It’s A Data Affair: Indians Consume 1 GB Daily, WhatsApp Being Favourite

Indians have reportedly turned prodigiously data hungry as market research firm Nielsen’s survey on handset consumers showed that Indians consumed 1 GB data per day.

According to the survey, the data consumption has risen over the last 15-18 months from 4 GB data a month to as high as 1 GB a day. As per reports, this data explosion coincides with entry of Reliance Jio, though Nielsen has omitted it in the survey.

Jio has changed the way telcos package and charge, where voice has become free, and data is priced. Reports claim that every mobile operator has started to provide bundled voice and 1GB per day as standard.

The findings show that in app usage, chat, video streaming, browsing, social networking and image apps account for 50 per cent of the total time.

WhatsApp is the most used app across all three price bands - entry level, middle level, and premium handsets.

The survey placed entry-level phones as those which are priced within the Rs 5,000 level and Mid-level phones are priced between Rs 5,000-15,000. Both entry and mid-level segments use UC, Browser, Facebook Lite and Youtube are used more because of low space usage. Premium handsets are priced between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 and use Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Google Chrome more where there is more data consumption and economic affordability is higher.