IAMAI, IMRB study finds only two million active mobile internet users

The latest study by IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) and IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau) has found that there are only about 2 million users accessing internet through their mobile phones on an active basis.

The findings suggest that these users use internet on their mobile at least once a month.

Only 27% mobile phones of the total mobile phone user base of 471 million are internet-ready, the study states. That's about 127 million mobile phone subscribers.

Of these 127 million users, only 9.4% i.e. 12 million users have used internet over their mobile phones at least once in the last one year. This number further reduces down to 2 million or 17% when it comes to active users. (Source: TRAI report as of September 2009)

The report further highlights that nearly 70% of these users are college going kids and young men within the age group of 18-35 years, which also constitutes the major chunk of active internet user base in India.

The study, however, also reveals that online communication happens to be the major application in the vogue (this will entail chatting, accessing social networking sites and m-blogging) and 60% users who are accessing internet through mobile will account for this. This is closely followed by information search which stands at 23% of the total active users.