Our Digital Universe Expands at an Alarming Rate

By smitvyas52

In Culture

11 Mar 2020

6 min read

What is the digital universe?

The universe of Apple, the universe of Google, the universe of Facebook and other digital corporations collectively constitute the digital universe.

The digital universe is vast, very complex, and growing. Once its untapped potential is unlocked, it promises to inform us in ways that can improve lives, find remedies to incurable diseases, redefine industries, discover new markets, help solve local community challenges such as hunger and poverty – the possibilities are endless.
Size of Digital Universe:

The digital universe will reach 40 zettabytes (ZB), which is 40 trillion GB of data, or 5,200 GB of data for every person on Earth by 2020.

What percentage of data from the digital universe is unstructured?

90 % of what we call “Big Data” is unstructured data. Unstructured data includes e-mail, tweets, electronic documents, video, audio files, web pages, and all of their associated metadata. Almost all of the data we produce in a digital world is unstructured.

How is the Digital Universe growing in India?

Despite the fact that less than 40% of India’s population is online, the sheer size of the Indian population means that India has one of the highest numbers of internet users.

Internet usage in India:
The volume of new internet users is growing in straight vertical line for the past 18-20 months after the data charges had come down to just about Rs 15-20 per gigabit following the entry of Reliance Jio from a level of as high as Rs 250 per 1 GB data in the past.

The investment on IT hardware, software, services, telecommunications and staff that could be considered the “infrastructure” of the digital universe will grow by 40% between 2012 and 2020.

India has second highest number of Internet users after China

With 451 million monthly active internet users at end of financial year 2019, India is now second only to China in terms of internet users, according to a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Number of internet users in India from 2015 to 2022 (in millions)

India Internet Users from 2015 – 2022 (in Millions).

Interesting Fact – According to Google:

“India is adding 10 million active internet users per month.“The highest rate of addition to the internet community anywhere in the world.
Interestingly, nine out of every ten new internet users are exploring the online content only in their native language.

Much of the digital universe is transient:

Phone calls that are not recorded, digital TV images that are watched (or “consumed”) that are not saved, packets temporarily stored in routers, digital surveillance images purged from memory when new images come in, and so on

Anonymous users respond positively on digital life:

“I can get answers to questions about almost anything just by asking my telephone.”
“I met my soulmate on a Matrimonial website.”
“I can save money on everything, including clothing and shoes, airfares, hotels and eat at better restaurants and drink better wine.”
“Navigation via car has dramatically improved, with accurate up-to-date traffic information and destination wayfinding.”
“Digital life is being able to speak and see someone – regardless of where you are – on a phone you carry on your person.”
“Most people I have dated and approximately all of my friends knew me on the internet first; before such digital connectivity I would have just been lonely.”
“Sharing photos of new generations instantly with loved ones on the other side of the world and using video and chat to send/receive money; to joke, to tease, to mourn.”
“My son has grown up in a world in which he will never be lost; he will never be without a person to talk to; he will never be stopped from searching for an answer to a query.”
“I work remotely for a company halfway around the world, and so does my partner. No need to be at a main office.”
“The diffusion of webinars allows me to participate in many events organized in different countries without having to travel to them.”
“Digital technology allows me to have better knowledge that empowers me to better support my own health when I face challenges.”
“My job didn’t exist 15 years ago. I am a digital content manager.”
“It means that we can participate in important moments that time and distance barred us from in the past.”
“I feel more supported in good times and bad and laugh more than before I was connected online.”

India losing out data centre business to small nations

India is miles away from becoming a global data centre hub even though the country has been the world’s backyard for IT and back-office services for many years.

Infrastructure bottlenecks, the precarious power situation and outdated telecom policies have resulted in the country losing out business to smaller rivals such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

BUT – As far as the Mobile Internet Cost Concern

India was named the cheapest country for one gigabyte of data with the average cost in U.S. dollars only coming to $0.26.

See the other analysis and comparison with other countries:

Worldwide Statistic:

Top 10 Internet Service Providers in India:

The following table shows the top 10 ISPs in India by total subscriber base as of 30 June 2019. Broadband is defined as “an always-on Internet connection with download speed of 512 kbit/s or above.” The number of internet users are 665.31 million, out of which 70.72 million are narrow band subscribers and 594.38 million are broadband subscribers.