India home to world's 2nd largest Internet user base

New Delhi: Helmed by Reliance Jio, India is home to the world's second largest internet user base, accounting for 12 per cent of all internet users globally, the 2019 Mary Meeker report on Internet Trends said. Jio is one of the most innovative internet companies based outside the US, it added.

"At 3.8 billion, the number of Internet users comprises more than half the world's population," it said, adding China has the largest base, accounting for 21 per cent of all internet users globally. The US has 8 per cent of global internet users.

Global internet user growth is solid but slowing, it said. The growth was 6 per cent in 2018, down from 7 per cent in the previous year. With 307 million mobile phone service subscribers, Reliance Jio is expanding offline access to e-commerce, the report said.

"We are creating a hybrid, online-to-offline commerce platform by integrating Reliance Retail's physical marketplace with Jio's digital infrastructure & services," it quoted Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani as saying.

"This platform will bring together 350 million customer footfalls at Reliance Retail stores, 307 million Jio connectivity customers & 30 million small merchants all over India who provide the last-mile physical market connectivity."

Jio's free voice call and cheap data plans have helped grow data usage by two-fold in one year. The report put internet regulations in India at moderate. There are diverse regulatory bodies in India, many with the power to regulate access.

On content regulation, it said India has "event-driven content filtering often without direct public input with some speech protection."