Wireless and broadband subscriber numbers at end of August 2007
TRAI has released the latest numbers for the wireless and broadband subscriber base, ending August 2007.
As per the release, the wireless subscriber base in India has reached 201.29 million users with 8.31 million users added in August.
Broadband connections (>= 256 Kbps) have reached 2.56 million. There was an addition of 90,000 users in August 2007.
Detailed report here (PDF file).
Broadband numbers - this time from eMarketer
There have been numerous reports and projections of the number of Internet and broadband subscribers in India - the IAMAI report, JuxtConsult report, TRAI numbers (PDF doc), Comscore numbers. Now, eMarketer offers its own report on the number of broadband subscribers in India.
Key points of the report:
* eMarketer projects 3.2 million broadband connections in India by end of 2007, with a penetration rate of 1.6%
* Instead of the Indian Govt. projections of 20 million broadband users by 2010, eMarketer projects that India will have only 10.5 million broadband connections by 2011
* While Comscore Networks puts the number of Internet users at 22.8 million (discounting access from cyber cafes), eMarketer pegs the Internet user base at 33.2 million at January 2007 (eMarketer definition of Internet user as someone who has accessed Internet at least once in the last 30 days)
* With 2.3% of Indians going online, India has the lowest penetration rate in the Asia Pacific region
* With the Internet user base growing at 33% (one of the highest in the world), India holds the maximum promise
Again, the entire story here.
Update: It looks like the government is taking notice of the poor broadband penetration. Aggressive, corrective actions need to be taken if the broadband projections for next year are to be met. In line with that, TRAI has invited comments (PDF doc) from interested stakeholders on the growth of broadband in India.
What is ailing the broadband adoption in India ?
First of all, apologies for the slow posting lately. Things have been insanely hectic the last 1-2 weeks thanks to all the traveling. But by this week, things should stabilize a bit and posting will hopefully get to normal.
While still on the road, I had to make time for this post - more so, I felt compelled to write this post.
As part of the latest issue, BusinessWorld has a great cover story on the state of broadband adoption in India. Besides stating the obvious - that broadband penetration in India is miserable - the story also tries to uncover the reasons for the poor adoption. That is one of the things I have always found missing from most of the other broadband related ’studies’.
Here’re some of the interesting pieces from the BW story:
India has 2.52 million high-speed connections, compared to 60 million and 55 million for the US and China, respectively. At least 50 per cent connections in India are with corporates; consumer broadband is barely 1.3 million. But there is a sleight of hand even in these dismal numbers. India follows an archaic definition of broadband, using the term to describe any Internet connection that moves data at more than 256 kbps (kilobits per second). This is not enough to download movies, use Internet telephones, etc. To the rest of the world, a broadband connection must be at least 2 mbps (megabits per second). By that definition, India has only about 400,000 high-speed lines.
Only 400,000 high speed residential connections !!
Amongst other reasons, the story puts the blame on the service providers - BSNL, VSNL, Airtel, Reliance:
Ironically, India’s optic fibre capacity — the pipes that deliver broadband — far exceeds current usage. At least 40 per cent of the 700,000-km optic fibre laid has not been operationalised by telecom companies, according to Trai.
While Reliance has laid the most — 100,000 km — optic fibre, the largest mobile company Bharti Airtel has just 40,000 km. Others have less than 10,000 km each. They continue to drag their feet in reaching the optic fibre to the customer and their offerings remain limited to a handful of geographical pockets in and around the top dozen cities. Instead, their investments and management are largely focused on the highly profitable mobile business.
The reason, as Bharti Airtel’s President Atul Bindal says, is that “broadband equipment costs are much higher than mobile equipmentâ€. Every optic fibre line to the consumer costs telcos at least $750 (Rs 30,000) while mobile phone networks can be set up for as little as $90 (Rs 3,600) a line. “Broadband is a lot more challenging,†says Prakash Bajpai, CEO of broadband business at Reliance Communications. “Here you need to lay fibre, get permissions from municipal authorities, housing societies, etc. In mobile there are no such issues.â€
High cost for broadband is also a deterrent for higher adoption:
What’s more, broadband providers such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Reliance charge Rs 3,300 per month for a 2-mbps connection — itself a rare commodity. That is nearly five times what a similar line costs in Japan and South Korea, and more than three times what it costs in the US.Little wonder, then, that in the first six months of this year, India has barely added half a million subscribers (256 kbps). In comparison, China is adding 1.5 million new subscribers, most of them using 1-2 mbps lines, every month.
I really enjoyed reading the story — instead of hyping the numbers like some of the other studies / reports, it paints a more realistic picture. All hope is not lost though - one look at the figure (1) below and you’ll notice that though India has miserable numbers when it comes to broadband penetration, it has the highest rate of growth (93.39% for Q1 2007) for broadband connections in the world. Something to cheer about ?
Give it a read here and let me know what you think.
PC sales rise 26%, cross 6.3 million units
The PC sales in the country crossed 6.3 million units in 2006-2007, a growth of 26% over the previous year. The notebook / laptop segment grew by 97% with over 8.5 lakh units sold and the desktop segment grew by 19% with over 54.9 lakh units sold in 2006 -2007. Businesses accounted for 74% of the total PC sales, registering a growth of 18% YoY. E-governance activities accounted for a 126% increase in government consumption.
