• Internet population crosses 1 billion – India 7th on the list

    by Sriram Vadlamani on January 24, 2009 |

    8 comments

    The number of people on the Internet has crossed 1 billion last December. That means one-sixth of the world population is on the net. Is that a good news or a bad news? There are 2 ways to look at it. 1 billion out of 6+ billion population is on the net. The other way is only 15% of the population is on the net and we still have a long way to go. Any which way we have work to do.

    The top 10 list is not a surprise. The list is dominated by the developed nations and the emerging economies alike. BRIC Countries Brazil, Russia,India and China are in the top 10 net users with China topping the list.

    United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France and South Korea are the among the developed nations. There is a linkage between the economy and the connectivity. If the country is connected the economy is developing and vice versa.

    Top 10 list :

    1. China : 179.7 million
    2. United States : 163.3
    3. Japan : 60.0 million
    4. Germany : 37.0 million
    5. United Kingdom : 36.7 million
    6. France : 34.0 million
    7. India : 32.1 million
    8. Russia : 29.0 million
    9. Brazil : 27.7 million
    10. South Korea : 27.3 million

    India with 32.1 million users is at the 7th position. There were lot of estimates for Indian connectivity and none seem realistic. 32 million to me is more realistic. 32 million Internet users for a country of 1.2 billion population is less when compared with China’s Internet population of 179.7 million.

    China, after beating the US in Olympics has beaten US one more time in the Internet population. A good indication that American hegemony is being challenged. America’s innovation in the past 20 years came from its connectivity. The Microsoft’s and Google’s are fruits of its universities high speed broadband. Just imagine what China can do with its new found connectivity.

    Looking at the trend the work has to be done in India and China because of the demographics. There is only so much which can be done in the United States where more than 50% of America is online.

    For its outsourcing strength, English speaking abilities and the growing talent pool, shouldn’t India be more connected?

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    Author

    Sriram Vadlamani is the Editor and co-founder of The Gadget Fan and a columnist at Asian Correspondent. You can follow him on twitter @6sv
    Sriram Vadlamani

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    Arpita Aurora January 25, 2009 at 12:33 am

    Although, India is among the top user 10 nations, but when measured against the yardstick of proportion of population, it will be much lower on the list.

    Reply

    viraj January 25, 2009 at 5:48 am

    Well by no means, the figures are bad. As a developing country, we are on the way up and sooner than later we will also reach the top spot. Internet penetration and computer literacy are main hindrance now in India. Lets hope it gets resolved soon.

    Reply

    Uncle B February 25, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    Please donate your old boxes to a church-group or some needy student in these hard times! To comply with the law, and with Microsoft’s leasing policy, you can now replace Microsoft OS with the free (download from the net) Ubuntu OS, which can be set to erase the hard drive of all traces of the “illegal to give away ” Microsoft system and your private information, before donation! Now, explain to your lucky recipient that all the manuals they will ever need are available for free on the internet! Just ask for them in Google! OpenOffice, which is installed already is plenty adequate for homework assignments and with a little exploring, everything else can work well too! Happy computing!

    Reply

    Harpreet Khera August 19, 2009 at 9:48 am

    But they says its only 3.1m internet aware population in india .

    This is the link and decide who is right..
    http://www.mahesh.com/2009/01/14/internet-userbase-in-rural-india-on-the-rise

    Reply

    Get noticed in GOOGLE9287422556 February 7, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    7 th rank is ok. But in context of its population the ratio is very poor to other developed nations

    Reply

    Vladimir Sotak February 3, 2012 at 3:05 pm

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