Internet use in India, facilitated through abundant and affordable data, is now being driven by local language users. These new users largely use video and audio content on the internet. These were some of the revelations made at the fourth edition of Google for India event in New Delhi.
Kim Spalding, product management director, Google said that nine of every ten new users of data over the next five years would use an Indian language. Readying itself for the needs of this emerging user base, Google is developing a slew of new products that are mostly India-specific. Some of these new products include the bilingual English/Hindi search dictionary, Navlekha—an initiative that helps publishers make offline content fully editable and publish online content without any expert digital knowledge. There is GoogleGO, through which users will be able to open a webpage by clicking on the play button and listen to the texts.
Gopal Vittal, CEO, Airtel, said that today the average data consumption is 9GB per month, and it was the highest for lower economic strata users, for whom the mobile was the primary form of information. Videos comprised 70 per cent of all data consumed. In the west, data consuption averages at 7 to 7.5GB per month, but there, more people have access to fixed line internet, too.
While entertainment forms a large chunk of video usage, consumers use videos for an array of self-help aids, from recipes to dress designing.
Data consumption among women is much lower than data used by men. However, Vittal did not provide any figures.