The Global eBook Report: Current Conditions & Future Projections. Update October 2013

population has purchased an ebook during the period of study. The study also revealed that the typical ebook buyer in India is a college graduate, more likely to be male in the 25–34 years age group, working fulltime and living in a city. The perhaps explains another finding by the survey, that the majority of books downloaded were either from professional/business category or academic books /textbooks.
    An annual sample survey by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) among youth in the metro cities shows that smart devices and access are making youth “instant connectors”, and transforming the way that they are conducting not just their social lives, but also their academic lives.
    According to estimates, India has about 200 million children under the age of 18, and 69 million of them reside in urban areas. Mobile devices have become an important utility for young urban parents to entertain their children with. A growing number of parents are exposing children to apps at an early age. In a survey of Generation Z by Ericsson ConsumerLab in 2012, 26% of survey participants from India were downloading a phone app for their kids at least weekly.
    The latest New Generation Study by Cartoon Network , released in December 2012, revealed that one in 10 kids in the age group of 7–14 surveyed by the study owned a mobile phone. About 58% of the kids used computers but only 19% owned a computer. Nearly 87% used the internet at least once a week and 10% used it every day . Playing games, surfing for information and social networking are some of the preferred activities on the internet, the study reveals. The survey comprised of 3,100 children in 7–14 years’ age group, from 26 cities.
    The The Indian Readership Survey , which studies mass-media consumption data, indicates a 27.5% increase in internet-based readership between beginning of 2012 and third quarter of 2013. In the same period, only a slight growth was observed in printed newspaper readership (0.7%).
    An important result thrown up by Bowker’s study is that free content is a driver for ebook adoption in India. Over half the respondents to that survey had downloaded a free ebook in the six months prior to taking the survey.
    India is now the world’s third -largest internet user, after the US and China, according to a Comscore report released in August 2013. Of the internet users, 75% are below the age of 35. But the report observes that women in the age group of 35–44 years are among the heaviest users in the Indian market.
    Currently, much of econtent available in the country is in English, a factor that restricts a large section of people from using the internet. Internet users in rural India show a greater preference for localized content. At least 64% of internet users in rural India use the internet in local languages. [N2] Email is the most popular service, while online news and online banking in local languages are also becoming popular. Great expectations anticipate that in the coming years this pattern of consumption will give way to user-generated content in local languages.
    In the absence of more reliable data on ebook readership in India, the patterns seen in consumption of eservices and ecommerce give some clues for future opportunities.
    Technological infrastructure
    The ratio of computer literates in India was estimated to be 6.15% (224 million) of the population, last year. The digital divide in India is a result of several divides combined, namely a lack of access and affordability, poor infrastructure, and social inequalities.
    Internet penetration in India was at 12.6% in 2012. According to the The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in August 2013, the number of internet subscribers in India was 164.81 million by March 2013 (it was 150 million in December 2012). Of the total internet subscribers, 15.05 million were broadband connections; 6.56 million were narrowband connections; and a whopping 143.20 million accessed the internet through mobile phones. (These numbers are based on connections registered, but are not indicative of active users.) When it comes to mobile telephony, the penetration level is greater in urban India. In March 2013, of the total 867.80 million wireless telephone subscribers, 525.30 million were in urban centres.
    While email is the most used service, 28% read news online and 25% users accessed apps. Online games were accessed by nearly 50% of