Gallopedia Highlights- Week # 137

Dated: September 12-18, 2010

This week’s report consists of 24 surveys. 3 of these are multi-country surveys & 1 is a cyber survey. 7 polling organizations have been represented.

ASIA zone-1 National Poll & 1 Multi Country poll:
West Asia: Afghanistan

South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan

East Asia: China

South East Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia,

AFRICA zone- 1 Multi Country poll:

Central Africa: Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda

EURO-AMERICAS zone-19 national polls & 1 Multi Country poll:

West Europe- UK, France, Germany, Italy,

Eastern Europe: Russia,

North America- USA, Canada
Latin America- Brazil,

CYBER WORLD: 1 poll

Commentary: 45 Million Internet Users in India

A LARGE NUMBER BUT SMALL PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION

Commentary: India had as on September 2008 45.3 million active internet users. This is according to the I-Cube [Internet in India] Study released today and conducted annually by IMRB International and Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI]. Active internet users are those who have used the internet at least once in the last one month – this is an internationally accepted benchmark for enumerating internet users.

Urban users continue to dominate internet use contributing to 42 million of the 45 million odd users. In September last 2007, the number of active internet users in urban India was 32 million showing a year on year growth of a little more than 30 %. Commenting on the study Dr Subho Ray, president, IAMAI, said, “the growth rate was alarming compared with the rest in past years as well as with some other countries notably v where the number of internet users are more than 250 million”

The study also found that the number of “claimed” internet users in September 2008 was 57 million compared with 46 million in September 2007, recording nearly 24 % growth. Claimed users are those who have used the internet sometime but not in the last one month.

The time series data since 2001 captures this definite slow down in the growth rate of internet users in India.

The proportion of internet users to the total population from the age of 12 and proportion of internet users to the total literate population is also not very encouraging as shown in the tables below.

The survey also interviewed the claimed users on the lack of internet user and found there are five main barriers to internet use in urban India. The main reason for lack of internet use was found to be lack of awareness of the use of the medium.

Commenting on the study Mr. Mohan Krishnan, Senior Vice President BIRD, a specialized unit of IMRB International said “Continuing niche growth of the Internet is forcing two major realizations that need to be acted upon. Firstly, with majority of urban literates challenged due to the barrier of English language, there needs to be a strong push in vernacular/local language provision over the Internet. In these markets, in addition to localized content, online applications that matter individuals in their daily lives are needed. At the same time, untouched vast rural markets need to be tapped. §

SOURCE: http://www.imrbint.com/media/45..pdf

---------------The complete detailed weekly reports of the project can be found on theGilani's Gallopedia website.