With 355 mn users, India is now second largest market in terms of internet penetration

According to a report, India has also surpassed US in terms of time spent on Android phones and total Google Play downloads.
With 355 mn users, India is now second largest market in terms of internet penetration
With 355 mn users, India is now second largest market in terms of internet penetration
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India is the second largest market globally in terms of internet penetration with 355 million internet users in 2016, according to the latest Mary Meeker 2017 Global Internet Trends report.  While India saw a 28% rise from 2015, China takes the top position with 700 million users.

In terms of total time spent on Android Phones and total Google Play downloads, India has surpassed the US as the second largest market in the world.

This comes on the back on cheaper internet access growing in India. The report also notes that Chinese smartphones and Reliance Jio are taking the internet game ahead in India.

Telecom

It is well known that the telecom space saw a lot of disruption with Reliance Jio’s entry. Fearing loss of user base, incumbents slashed prices to a great extent. According to the report, the average cost per GB of data is $2 for incumbents while is it $0.33 for Jio as of March 2017. Free data that Jio provided led to 9X internet data usage growth year-on-year until March 2017.

In terms of the ecommerce market in India, the report states that Flipkart, Paytm Amazon, Shopclues and Snapdeal are the top contenders in the Indian ecommerce market.

Homegrown apps are also gaining traction in terms of being the most downloaded. While the global apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are still the top downloaded apps, Indian entertainment apps Hotstar and Jio TV also made it to the top 10 this year.

Digital India

The report also talks about the leadership in India rolling out digital-Focused Government policies with Speed + Scope. The report talk about some key policies like Jan Dhan Yojana where over 280 million new bank accounts were opened, rural electrification program, demonetization and GST. Other key policies it mentions is the Digital India, Skill and Entrepreneurship, Startup India and infrastructure enhancements

According to the report, over 80% of the web traffic is currently routed through mobile in India, lying just one space behind Nigeria having overtaken China and the US with a big difference in numbers.

The report also talks about Aadhaar becoming an essential part of many services such as bank accounts, sim card activation, digital wallets, pensions, etc.

The report also notes that time spent on mobile phones weekly is seven times that of time spent on televisions. And 45% of this is spent in accessing entertainment content. And a result of this is also that TV serials and reality shows are now getting replaced by on-demand web video shows.

Education

According to the report, India has the largest K-12 school system in the world with over 250 million students in the world with a high demand for after-school education.

Private tuitions are also slowly moving towards mobile-based applications. And the reason stated for this is these apps becoming increasingly accessible and the ability of the studying being self-paces and personalised. This has improved learning outcomes by 15%

Healthcare

Private expenditure on health is second highest in India (89%), just behind Mexico (90%). However, internet penetration is helping this sector too with online health hubs emerging. 1Mg and Portea Medical were stated as examples that have led to a 40-50% reduction in lab test costs and 20-30% saving on medicine costs.

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