Mobile Internet growth in SL far outpaces PC – statcounter.com
View(s):Internet related indicators for Sri Lanka have experienced a near seismic shift in recent times. Annual growth estimates as high as 18.29 per cent, for Internet penetration, have been noted as far back as 2012, as per the most recent International Telecomunication Union statistics. And adding more fuel to this fire was last week’s ranking of Sri Lanka as one of the top 10 broadband countries, in terms of growth over 2013, by industry advocacy group Broadband Forum. Providing some perspective about what this means is another useful statistic, this time offered up by the Nielsen research agency, which indicated that, as of September 2013, there were 1.2 million mobile broadband connections in Sri Lanka.
However, to find out where Sri Lanka actually is, and to plan where to go next and how to get there, what is lacking is an accurate indication of the current, accurate number of Internet users in the island. A number which Nielsen has already estimated at 2.8 million, as at end-2013, but which could also climb as high as 4 or even 5 million, in 2014, according to professionals in Internet-related fields. Meanwhile, other estimates, circa 2012, also add another level of murkiness to an already hazy picture, signalling Internet penetration as being anywhere between 15 per cent, with local Internet user numbers at 3.22 million (internetworldstats.com), and 18.3 per cent, with 3.92 million local Internet users (Wikipedia).
But, what is no longer in dispute is the technology that is going to fuel the next phase of, hopefully, rapid expansion related to Internet adoption, which is mobile phones. Consider this… According to Internet traffic analysis website statcounter.com, the percentage of Sri Lankans accessing the Internet through their mobile phones had gone up by 57.3 per cent, as of April 2014, when compared to only 18.05 per cent just 12 months before, more than tripling overall. At the same time, and during the same period, Internet access via PCs had dropped significantly, almost halving, to 42.7 per cent, from 81.95 per cent. A trend which Nielsen further backs up through its end-2013 findings that 57 per cent of Sri Lankans now log on to the Internet via their mobile phones.