India fastest growing internet market

KOLKATA: India is the fastest growing internet market in the world with over 23 million active internet users, holding out prospect of a larger growth in the number of netizens.

The top eight metros were driving the growth of internet in India with fast growing adoption in smaller cities, said Manish Agarwal, Vice-President (Marketing) of rediff.com, one of the leading online community portals.

Kolkata accounted for 1.05 million activer users and was ahead of technology hubs like Bangalore (0.97 million) and Hyderabad (0.95 million).

Kolkata also had the highest percentage of 'innovators' among online users in the country, he said after launch of rediff's new multimedia application 'iShare'.

"iShare comes with a very light and easy to use utility tool which users can install on their PCs and upload multiple files even at a low- speed without having to worry about the source of the file," he said.

For example, he said, users would be able to shoot videos on mobile phones, digicam, digital camcorder and upload it.      Photos and music from any digital camera and MP3 player like ipods could be uploaded on iShare, he added.