Global mobile internet user base to touch 2 billion in 2016

More than two billion people globally will use mobile devices to access internet in 2016, with countries like India, China and Indonesia leading the way, research firm IDC has said.

An estimated 3.2 billion people, or 44% of the world’s population, will have access to the internet in 2016, IDC has said.

‘Growth in internet access is taking place around the world, but some countries are seeing particularly rapid growth. China, India, and Indonesia lead the way and will account for almost half of the gains in access globally over the course of the next five years,’ IDC says.

The combination of lower-cost devices and inexpensive wireless networks are making accessibility easier in countries with populations that could not previously afford them.

IDC said the global mobile internet user base is forecast to grow at two per cent annually through 2020 unless significant new methods of internet access are introduced.

Efforts by Google, SpaceX and Facebook among others to make the Internet available to the remaining 4 billion people via high altitude planes, balloons, and satellites are underway.

However, it remains unclear how successful these endeavors will be and when they will be operational at scale.

‘Over the next five years, growth in the number of people accessing the internet exclusively through mobile devices will grow by more than 25% per year. This change in the way we access the internet is fuelling explosive growth in mobile commerce and mobile advertising,’ Scott Strawn, program director of Strategic Advisory Service, said.

The study has found that more than a billion people use the Internet to bank online, to stream music and to find a job.

More than two billion use email and read news online and more people than ever before are making purchases online.