A whopping 707 million people in India, which makes it 86 per cent of all the internet users in the country, use internet services to enjoy OTT audio and video services, making it the top use-case for internet in India. Needless to say, communication, online gaming, online payment are some of the top use-cases, according to a report.
The report titled ‘Internet in India Report 2023’, jointly prepared by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and marketing data and analytics company, Kantar, was released by IAMAI Chairman and Dream Sports co-founder Harsh Jain. The report covered over 90,000 households across all states and union territories of India, barring Lakshadweep.
The rise in consumption of digital entertainment is bolstered by the rise of non-traditional devices such as smart TV, smart speakers, Firestick, chromecasts, Blu-Ray etc, that witnessed a growth of 58 per cent from 2021-23.
The adoption, the report stated, is driven by a new generation of cordcutters. For the first time, there are more people accessing video content over internet-only devices – 208 million – than over conventional television – 181 million.
Meanwhile, communication (621 million), social media (575 million), online gaming (438 million), net commerce (427 million), digital payments (370 million), and online learning (24 million) are the other top use-cases of internet in India.
OTT refers to audio/video streaming either from subscribed or user generated content UGC platforms while commutation refers to text/voice/video chat or email, video conferencing using an online website or app in the last one year.
These use-cases are being driven by users in rural India, who account for more than 50 per cent of the user base for each use case.
In 2023, India had 820 million total active internet users, meaning that more than 55 per cent Indians used the internet last year. Rural India (442 million) amounts to over 53 per cent of the total user base.
Moreover, from a male-female ratio of 71:29 internet users in 2015, India has now climbed to a ratio of 54:46 in recent times, which is at par with the overall sex ratio of the population. Even as growth has witnessed a slowdown (8 per cent), rural India has been driving the growth rates for the past many years (11 per cent).
“One of the ways to accelerate the growth may be to focus on Indic languages which show a healthy sign of growth in some states. The report finds that 57 per cent users prefer to access content in Indic languages, with languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam having the strongest language preference for content,” the report stated.
States such as Jharkhand (46 per cent penetration) and Bihar (37 per cent penetration) are showing above average growth rates of 12 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.