Chinese far ahead of Indians in internet use
Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be as cyber-savvy as President Xi Jinping, specially in their use of social media, swipe for swipe, but his country and people continue to trail far behind China in internet use, almost three times less.
At least 71% Chinese either use the internet occasionally or own a smartphone compared to only 21% Indian, says a new study published on Thursday by Pew Research Centre, which has been tracking internet use by the two Asian rivals since 2013.
Defining “internet use” as occasional use of the internet or owning smartphone, Pew said “the Chinese have consistently reported rates of internet and smartphone use that are at least triple that of Indians”.
And it found that trend unchanged in a study ending 2016. It showed the gap mirrored the “broad economic trajectories” of the two countries. China, wealthier of the two by gross domestic product per capita, surfed more.
The number of Chinese making between $10.01 and $20 jumped from 3% to 18% from 2001 to 2011. Over the same period, Indians making that much grew from 1% to 3%. And the China’s GDP was over five times of India, it said.
More Chinese bought more smartphone thus. Nearly 68% of them owned one in 2016, compared to 18% Indians. That gap narrows substantially for basic mobile phones — 98% Chinese own at least one, to 72% Indians.
This could be one of the reasons why Apple tends to view India as not among its top-line countries when rolling out their new devices — iPhone7 and 7plus was launched in China on September 9, 2016.