New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) India’s internet user base crossed the 950 million mark in 2025, driven mainly by rapid growth in rural connectivity, rising consumption of short videos and increasing use of artificial intelligence, according to a report released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on Thursday.

The ‘Internet in India Report 2025’, prepared jointly by IAMAI and Kantar, said India now has around 958 million active internet users — reflecting a year-on-year growth of about 8 per cent.

With this, India continues to remain one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing digital markets.

The report was released at the India Digital Summit in the presence of Manjula N, Secretary to the Government, Department of Electronics, IT/BT and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka.

A key highlight of the report is the strong role played by rural India in driving internet growth. Rural regions now account for nearly 57 per cent of India’s active internet users, translating to around 548 million people.

The report noted that internet adoption in rural India is growing almost four times faster than in urban areas, pointing to a major shift in how and where digital usage is expanding in the country.

The study also showed that artificial intelligence has entered the mainstream in India.

Around 44 per cent of internet users have used AI-enabled features such as voice search, image-based search, chatbots and AI filters.

AI usage is particularly high among younger users, with 57 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 years and 52 per cent of users in the 25 to 44 age group reporting use of AI features in the past year.

Short-video content has emerged as another major driver of internet usage. In 2025, about 588 million internet users, or 61 per cent of the total user base, consumed short videos.

Rural users slightly outnumbered urban users in short-video consumption, with adoption strongest among younger audiences, as per the report.

–IANS

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