Internet subscriber base in India may reach 150 million: Report

The report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB said, "the number of claimed Internet users has seen a growth of 16 per cent over last year. This number is estimated to grow up to 150 million by December 2012."

There will be 105 million users in urban India while the rural areas will contribute 45 million subscribers, it added.

Claimed users are those who have used Internet at least once in their lifetime while active users have used Internet at least once in the last one month.

"As of June 2012, there are 137 million claimed Internet users in India (99 million from Urban India and 38 million from the rural parts of the country)," the report said.

Out of these 137 million claimed users, there are 111 million active users, it added.

The number of active users is growing at the rate of 19 per cent, faster than the claimed users.

"This indicates that the penetration of active users among the claimed ones will grow as Internet seeps more deeply into the lives of Indians," the report said.

It added that Internet usage in the country is still driven by the youth and mobile is coming up as a major avenue for Internet access and is redefining how the users stay online.

"Thanks to this trend, we see a huge spike in the frequency of Internet usage from a mere 28 per cent of the users in 2011 accessing Internet daily to 54 per cent users now," the report said.

Email and social networking are the most popular purposes of Internet access and are the main triggers for bringing people on this platform, it said.

"Continuing previous years' trends, school going kids, college students and young men continue to account for the maximum Internet users in the country with about 70 per cent of all active Internet users in urban India," the report added.