Global growth in Internet users slumps, India still the driving force

The growth in the number of Internet users is witnessing a flat or a downward trend globally, with some uptick seen only in the Indian market, according to an Internet trends report compiled by Mary Meeker, renowned American venture capitalist and partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The growth in number of Internet remained flat at 9 percent year-on-year 2015, with 3 billion consumers globally. If the Indian market is excluded, the growth was 7 percent year-on-year, same as the previous year. However, the Internet users solely in India grew 40 percent in 2015' higher than 33 percent in 2014' implying that while other developed markets are facing saturation, India is the driving force behind growth and stability of Internet users. With 277 million users, India has demanded US as the second biggest market for Internet users, after China.

The global smartphone usage has also decelerated with just 21 percent growth year-on-year, compared with 31 percent in 2014, the report stated.

In the past two decades, the internet economy was affected by macroeconomic trends, but it was external issues like the housing crisis and the financial crisis that were driving the slowdown. But now, in the absence of an external trigger, it is evident that Internet users growth itself is slowing down, due to market saturation.q

The study also found that the usual practice of browsing the Internet through type-search is increasingly being replaced by images and speech search. Meeker says that in next five years, Typing at least 50 percent of all searches are going to be either images or speech.