What are Indians doing when they're online? The data might astonish you

A recent Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) report pegged the number of internet users in the country at 137 million. That’s a lot of people logging in to the world wide web.

But what exactly are they doing online?According to a Goldman Sachs study, in 2013, a quarter of the Indians spending time online were hooked on social networking sites such asFacebook and Twitter.Entertainment sites come in the second, taking up 8 percent of online users’ time. ‘Portals’ and email rank between 8 and 9 percent, rounding off the top five segments.

However, there is also general category – a little under 30 percent – which is, possibly, an aggregate mix of the rest of things Indian users do when they’re online (Goldman Sachs did not clarify what this category represents).

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Take a look at the chart below:

The data throw up a few surprises. Given the constant talk about India’s burgeoning e-commerce space and multiple annoying requests to play online games like Farmville and Candy Crush, we don’t seem to be spending as much time on these activities as one might think.

Online shopping takes up just 3 percent of our time, while games a mere 1.8 percent. In what might be an indication of India’s love for print media, online news and information commands only 3 percent of a user’s time on the Internet.