ENBA 2018: Tremendous hike in internet users from last year: Salil Kapoor, HOOQ
Comparing the growth statistics of internet users since January 2017 and January 2018, Salil Kapoor, Managing Director, HOOQ, said that there has been overall growth of 7 per cent globally
Digital trends are evolving globally as well as in India. Among the country's 1.5 billion population, 53 per cent people are on internet already.
As the Indian population becomes mobile phone-friendly at a staggering pace, the use of social media is being channelled through their very own personal mobile devices. Comparing the growth statistics of internet users since January 2017 and January 2018, Salil Kapoor, Managing Director, HOOQ, said that there has been overall growth of 7 per cent globally.
"There has been a tremendous hike in internet users from last year. We have noticed about 30 per cent increase in social media users and 4 per cent increase in mobile users, which accounts up to 218 million users," he said.
Talking about the app usage on mobile phones, he focused on the global landscape and said, "People install and uninstall apps according to their needs and the average number of apps used today is about 40 per cent. Time comparison between time spent using native mobile app and the one on browser is about 7:1 and the frequency is 30:1."
Zooming into India's current situation, Kapoor spoke about how the new generation in a multi-screen changing era is shifting to mobile. "Among the total population, 462 million users are on the internet and the numbers are still growing. About 250 million people are active social media users that includes platforms like Whatsapp, etc. and about 844 million are unique mobile users," said Kapoor.
Looking at the Indian figures of online users, about 34 per cent people are online and when the figures were compared globally, it was estimated that Indian figures are estimated to be below 19 per cent of the global average figures, which was roughly about 54 per cent.
Talking about the use of digital media on a daily basis, he said, "Among all the internet users, 61 per cent of them get connected to the internet or use social media every day and only 2 per cent of them go online or get connected to the internet only once a month."
Commenting on the future of digital media, Kapoor stressed on the importance of AI and VR that are already being declared the buzzwords this year.
"The yesterday of digital media was an offline story going online but the future has got some great assets stored in, thanks to technology. With Artificial Intelligence, the future scenario will be much more realistic where with the help of Virtual Reality and technology, you can visit the site of story directly, where it's happening, in a fraction of seconds, sitting at home," he added.
Kapoor was speaking at the ENBA awards, which was held at Raddison BLU, Noida, on Saturday.
