India to Have 850 Million Online Users by 2025: Boston Consulting Group

India will have more than 850 million online users by 2025, with Reliance Jio 4G triggering most of the growth which has added 100 million connections in just seven months, a survey revealed on Thursday.

"While it took the country eight years to reach 250 million 3G connections, Reliance Jio 4G network added 100 million connections in just seven months," said the survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

It estimated that by 2020, half of all Internet users in India will be rural, 40 percent of whom will be women and 33 percent will be of 35 years of age or older.

"Digital's impact is becoming pervasive across all consumer segments. This breaks the earlier trend in the country when the initial digital consumers were male, millennial and mostly metro-based," the survey noted.

It predicted that digitally influenced spending, which currently stands at $45 billion-$50 billion (roughly Rs. 2,88,528 crores - Rs. 3,20,586 crores) a year, may increase more than tenfold to between $500 billion - $550 billion (roughly Rs. 32,058,51 crores - Rs. 35,26,436 crores).

"This will account for 30 percent to 35 percent of all retail sales by 2025," the survey found.

The survey examined the changing behaviour of Indian consumers across more than 50 product categories through questionnaires and interviews with more than 10,000 consumers in 30 locations nationwide.