The coming digital upheaval

Understanding the changes taking place in Internet adoption and use in the country is essential for anyone doing business in India write Shweta Bajpai, Nimisha Jain, and Kanchan Samtani of BCG India. Everybody focuses on the numbers, which are impressive: almost 200 million connected consumers now and another 200 million in the next few years. Some estimates put the total number of Internet users in India at as many as 550 million—40 per cent of the population—in 2018. The Internet is expected to contribute $200 billion to India’s GDP (5 percent of total GDP) by 2020, say the authors of the article published in BCG Perspectives (by BCG). But the more interesting story lies in the changes taking place behind the numbers, according to the authors. The Indian connected consumer is already a very different individual (or group of individuals) than he or she was a year or two ago. And the universe of users only a few years from now will be far more varied in terms of age, occupation, wealth, location, and, importantly, digital sophistication than users today. These new users will approach the online experience with very different expectations, needs, priorities, and goals, the three authors write in BCG Perspective. Click here to read the whole story