“Economic Impact of Internet Services in India” report also claims that the internet services industry has the potential of creating 12 million new jobs in India by 2022
Valued at US$ 33.8 billion currently, the internet services sector in India is expected to become a US$ 76.4 billion market by 2022. However, a report titled “Economic Impact of Internet Services in India” by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has suggested that the Indian internet services sector can reach a value of USD 124 billion by 2022 if recommendations made, fructify.
“Economic Impact of Internet Services in India” report also claimed that the internet services industry has the potential of creating 12 million new jobs in India by 2022.
IAMAI recommendations
The authority recommends that enabling better reach and connectivity to customers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities will cement e-commerce and internet industry in India. It has also advocated the adoption of digital and advanced technologies across the ecosystem and offline sectors for reaching the goal of being a $124Bn internet services market.
Supportive government policies, improved infrastructure for widespread internet connectivity and developed distribution network are the other key factors that IAMAI believes will help India in reaching the estimated goal of being a $124Bn internet services market.
The report also mentions that out of 51 million SMEs (small to medium enterprises) in India, only two per cent are digitally enabled. IAMAI states that digitally enabled SMEs generate twice the revenue, compared to SMEs that are not digitally enabled. Internet businesses and Government of India agencies trying to push more SMEs towards digitisation will are also expected to generate immense benefits.
Internet services included in the report
The IAMAI report has covered a lot of services that have gained critical value in the Indian internet economy. These include digital advertising, e-tail, digital entertainment, OTAs, Edu-tech, online classified, fintech, food-tech, health-tech and digital payments.
“Economic Impact of Internet Services in India” clarifies that digital payments as a sector has been mapped but not included in the total estimate due to the challenges arising on account of double counting the challenge of double counting. It is a known fact that digital payments serve as facilitators for many services.
Internet services excluded in the report
IAMAI specified that sectors like Agri-tech have not been included in the study as such sectors have not yet gained any critical mass in the segment.
Technologies including IoT, AI, M2M that are usually considered to shape the future of internet services have also been kept outside the radius of this study as their real-time impact on internet services in India is difficult to determine.
However, the association believes that in coming days the internet service sector may witness sea-changes that can well inflate the overall numbers substantially.
