90% People Spending More Time Online, 61% Users Increased Content Streaming After Lockdown: Survey

A recent survey has revealed how data consumption has spiked in India over the period of Covid-19 lockdown.

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New Delhi: As data consumption touches over 11GB per user a month in India owing to the lockdown times, 90 percent of people are spending more time on content streaming, e-learning, infotainment and social media, a new survey said on Monday. Nearly 61 percent of consumers are streaming more content than they were before the lockdown, said the 'EY Digital Consumer Survey'. "Time spent on video streaming has surged 1.2 times to average 4.2 hours per user per week," the findings showed. While 60 percent of respondents prefer subscription-based video on demand, 20 percent prefer TV entertainment. Nearly 50 percent of respondents who prefer TV are spending more time watching movies, shows and news telecasts. "The access and speed to real-time engagement are driving digital adoption to the next level. Now is the time for business models to change and capture a larger share of customers' wallet and attention," said Prashant Singhal, Emerging Markets TMT Leader at EY. The survey analysed views of over 2,600 consumers to highlight the changing behaviour and perception toward digital services. "Nearly 33 percent of respondents upgraded broadband plans for higher data packages. Interestingly, unlimited plans accounted for 40 percent of total upgrades, underlining the growing confidence to do more digitally," said the survey. Many basic users, those using data only for thin web-browsing, chatting and calling, are migrating to high user buckets. "Nearly 11 percent of basic data users upgraded their existing packs to either unlimited or 50 per cent-100 percent higher data to do more of content streaming, gaming and video calling. The survey revealed that as many as 76 percent of respondents are either first-timers or have increased the time they spent on video calling. "The demand for high-speed broadband with increasing remote working population will only spiral to support the use of data-intensive tools. As work from home or remote working becomes a reality, the need for stable, high-speed Internet becomes even more critical," the survey said. WATCH | Parents prefer online education for children during Unlock 1