Full market potential of digital space a long way to harness: Report

Geographical divide between urban and rural India far sharper than gender divide, it says

Despite the telecom revolution, India’s full market potential of the digital ecosystem is still a long way to harness, with the geographical divide between urban and rural India being far sharper than the gender divide between male and female, according to the State of India’s Digital Economy report released by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

 

For instance, 51 per cent of males of the total population compared to 46 per cent females are engaged on over-the-top (OTT) video (a gap of 5 percentage points) in 2024, but only 40 per cent of rural India population and 64 per cent of urban India are engaged on OTT video (a gap of 24 percentage points).

 

On email usage, the geographical rural-urban divide in 2024 was 14 percentage points but the gender gap was 8 percentage points only.

 

When it came to social media usage, the geographical gap between urban and rural was 24 percentage points in 2024, but the gender divide was only 5 percentage points. Similarly, on online music usage, the urban-rural divide is a substantial 17 percentage points, but the gender divide is again only 4 percentage points. 

 

On digital payments, the geographical gap is a staggering 30 percentage points compared to a mere 5 percentage points between the two genders in 2024. And for online search, again the rural-urban gap is at 11 percentage points while the gender gap is a mere 5 percentage points.

 

However, the good news is that the geographical gaps are closing in faster than that of gender divides in all these categories except in OTT videos. For instance, in digital payments, the growth rate of rural consumers using this service has gone up by 13.8 per cent between 2022 and 2024, compared to only 6.6 per cent in urban India. However, among males the growth in usage is up 7.7 per cent compared to 9.5 per cent among females.

 

In OTT videos, the growth of rural usage in the same period has gone up substantially by 14.6 per cent in rural India compared to only 3.6 per cent in urban India.

 

However, the gender gap in smartphone use in 2024 continues to be substantial with only 30 per cent of rural women using it compared to 45 per cent males in 2024 — a gap of 15 percentage points. In 2022, the ratio was 24 per cent women and 40 per cent men, according to the study.

 

At an overall level, which includes gender gap both in rural and urban combined, too, the gap persists — it was at 13 percentage points against women, both for 2022 as well as 2024, with no change.

 

On internet usage, in rural India, gender gap is much lower but again persists at the same level in 2024 as it was in 2022 — at 5 percentage points. In urban India it is slightly lower at 4 percentage points.