Local language internet users to jump to 400 million by 2020: Google

Of the 650 million users expected to be using Internet in India by 2020, a whopping over 61 per cent will be accessing it in local language, forming majority of the online population, according to technology giant Google.

At its “Google for India” event, the US-based firm said the number of internet users in India will jump 85 per cent from 350 million in 2016 to 650 million by 2020.

As the same time, people accessing the Internet in local language will more than double from 150 million at present to about 400 million by 2020.

“Hindi content consumption on the internet is growing 5 times the rate at which English content is consumed,” the company said. It also pointed out that there has been 50 per cent increase in Hindi searched on mobiles since the feature enabling Hindi searches was launched.

To woo these users accessing content in local languages, Google on Tuesday said soon the Google Assistant on its messaging application Allo will support Hindi. Currently, Google Assistant, which can suggest searches and answer simple questions, can converse in English.

Source: The Hindu