A survey by Boston Consulting Group on Thursday revealed that India is estimated to have 850 million online users by 2025, more than the combined populations of the G7 countries. The numbers seem to be the result of the recent Reliance Jio 4G release that triggered India’s ability to make available and adopt faster connections and more capable devices.
Source: Boston Consulting Group
The report said, “The adoption of digital in India is occurring considerably faster than that of technologies in the past.” India will also see a considerable change in dynamics of digital consumers. The initial user base consisted of male, millennial and mostly metro-based consumers. BCG’s previous report support their claims as they suggest that by 2020, half of all internet users will be rural, 40% will be women, and 33% will be 35 or older. This result could be the works of the Digital India efforts.
BCG also said, “it took nearly eight years for India’s mobile market to reach 250 million 3G connections, but the country’s Reliance Jio 4G network added 100 million connections in just seven months,” clearly stating that the Reliance Jio network contributed significantly to the numbers. The group further said that 4 out of 5 users go online using mobile devices that are a mix of smartphones (with 3G or better connections) and feature phones with primarily 2G connections.
The user population has grown digitally mature over time, causing an increase in purchases and actual digital commerce. The number of online buyers rose from 80 million to 90 million between 2014 and 2016. However, digitally influenced spending today is at $45-50 Billion a year and is “projected to increase more than tenfold, to between $500 billion and $550 billion—and to account for 30% to 35% of all retail sales—by 2025.”