India has 350 mn online transacting users, set to grow 2X by 2030

Bengaluru: India currently has around 350 million online transacting users across e-commerce, shopping, travel and hospitality, and OTT and the number is set to double by 2030, a new report showed on Wednesday.

There are about 40-45 million mature users who spend a considerable share of their wallet online (more than 50 per cent).

“We expect online transactors to become 2X by 2030, with mature users being the faster-growing cohort,” said Mukesh Kumar, Engagement Manager, Redseer Strategy Consultants.

“We also estimate that these mature users would account for $400 billion online spending by 2030,” he mentioned.

At 780 million, India is home to the second-largest Internet user base in the world, which is more than 2 times of the US population.

With the accelerated growth of Internet and smartphone adoption, India is expected to surpass 1 billion Internet users by 2030.

An average Indian spends 7.3 hours per day on their smartphone, one of the highest in the world.

“Cheaper data costs and affordable smartphones (starting at $60) have been the fundamental drivers of increasing online time. This sets the stage for high digital opportunities for consumer Internet players,” the findings showed.

Most Internet users come from product commerce, OTT video platforms, short form, gaming, and OTT audio platforms. Most of the users across e-tailing and gaming come from tier 2+ cities.

“There is a new trend in content consumption where the time spent on user-generated content is 2X of platform-generated content,” said the report.

Growth in UPI payments and the comfort of paying online have led to 110 million paid online gamers in India, second only to e-commerce.

Gaming is adding two million paid users per month. Every second Internet user is a gamer in India, and every third transacting user in India is a paid gamer.

Gaming has almost 450 million users in 2022, and the market will see a 33 per cent rise in paid gamers by 2026, said the report.