The number of internet users in India is increasing at a rapid pace and has reached 121 million users by the end of 2011. Broadband subscribers have surged up from 10.92 million users in 2010 to 13.30 million users in 2011,  registering a growth of 21.88 percent year-over-year. Interestingly, in last three years broadband users in India are increasing with an average of 2.61 million users each year and if the trend continues, it might reach 15.9 million users by the year-end.
In last three years, the total number of broadband subscribers has been doubled. However, the growth is not as impressive as compare to China which is witnessing more than 100% year-on-year growth in broadband subscribers. The major reason behind such slow penetration in India is its poor infrastructure and sub-standard service from broadband service providers like Airtel, DoCoMo, Aircel etc. There is absolute huge gap between the maximum committed data speed and actual data speed provided to customers. Besides, high cost of broadband services like 3G is another important reason which is keeping majority of people away from broadband service adoption.
However, near about 5 million unique users visit YouTube India per day. At the time of Indian Premier League over 30 million users watched online matches on YouTube and other video sites. This directly points out that Indian internet users are being more fascinated  towards video contents and video sites in last few years.
People will be surprised to know that around 26.1 million unique visitors from India had visited Google video sites in the month of August, 2011, while 14.9 million unique visitors have visited Facebook pages containing videos. However, by doing simple mathematical calculation (addition) of the unique visitors from India on top 5 online video sites  – Google video sites, Facebook, Metacafe, VEVO and Dailymotion – in August last year, we come to know that around 52 million unique visitor have visited all these five video sites. Also, average time spent by users on video sites is near about 7 hours.
The above discussed stats, facts and figures directly point out that Indian users are showing more interest in watching online video contents. Also, the broadband users are surging at a constant rate and is expected to reach 15.9 million users by year-end.
(Image Credit: – eMarketer)
