印度互聯網增長 網絡商業繁榮

The number of Internet users in India has topped 100 million, fueling the growth of net-based businesses.

印度的互聯網用戶已經超過1億人，互聯網的發展刺激了網上商業的增長。

When Deepinder Goyal was working at a consulting firm three years ago, he found his colleagues kept a stack of menu cards handy so that they could order lunch from different restaurants. That gave Goyal the idea of launching a net-based food and lifestyle guide.

戈亞爾三年前在一家諮詢公司工作的時候發現他的同事在手邊保留着一大堆菜單卡片，這樣他們就可以從不同的餐廳訂餐。這給了戈亞爾開辦一個餐飲和生活方式網上指南的點子。

“We scanned these menu cards and put them online," Goyal said. "So starting an Internet venture was actually an experiment and it worked out really well and currently we are getting around two million people just looking up menu cards on our website every month.”

戈亞爾說：“我們掃描了那些菜單卡，把它們放到網上。所以，開辦一家網上企業對我來說實際上是一個嘗試，結果這個嘗試非常成功，目前每個月在我們網站上查找菜單卡的人就有大約2百萬人。”

Goyal’s website, , has flourished partly due to an explosion in the food and restaurant business, and partly due to the huge growth in the number of Internet users in India in recent years.

戈亞爾的網站之所以這麼火，部分原因在於餐飲業的爆炸式增長，還有就是印度近年來互聯網用戶的大量增長。

India now has over 112 million users - about 10 percent of the country. It is the world’s third largest user base behind China and the United States. With about five million new users logging on every month, the number is expected to reach 250 million in less than two years.

印度目前有超過1億1千2百萬互聯網用戶，大約佔全國總人口的百分之10。印度是世界互聯網用戶最多的國家之一。每個月新增的互聯網用戶就有差不多5百萬人。印度互聯網用戶總人數預計在不到兩年的時間裏將達到2億5千萬。

Subho Roy, head of the Internet and Mobile Users Association of India, says a recent survey indicates Internet usage, initially largely restricted to big cities, is now making rapid inroads into smaller towns and cities.

羅伊是印度互聯網和移動通信用戶協會的負責人，他說，最近一項調查顯示，互聯網最開始主要在大城市使用，現在正在快速走進小城鎮。

Roy also says many more people are logging on from home and slowly ending the domination of cyber cafes, which were used by people who did not own computers or have access to the net.

羅伊還表示，很多人都在從家裏上網，這樣就慢慢地結束了網吧的主導地位。網吧主要是沒有電腦或互聯網接入服務的人所去的地方。

“Last year the old pattern was still there, cyber cafes being top, then office, and then home. So this dramatic change has come about this year," Roy said. "There is a very, very great movement in the home use segment. People are probably buying their own broadband connections and accessing it from their own devices rather than going to common service points.”

他說：“去年，老的上網模式還依然如此，那就是網吧第一，然後是在辦公室，最後纔是在家裏。這種顯著的改變是今年纔出現的。在家裏上網有非常大的增長。人們可能都開始在買他們自己的寬帶接入，並從自己的設備，而不是去公共場所上網。”Goyal says that is helping businesses like .

戈亞爾表示，這種趨勢助長了像這樣的網上生意。

“Earlier we used to see that around 50 to 60 percent of our traffic used to spike at lunches on weekdays. That was due to corporates [company employees] accessing our website when they used to order lunch. Right now, weekends are also very heavy traffic for us,” Goyal said.

他說：“早些時候，我們通常看到每到工作日的午餐時間，上網流量就會增長大約百分之50到60。這是由於公司僱員訂餐的時候，都使用我們的網站。現在，我們網站的點擊流量週末也非常大。”

Many others are benefiting. Online shopping, for example, is on the rise. Young people who started by booking movie tickets and air tickets online are ordering mobile phones, laptops, books, and accessories such as watches on the net. An industry survey indicates the online retail business is growing by 35 percent annually and will reach nearly $1.5 billion by 2015. Nearly half the customers come from smaller towns where wealth and aspirations are growing.

很多人也因此受益。舉例說，網上購物，正在興起之中。開始網上購買電影票或者機票的年輕人也在訂購手機、筆記本電腦、書籍和手錶這樣的用品。一項業界調查顯示，網上零售業每年增長百分之35，到2015年將達到15億美元的水平。其中將近一半的顧客來自小城鎮，那裏的富裕程度和人們的渴望都在增長。

Facebook said this week it expects India will top the number of users in the coming years. Currently, there are 30 million users of the popular social networking site in the country.

臉譜網站本週說，預計在未來一些年裏，印度的用戶人數將達到最高水平。目前，在印度有3千萬大衆社交網站用戶。

The number of people in India who own computers remains limited. But nearly half the country’s population now has mobile phones, and many of the country’s new users are expected to access the net from these devices.

在印度，擁有電腦的人數依然有限。但是該國將近一半的人口現在擁有手機，印度很多新的手機用戶預計將通過手機上網。