Can you imagine your life without internet? The answer is surely going to be no. Ever since the inception of the World Wide Web, and its introduction to the country, it is no surprise that the internet has played a vital role in our daily lives. From connecting with loved ones, to finding the answers to each and every question you can think of, it is almost impossible to imagine what life was like before cyber space.
Turns out, a lot of Indians feel the same way. In collaboration with Kantar, a data insights company, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has released the "ICUBE 2020" research, which estimates that India's active Internet users (AIU) would increase from 622 million in 2020 to 900+ million in 2025. In the next five years, India's Internet adoption will increase by around 45 per cent, according to this data. According to the research, over 43 per cent of India's overall population now utilises the Internet at least once a month. With 61 per cent of the people utilising the Internet, Maharashtra has the greatest Internet penetration.
According to the IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE 2020 research, 622 million people in India's 1.43 billion population are active Internet users. This equates to around 43 per cent of India's entire population, both urban and rural. 323 million people live in metropolitan areas, whereas 299 million live in rural areas. In recent years, rural communities have adopted the internet at a faster rate than urban areas. Active Internet users have reportedly increased by four per cent in urban India over the previous year, while they have increased by 13 per cent in rural India. The research also includes some fascinating facts, such as the fact that 58 per cent of India's Internet population is male and 42 per cent is female.
The research also displays the distribution of active Internet users per state. Maharashtra has the largest percentage of active Internet users (61 per cent) in the country, followed by Goa (60 per cent) and Kerala (59 per cent) at the state level. With 29 per cent, 29 per cent, and 24 per cent, respectively, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Bihar have the lowest Internet-using populations. According to the report, the cities with the most active Internet users are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata.
In metropolitan regions, the male-to-female ratio of active internet users is 57:43, whereas in rural regions, it is 58:42. According to the ICUBE 2020 report, mobile phones have been a crucial engine for the expansion of the Internet in India, with all active Internet users using smartphones to do so. While 100 per cent of active users access the Internet via their smartphones, 17 per cent use a personal computer, and 6 per cent use other devices such as tablets, streaming devices, smart speakers, and smart TVs.
According to the survey, an active internet user spends about 107 minutes each day on the internet, and the majority of Internet users use it for leisure, communication, and social networking.