According to recently released reports from an IAMAI-IMRB survey, Internet users in India reached 37 million in the month of September 2006. During the same period the number of active users rose to 25 million.

Estimated user base:

• Sept 2006: 37m ever users and 25m active users


• March 2007: 42m ever users and 28m active users


• March 2008: 54m ever users and 43m active users

"Active user" is defined as someone who has used the Iternet at least once in the last 30 days, while "ever user" is someone who has used the Internet at least once.

Another important figure in the report was that around 38 percent of Indian Internet users (14 million) spent an average of 8 hours per week online.

Other findings: The average time spent on the Internet in terms of minutes per week increases with the increasing age of the user.

• School going kids spend an average of 322 minutes a week online


• College-going students spend an average of 433 minutes a week


• Older men spend an average of 580 minutes a week


• Working women spend an average of 535 minutes


• Non-working women spend 334 minutes a week

The average time spent online is an important metric to gauge the growth and acceptance of the Internet in India. A large percentage of Indian users access the Internet from cybercafes. Access from cybercafes tends to be suitable for asynchronous applications such as emails, jobs and matrimonials, but is inadequate for leisure and community-driven applications like online radio, streaming video, blogging and social networking. For usage to increase in the later category of apps, always-available connection in the office or home becomes necessary.

Note that the highest usage noted in the report for September was among older men and working women. It's likely that these two segments access the Internet from their workplace.

Talking about usage patterns, the study stated that email and chat were no longer primary Internet traffic drivers.
Thirty-two percent of active users used the Internet as the primary tool for information and research in 2006, a jump from just 20 percent in 2001, when the primary drivers of Internet traffic were email and chat. Even among the college-going segment, information search emerged as the second-most prominent reason for surfing the Internet.

• 11.6m email users and 7.5m chat users


• 2.4m e-commerce users

The number of users accessing the Internet primarily for entertainment hovered at around 8-10 percent. The report further stated that online transactional applications (e-commerce) were steadily gathering steam. The Young Men, Older Men and Working Women segments were the ones using it the most. These segments, along with the Non Working Women segment, were also using applications like jobs and matrimonials in significant numbers.

The study claimed that the Internet had now penetrated beyond the communication needs of the active user population and was no longer an avenue for exploring their curiosity. While email, chat and IM wouldl continue to pull first-time users, the next round of growth would be driven by applications such as blogs, P2P, video-on-demand, online radio, online gaming and localized content.

The report put the number of school-going kids at 1.6 million and college-going students at 3.4 million.

The Internet in India (I-Cube) 2006 report covered around 65,000 individuals from 16,500 households, surveyed in 26 cities, with additional coverage of 10,000 businesses and 250 cybercafé owners, and is one the largest offline surveys of Internet users in India. The survey did not include rural areas.