The number of Internet users in India is expected to register double digit growth to reach 627 million in 2019, driven by rapid Internet growth in rural areas, market research agency Kantar IMRB said. Internet usage in the country has exceeded half a billion people for the first time, pegged at 566 million, driven by rural Internet growth and usage.

In its ICUBE 2018 report that tracks digital adoption and usage trends in India, it noted that the number of Internet users in India has registered an annual growth of 18 per cent and is estimated at 566 million as of December 2018, a 40 per cent overall Internet penetration.

It projected a double digit growth for 2019 and estimates that the number of Internet users will reach 627 million by the end of this year. While Internet users grew by 7 per cent in urban India, reaching 315 million users in 2018, digital adoption is now being propelled by rural India, registering a 35 per cent growth in Internet users over the past year. It is now estimated that there are 251 million Internet users in rural India, and this is expected to reach 290 million by the end of 2019, the report said.

“Increased availability of bandwidth, cheap data plans and increased awareness driven by government programmes seem to have rapidly bridged the digital gap between urban and rural India. Consequently, the penetration in rural India has increased from 9 per cent in 2015 to 25 per cent in 2018,” the report said.

“It is fascinating to note that the digital revolution is now sweeping small towns and villages, perhaps driven by increased accessibility at affordable data costs. The increase in the usage of digital in rural India, where more than two-thirds of active Internet users are now accessing the Internet daily to meet their entertainment and communication needs,” said Hemant Mehta, managing director, media and digital, Kantar IMRB.

Other key findings:

* 87 per cent are defined as regular users, having accessed the Internet in the past 30 days.

* 97 per cent use mobile phones as one of the devices to access the Internet.

* Bihar registered the highest growth of 35 per cent in Internet users across both urban and rural areas.

* Internet usage is more gender balanced than ever before with women comprising 42 per cent of total Internet users.