While the commercial capital of the country has been fast losing out to other cities in terms of development and infrastructure, one area where Mumbai still reigns supreme is the amount of Internet users it boasts of. According to a recent survey conducted by IAMAI (Internet And Mobile Association of India), Mumbai and its satellite cities of Navi Mumbai and Thane collectively have an active internet userbase of 12 million people. This is almost 4 million more than Mumbai’s nearest competitor New Delhi – which boasts of over 8.1 million active internet users. Mumbai’s booming internet usage is mostly driven by college going youth and housewives – all of whom are increasingly using their mobile phones as their primary internet devices.
Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, other cities that have a sizable internet userbase is Hyderabad – with 4.7 milion users. Chennai comes in a close fourth with over 4.5 million users hooked to the Internet. Kolkata is not too far behind either with its 4.4 million Internet addicts. It was strange to see the Silicon Valley of India languish in the sixth place overall. Bangalore – for all its IT supremacy only has 3.8 million active Internet users. Weird. Ahmedabad and Pune round things off with 2.8 and 2.7 million people on the Internet.
The survey also threw light on the kind of Internet penetration these urban areas boast of. While Mumbai tops the list in terms of sheer percentage of people using the internet, Hyderabad tops the list with a penetration of 37% Active Internet Users. Coimbatore – with 40 percent of its population hooked to the Internet leads the small metros category.
While Kolkata might have lost out to Delhi in terms of sheer numbers, the city with its 47% Y-O-Y growth is the fastest growing Internet metro in India. Mumbai however seems no sign of slowing down – even with its 12 million plus active users, the city registered a 45% increase in its active internet user base since 2012. Delhi on the other hand could only muster 35% Y-O-Y growth. Bangalore was doing pretty well with 43% growth in a year. Ahmedabad was the lowest of the lot with a mere 26% growth in the numbers since 2012.
