43% of the non-users of the Internet in India are willing to go online if content is provided in local language

Every year IAMAI does a great job in releasing a report on Local Language (Indic) usage in India. Few highlights from “Local Language Report 2013” are listed below,

• Increase in availability of local language content can increase the user base of internet users in India by 25% (majority of this coming from rural areas)
• 43% of the non-users of the Internet are willing to adopt the medium if the content is provided in local language (I differ with this view, my note is at the end of the post).
• As of December 2013, there were 213 Million Internet users in India (71% urban). Of this, 169 million access Internet at least once in a month.
• Penetration in rural villages is not high resulting in total penetration to less than 15% of the total population.
• 37% of the Internet users in urban India use the Internet in local language and most of them access such content in Hindi. The usage has increased by 49% from 2012.
• 56% of Internet users in rural India use local language.
• There has been a 15% growth in the penetration of local language users amongst the active internet users compared to 2012.
• Reasons for slow growth in internet penetration: Lack of Knowledge (Not Aware of Internet), Belief (No need for Internet) and Lack of infrastructure (Non availability of PC, Internet connection, Public access point etc.)
• Language videos are very popular in the rural areas.

There is sufficient content in Indic to keep users engaged. Just take a quick look at Oneindia‘s verticals which are in multiple languages – Lifestyle, Automobile, Technology, Travel. The reason many don’t know about the language sites is because search engines are yet to do a better job in giving Indic sites more exposure. Over the years Indic algorithms have improved on Google but we want further improvements!