Bangalore: The four metros still account for large numbers of Internet users but other cities are fast catching up, and this includes Bangalore, which closely follows bigger Chennai (1.48 million users) with 1.31 million Web users.

The latest survey released by IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) points to the trend of even non-metro cities fast catching up in terms of Internet usage. The top metros now account for only 41 per cent of total users.

In terms of Internet access points, the cities show some variation.

In Bangalore, for instance, 23 per cent access the Internet from home, 15 per cent from office and 42 per cent from cyber cafes. Bangalore leads in the number of users in schools/colleges — 17 per cent — ahead of even bigger cities.

Traditional favourites email and chat continue to be dominant, but there is a gradual increase in users accessing the Net for other purposes such as e-commerce, matrimony and business and financial information.

In Bangalore, a good 46 per cent are into the Internet for email and nine per cent visit job sites. Information seekers account for 20 per cent and three per cent use the Net for e-commerce transactions.

The popularity of job sites and matrimonial sites may be increasing.

An earlier survey showed Bangalore closely followed Delhi and Mumbai in the number of those making purchases of items ranging from apparel to music albums through the Internet.

In the smaller cities, almost 40 per cent of Internet users are students, which shows how the medium has become useful to that section. The large proportion of school/college users in Bangalore is because most institutions now provide Internet access.

Even several government and municipal schools have been gifted computers by information technology companies.

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