India to have 371 mn mobile Internet users by June: IAMAI

The number of mobile Internet users in India is expected to grow over 55 percent to 371 million by June this year, driven by strong adoption in rural parts of the country, industry body IAMAI said. Mobile Internet userbase in the country has steadily increased from 238 million in June last year to 306 million at the end of December 2015, a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)- IMRB International said. Of the 306 million internet users, 219 million users are from urban part of the country. The userbase saw a growth of 71 percent year-on-year. On the other hand, the userbase in rural India went up 93 percent from December 2014 to reach 87 million at the end of December 2015. The report found subscribers in urban India using mobile Internet mostly for online communication (80 percent), social networking (74 percent), entertainment (30 percent), online shopping (13 percent) and online ticketing (11 percent).

In rural India, 52 percent said they used Internet for entertainment, 39 percent for social network, 37 percent communication, one percent for online shopping and 0.4 percent for online ticketing. The report also found the share of mobile Internet spend (out of average monthly bill) has increased to 64 percent in 2015 as compared to 54 percent in 2014. This is despite the average monthly bill reducing to the extent of 18 percent in 2015 (Rs 360) compared to the previous year (Rs 439 in 2014).