Market Dynamics..: Indian Internet Report: Mumbai mosted connected..

2006: Mumbai with 3.24 million ever users and 2.6 million active users, leads the pack of top 8 internet using metros. Delhi is second with 2.66 and 1.80 million of ever and active users respectively. This was revealed by the Internet in India (I-Cube) study jointly undertaken by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International. The study also found that the difference between ever user and active users was the lowest in Pune with a 90 per cent conversion rate, and highest in Delhi with a poor 67 per cent conversion rate. Interestingly, Kolkata, with 1.34 million ever and 1.05 million active users is ahead of tech centres such as Bangalore (1.31 and 0.97 million) and Hyderabad (1.29 and 0.95 million). Ahmedabad has the lowest number of users among the top 8 metros.

The Internet Users Base across Top 8 metros

Top 8 Metros (figures in million)	Ever Internet Users (13.12mn of 17.36 mn)	Active Internet Users (10.21mn of 13.23 mn)	% of Active Internet users
Mumbai	3.24 mn	2.6 mn	82%
Delhi	2.66 mn	1.80 mn	67%
Kolkata	1.34 mn	1.05 mn	78%
Chennai	1.48 mn	1.26 mn	85%
Bangalore	1.31 mn	0.97 mn	74%
Hyderabad	1.29 mn	0.95 mn	74%
Ahmedabad	0.78 mn	0.59 mn	75%
Pune	1.02 mn	0.92 mn	90%

While top metros continue their dominance, there is a clear cut trend of small metros, non-metros and small towns catching up fast. Among the ever user category, the share of top 8 metros has declined from 58 per cent in 2001 to 41 per cent in 2006. The corresponding decline in the active users is from 90 per cent in 2001 to 77 per cent in 2006.

Source: I-Cube 2006

In terms of access points, proportion of users accessing from home is the highest in Hyderabad and lowest in Pune. The proportion of users accessing from offices is highest in Mumbai and lowest in Hyderabad. Cyber cafes continue to be the most important access point in Pune and Bangalore. While except in Bangalore, access from schools continues to be dismal.

Source: Main access point across Top 8 metros, I-Cube 2006

Among the various town classes, cyber cafes continue to serve as access points to 50 per cent of users in non-metros with home use showing a healthy 30 plus per cent in all four town classes.

Source: Town Class Distribution of Main Internet Access Point, I-Cube 2

The trend in Internet application usage in India is very interesting and demonstrates the evolution of Internet as a media. Traditional favorites e-mail & chat continue to be dominant across top 8 metros, especially in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad except in Mumbai, where information search dominates Proportion of users accessing internet mainly for jobs and matrimony and e-commerce is highest in Kolkata, followed by Ahmedabad and Pune. Proportion of internet users accessing internet mainly for financial or business information is significant in Mumbai and Pune. This may be associated with Mumbai being the nerve centre of the commercial and business activities in India. This justifies the higher proportion of office access from Mumbai.

Source: Main online applications used across Top 8 metros, I-Cube 2006

The proportion of internet users accessing internet for information search is significant in non metros. As observed earlier, almost 40% of the internet users are school/ college going students. Lack of availability and accessibility of reliable sources for information is driving users from non metros towards Internet, mainly for education. The low figures for communication in non metros can be explained with the fact that not many people are comfortable communicating in English in these towns. The regional languages mainly come in use at time of communicating. But with portals and vortals increasingly providing a regional language interface, the scenario is bound to change. Language flexibility would mark the future of information and communication technology especially in a multi-lingual country like India.