India userbase: Internet 100m, Mobile internet 40m

If any organization can give an accurate, or almost accurate, statistics of internet users in India, it has to be Google. Every PC & mobile internet user uses Google, they could surely even categorize the demography of internet users in India.

According to Rajan Anandan, VP-Sales & Operations at Google India, who was speaking at VCCircle Ecommerce Forum 2011 (via Medianama),

• 100 million internet users (40m from work, 30m from cafes, 11m households have broadband)
• An average internet user spends 16 hours a week.
• 40 million mobile internet users
• 30 million mobile apps are downloaded every week!
• By 2015 India may have 300 million mobile internet users (which will be bigger than PC internet)

I still believe the quality of internet access must increase even in Tier-1 cities like Bangalore. Last weekend I was at a place which was 5 km away from Bangalore’s e-hub Electronic city. The internet was unusable on a Reliance Broadband+, I am not exaggerating – it was painfully unusable.  Many localities in Bangalore don’t have quality wired broadband service.

While the mobile internet usage is growing in India, I just don’t see mobile friendly sites on Google mobile SERPs. Many portals in India, including Oneindia have a mobile friendly version but I never get to see them on Google SERPs. Disappointing.