Of all the PC’s sold, multinational brands accounted for 39% of the total desktop market while Indian brands accounted for 23% of the pie.
North region accounted for 31% of all desktop sales, growing at a rate of 59%.
West region accounted for 27% of all desktop sales, growing at a rate of 5%.
East region accounted for 18% of all desktop sales, growing at a rate of 53%.
South region accounted for 24% of all desktop sales, declining at a rate of 12%.
via HinduÂ
Sify announces F1Q07 results
Sify announced the financial earnings for the first quarter (Quarter ending 6/30/07) today.
Highlights of the earnings call:
- Net loss for the quarter was $1.27 million compared to a net profit of $1.54 million for the same quarter last year
- Revenues for the quarter rose by 6.6% to $34.6 million compared to same quarter last year
The company lost $1.28 million due to provision of doubtful debts. This ate into the revenues last quarter as well. And as per Pijush Das, CFO, Sify, will eat into the next couple of quarters as well. This Stronger rupee led to a further loss of $0.4 million.
Consumer services contributes 32.6%, enterprise services contributes 60.5% while portals contribute 3.1% of total Sify revenues.
How hot is consumer Internet space in India ?
Majority of the VC firms from Silicon Valley now have an India focused fund and several Indian companies as part of their portfolio.
Yes, India’s market is blazing hot right now and ‘Go East’ is the new mantra.
There’s no denying that India is hot - but how hot exactly is the consumer Internet space in India ?
The Comscore India report put the Indian Internet penetration rate at 3% with the total user base at 22 million.
That pegs the total Indian population at 733.33 million.
As per the latest Indian census report, the urban population accounts for 27.8% of the total Indian population.
Assuming India’s population is 733.33 million, this puts the urban population at ~203 million (27.8%).
Now, as per the latest TRAI figures (PDF file), broadband subscriber stands at ~2 million.
Getting real that broadband is still a distant dream in rural areas in India, the 2 million can be safely assumed to be contributed from urban areas.
Online movie ticket bookings increasing in India
Now that online travel booking has become fairly common in India, the next ‘in’ thing is online movie ticket bookings. Some interesting statistics related to online movie ticket booking in India:
- Online movie ticket bookings have doubled in the first 6 months of 2007 from 4-5% to 10% of total revenue for theater chains
- PVR cinemas made Rs 25 crores from online bookings (almost 11% of total ticket sales)
- 72% of the Internet audience books tickets in advance
- 41% prefer multiplexes
- 23% of Indian Internet users have purchased tickets online at least once
- 27% of the target audience is on the fence leaning towards being converted to online buyers
See my reviews of KyaZoonga and BookEazy
via BS
ComScore releases Internet statistics for India
First there was the IAMAI report, which pegged the number of active Internet users in India at 25 million.
As per JuxtConsult’s ‘India Online 2007′, there are 25 million active Internet users in India.
TRAI figures put the Indian Internet subscriber base at 8.582 million
{all the above captured as part of this post earlier }
Now, ComScore has released their statistics related to Indian Internet users and the top visited websites in India. AgencyFaqs has an exclusive report on the details.
Following are some of the highlights of the report:
- Indian Internet population stands at 22 million in April 2007, a 10 percent jump from 20 million in November 2006
- Yahoo was the most visited website network with 14 million unique visitors (growth of 9% between Nov 06 to April 07)
- Google came in second with 13.9 million unique visitors with a 16% growth between Nov 06 to April 07
- Microsoft came in at number 3 with 10.3 million visitors
India is the worlds fastest growing market in Entertainment and Media space
As per a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), India is set to become the worlds fastest growing market for entertainment and media. The Indian E&M space is expected to reach RS 100,000 crores by 2011. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region, with India and China leading the region at a CAGR of 18.5% and 16.8% respectively over the next five years.
Internet advertising is poised to emerge as the fastest growing segment over the next five years.
US will be the largest but slowest growing market at 5.3% CAGR by 2011.
via BS
E commerce sales projected to reach Rs. 5500 crores in 2007 - 2008
As per Assocham, e-commerce is likely to grow by 150% to Rs 5500 crores this fiscal year. The total e-commerce sales for last year were Rs 2200 crores. Delhi and Mumbai contributed 20% and 24% respectively of the total e shopper population in 2006-2007. For 2007-2008 their contribution is expected to reach 30% and 40% respectively.
- In 2006-2007, Delhi and Mumbai contributed 20% and 24% of the e shopper population
- In 2007-2008, Delhi and Mumbai are estimated to contribute 30% and 40% of the e shopper population
- Chennai and Bangalore contributed 7% and 6% of the e shopper populations in 2006-2007
- In 2007 -2008, Chennai and Bangalore will likely contribute 12% and 9% of the online shopping population
- 28% of shoppers are in the 18-25 age group, 48% in 26-35, 15% in the 36-45 age group and 9% in 45-60 age group
- 88% of online shoppers in India were male, with 86% having at least a bachleor’s degree
- Electronic gadgets, apparel, railways, air and movie tickets were most shopped items last year
- Products likely to gain popularity this year include jewellery, books, apparel, gift products, music, movies, hotel bookings
via ET
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