How Many Internet Users In Colombo?
A slide from the upcoming awesomeness that is the YAMU business plan.
I’m working on this business plan for YAMU, and this requires sizing up the Internet market in Colombo. While the ITU has some fairly detailed (if conflicting) numbers, they don’t really break down to city levels. So I’m including my rationale and sources here. My best guess is that there are 330,000 Internet users in Metro Colombo, out of a population of 1.5 million.
1. 15% Internet penetration in Sri Lanka (3.13 million people)
The commonly cited Internet penetration for Sri Lanka is 11.8%, as per Internet World Stats, citing the ITU. Wikipedia, however, lists 15% penetration, linking directly to ITU statistics (Excel). That Excel show 15% penetration, having grown at about 30% each year. I went with that. That gives a base number of 3.13 million.
2. 21% Internet penetration in Colombo (330,000 people)
I’ve estimated 6% higher penetration in Colombo because in 2009, the Dept of Stats (PDF) measured a 19% penetration in the Western Province, 6 points higher than the national average of 13%. Urban penetration was 24% (11 points higher), so I’m actually going with the lower estimate. That gives us 15+6=21. So I went with 21% Internet penetration in Colombo.
Now, even getting a population figure for Colombo is tricky. Colombo Municipal Council limits are actually quite small and has a population of about 750,000. The metropolitan area includes the suburbs where many people live, and that number is 1.5 million.
So, anyways, 21% of 1.5 million is 330,000. Hence my estimate of 330,000 Internet users in Colombo. Also, where is the census? Results had data on computer and Internet use and the should be out by now.
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This doesn’t take into account the number of corporate internet users, i.e. the ones who surf/shop etc while at work. Try estimating the number of company’s (SMEs to MNCs but ignore sole-proprietorships) and average no. of employees. That should give you a decent guestimate.
The other missing category is mobile internet users. The telcos could tell you that by looking at the number of mobile broadband connections they have.
It should definitely be higher than 330,000.
I’ve done estimates based on Internet accounts and it kinda works out the same (http://indi.ca/2012/02/sri-lankas-internet-penetration-hits-11-8/). According to the latest data (http://www.trc.gov.lk/images/docs/statis_June_2012.doc) there’s about 1.1 million connections in Sri Lanka, the majority being mobile broadband.
I don’t know the methodology the ITU uses, but the Dept Of Stats does surveys and asks people if they’ve used net in the past 12 months. So that would cover people who use it via corporate connections or mobile net. Measuring via connections or corporate headcount is kinda dodgy, I’m assuming it’s some sort of survey or mix.
I’ve run the numbers both ways and I think 12-15% is a good guess as to Sri Lanka’s Internet penetration. Taking 21% as Colombo’s penetration (based on the DepStats survey from 2009) is I think a safe guess, which I don’t think is contradicted by account data.