Internet users in India could increase by 24 per cent if local language content is provided on the Internet, according to the ‘Local Language Study 2013’ published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.

In the rural areas, 43 per cent of the non-users of the Internet said they would adopt the medium if the content was provided in local language. The report prima facie identifies local language as the single largest driver of Internet growth in rural areas. On the other hand, in the urban areas, 13.5 per cent of the non-users mentioned that they would use internet if content is provided in local languages.

The findings were based on a survey of 35 cities in seven states.

The report found the current local language usage penetration among the active Internet users is around 42 per cent.

While the local language content users in urban India are not much different from English language content users with e-mail, news and search being the main activities, in rural India, however, entertainment, social networking and email remain the primary purpose of using online local language content.

In rural India, 27 per cent of the users use Hindi to access online content followed by Marathi and Tamil. In urban India too, 60 per cent of the users access online content in Hindi followed by Tamil and Marathi.