It would be easy to mistake English as the online lingua franca in India, but that’s far from reality. The country is home to a strikingly high number of native languages; India’s 2001 census reported more than 1,600 dialects spoken in the country, with 22 official languages recognized by the government.

While English was once the most widely used language among internet users, that’s no longer the case, according to data from KPMG in India and Google. The companies found that Indian-language internet users numbered 234 million in 2016, far more than the 175 million English-language internet users.

In addition, the firms predict that the number of Indian-language internet users will grow to 536 million by 2021, far outpacing the growth rate foreseen for English-language internet users.

That shift has been driven by several factors, according to the firms. Smartphones are increasingly being adopted by consumers outside of urban areas—a group less likely to speak either English or Hindi.

The government is also hastening the process with plans to invest more than $350 million in increasing digital literacy in rural areas. In addition, the drop in the cost of mobile date plans has made data-intensive behaviors like watching online videos easier than ever for consumers.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.emarketer.com