Rural Internet users now outnumber urban users in India

Rural Internet users now outnumber urban users in India

We have already written about the upcoming trends in Indian Language content online, in our earlier blogs about Indian Language Internet and मराठी व भारतीय भाषांचे वाढते महत्त्व . And now, for the first time ever in India, the number of internet users in villages and towns is 10% more than urban citizens! This is a very progressive and interesting phase in internet growth in India, since it also propels the growth of Indian language content online – which currently is dismally low at below 5% of all online content.
It is also a heartening fact that more women and children (between 5-11 years of age) have been added in this recent increase in rural internet users, thus ensuring uniform information accessibility.
Consumption of video content increased by 40% post lockdown in March when usage of game, conferencing and entertainment apps saw a big leap.
According to this article in the Times of India, the report by Internet and Mobile Association of India and Nielsen also confirmed that availability of content in Indian languages definitely attracted more new users.
From our experience, more businesses are localizing their brochures, vlogs, websites and informative content in at least 5+ regional Indian languages – this ensures they can reach more new customers but also is a great online resource for them to use in the long run! We have seen an increase in requirement of dubbing, voice over and sub-titling (multimedia translation) into Indian languages, given the massive growth in online video content – as videos directly help reach out to those who are illiterate.
The pandemic has obviously led to an increase in the medical content being localized not only for governments but also enterprises, hospitals and awareness websites.
We see this positive change of democratization of information to remain strong for the next few years till there is enough local language content available for all Indians whether they know English or not and whether they are literate or otherwise.