India sitting near the bottom in terms of global 3G usage, claims Facebook
Facebook says that India is still at the global entry-level data usage stage, with merely 13 percent of folks surfing the web on 3G or 4G connections. The country has mobile users consuming only around 149MB per month at an average, with the top 20 percent of subscribers accounting for a massive 85 percent of Internet traffic. The rest of the online population in this nation (80 percent) use an average of 30MB of data on a monthly basis.
The larger chunk of citizens in developed nations already have Facebook accounts, which means that the company must look to emerging markets to expand its base further and in turn, earn advertising revenue. So it’s easy to see why Google, Facebook and other tech entities are keen on getting the whole world online. We’re not saying that the web isn’t a great resource for empowerment, and just a cash cow for companies to profit from.
But as Facebook’s State of Connectivity: A Report on Global Internet Access report points out, folks who don’t go online actually fail to see its relevancy. It can be due to lack of awareness, inability to understand how to surf the web or ignorance of its value and/or utility. If you must comb through every bit of detail in relation to infrastructure, affordability and relevance, the full report is available through this official link.
Another factor affecting relevancy is a crucial barrier displaying itself in the form of Internet content being unavailable in all languages. India’s population speaks in roughly 425 different tongues, out of which English and 22 others have been declared ‘official.’ Smartphone users in the country make up for 15.3 percent of the total web connections, while audio and video streaming drives 47 percent of the network capacity.
Although Facebook notes that India is sitting near the bottom with regards to global 3G usage, the data charges are thought to be sufficiently reasonable here. Almost 94 percent of its population can apparently afford to pay for 100MB of monthly data considering its $0.80 cost.
IMPORT:-MobileTor
