The number of Indians over 15 years of age accessing the internet rose 7.8% in Q2-2006 to 18.02 million from 16.71 million. India currently ranks at ninth position in terms of total online population. America has retained top slot with 153 million users according to comScore. China and Russia followed India with 5.22% and 5.14% rise in its web-users respectively.
Internet penetration in India will increase further in the next few years and this is visible by the rate at which Yahoo and Google are localizing their online properties for the diverse population of India. With the rapid penetration of broadband in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, one can expect increased e-commerce as well as some innovative startups ? Hope so 🙂
In the post above I have stressed on localization and the same is being ranted by Internet and Mobile Association Chief, http://featured.gigaom.com/2006/08/17/local-content-for-indian-internet-growth/