India now has 462 million internet users – 79% of traffic is mobile

Photo credit: stockbroker / 123RF Stock Photo.

A little over a third of India’s 1.3 billion people are connected to the internet. That’s less than the global ratio: half of the world’s 7.5 billion people are online. But in terms of sheer numbers of internet users, only China, with 731 million, has more than India’s 462 million.

Source: We Are Social and Hootsuite.

These numbers are part of an annual global compendium of digital stats from multiple sources put together by social media marketing agencies We Are Social and Hootsuite.

The rise in number of internet users is likely to continue at the current annual rate of 10 percent or higher, with India in particular having lots of headroom for growth. India saw a 23 percent rise in internet users last year. Average internet connection speed in India, however, was a dismal 4.1 mbps, more than two points below the global average of 6.3 mbps.

Indians are spending eight hours a day online on average, which is more than the six-and-a-quarter hours the Chinese stay hooked. But presumably, a significant portion of the time in India goes into waiting for pages to open or videos to download!

See: No internet? No problem. Your mobile wallet can still make payments.