40 pc of total net users are women, says Assocham

Forty per cent of 125 million internet users in India are females, says a study by Assocham and online business analyst firm ComScore.

There has been a jump in online travel and retail transactions with 75 per cent users between the age group of 15 and 34, says the study.

Assocham secretary general D S Rawat says one in every 10 Indians uses the internet — that is about 10 per cent of India’s population going online.

“India is one of the youngest online demographic. This trend is expected to continue for some years given the age distribution in India,” says Rawat.

The top five popular online categories are social networking, portals, search, entertainment and news sites.

“Among BRIC countries, India has been the fastest growing market, adding over 18 million internet users and growing at an annual rate of 41 per cent. It is also among the top three fastest growing markets globally for the past one year,” says the study.

China added over 14 million users to reach 336 million internet users by July this year. Russia and India show similar trends in online usage patterns in e-commerce and
payment categories.

“Online travel has seen growth across all sub-categories, including car rentals, travel agents, airline tickets, hotel bookings and travel information. One out of five online users in India visits the Indian Railways site,” the study says.

The retail category penetration has also seen a rise. Top retail sites have seen a growth of over 100 per cent in the last one year.

“Apparel has been the fastest growing sub-category in retail with a reach of 13.4 per cent online users in India.”

Direct debit is a widely used payment method, contributing to over 58 per cent of overall payment in India, followed by ‘cash on delivery’ with 7 per cent of total transactions.