution and mobile internet are of course two chief factors behind this rapid growth of online population in India.

According to a report of International Data Corporation (IDC), in 2013, 12.8 million Smartphones were shipped to India. In 2014, the number just doubled to become 23.3 million.

IAMAI and IMRB International have even projected that by June 2015, only ‘mobile internet’ users in the country will touch 213 million. With this express rate of growth in focus, maybe it is fair to speculate by a couple of news agencies that within a couple of years India will elevate to the second position in internet usage.

But India’s contribution on the web is not limited to the consumption only. India is now the largest IT outsourcing country in the world. For last two consecutive years India has remained on the top of the Tholons Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations.

Thousands of small to medium scale IT enterprises in India are serving clients from all over the world and there are top-notch web development companies in India who offer all kind of web services under one roof—from programming, designing, digital marketing to app development—bundled or standalone.

And this is not because the country has the most affordable workforce to hire, as negatively featured in many international news media. Quality of work and expertise are the factors which are driving the country forward in IT outsourcing or else the country couldn’t have endured its stay on the top for so long.

Even this trend also has contributed to the rapid expansion of internet population base in the country. While the retail users are increasing in number every day, industrial users too are adding to the volume.