REPORT: 3 Billion Internet Users, and 2.1 Billion on Social Media

For population numbers, we've used those numbers currently cited in Wikipedia, mainly because they're open to the world to edit and sense check. As a result, our perspective is that these are the most 'politically unbiased' numbers, and therefore amongst the most reliable. Wikipedia cite their source for these numbers as Indiastat, which - from our analysis at least - seems to be a relatively credible source. The 1.268 billion number quoted there is also within 1% of the number cited by the US Census Bureau, so I'm comfortable with that margin of confidence. For the internet user numbers, as you point out, we've seen some huge discrepancies in the numbers, so we've opted for the numbers reported by the government. Even the IAMAI - whom we believe to be an authority on reliable numbers for mobile and internet in the country - state there are differences: "As of October 2014, there were 278 Mn *Claimed* Internet Users and is expected to reach 302 Mn by December 2014. [However], the number of *Active* Internet users was 213 Mn as of October 2014, and is expected to reach 232 Mn by December 2014 and 269 Mn by June 2015." As you can see, if the Internet & Mobile Association of India present numbers in this way, it's important to be conservative when presenting numbers. Having said that, I've also seen reports from Google suggesting that internet users in India are over 300 million, and I'd certainly defer to them on these matters. As for the Social and Mobile Social numbers, I can confidently say that these are as accurate as you'll get, as they come direct from Facebook's live feed of data. If you have different numbers, I'd certainly like to see them, as that would call into question all the numbers Facebook have been reporting to investors too. Thanks again for raising these questions, Amit; please do share any data you believe paints a more accurate picture of the digital landscape in India, and we'll be sure to factor it into the next round of reporting.

Thanks for sharing this perspective Amit - always great to get additional insights from people on ground! Allow me to share a little perspective that may help to put some context to the numbers. Firstly, I'll confess that one of the reasons we share these reports and numbers on a regular basis is to stir up exactly the questions and challenges you've put forward, as we believe this is the surest way to get more clarity into the true picture in each country, and to surface more accurate data for the public. We're concerned that there is still too little certainty into the true picture for digital in many parts of the world, and it's only by having these open conversations that we'll increase trust and public knowledge. So, thank you for sharing your perspective and numbers! If you have specific numbers you believe are reliable, we'd be delighted to see them, so please do share any relevant links. In terms of the numbers we've used, inevitably some of these will be different to those published elsewhere, and different organisations with different agendas will highlight different areas. [continues in next comment]

Thanks for sharing Sean, I really appreciate your kind support!

Hi Sean, Great job but I am afraid to inform you that some of the data is misleading, rather incorrect. And this challenges the authenticity of the other statistics also. Let me explain, The current population of India is 12.5 billion, by the end of Dec 2014, there were 283 million internet users (few projected little over 300 million). Therefore is quite clear that Internet penetration in India is over 25% now, while its showing 19% in the referred report. Similarly, On Facebook alone there are 118 million active users from India. And, there are many CXO level executives who haven't joined Facebook yet (using Twitter). Therefore its safe to say that the percentage of social media against population is greater than 10%, stated in the report. Similarly, I can challenge many other statistics in the report. All I wanted to highlight that there are many such reports who don't focus on serving update or right intelligence. By working with Dazeinfo for 2 long years, I like to track each and every figure that changes the intelligence. Hope this will help. :-)

Sean, this is a gem. Your sentiments are mine too. I look forward to amazingly engaging global relationships too. Thanks for your research and for sharing.