This is what real growth looks like! At Dabba we achieved another milestone in Data consumption. While we are yet to have our mainnet launch, the total data consumption on the Dabba-deployed hotspots hit the 2000 TB milestone last week.
What makes it impressive is the fact that the data consumption rate has gone up by nearly 100%. While it took us five months to hit the 1st 1000TB mark, the next 1000TB came in just 3 months with nearly the same number of Hotspots.
You can track the live status of the deployed hotspots and data consumption on the Dabba Network explorer here: https://explorer.dabba.network/.
The Growing Data Demand Is Here to Stay
The demand for data in India has been growing consistently. Over the last five years, the mobile data consumption has grown nearly four times. While an average user consumed about 5Gb data per month back in 2019, by 2024 the average data consumption jumped to over 20gb per user.
The growth in demand for data in India can be attributed to multiple factors:
a) Lower cost of smartphones: The cost of entry-level smartphones in India has come down significantly which allows new users to get easy access to internet. The increase in number of smartphone devices has contributed to the surge in demand for mobile data.
b) OTT platforms and Video content: With video-hosting and sharing platforms like Youtube and Instagram becoming more and more popular, the demand for data continues to rise. Also, OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix have a role to play in driving the demand for data.
Growth in the number of users in the OTT video segment of the media market in India from 2019 to 2029 Source
c) Online Gaming: Online gaming is another rapidly growing sector in the sub-continent. According to a Business Today report, the number of online gamers in India soared to an impressive 442 million in 2024. This has positioned India as the second-largest gaming user base globally, surpassed only by China. The growth in the number of online gamers has also fuelled the demand for data in India.
d) Cheaper Data: Data prices in India is amongst the cheapest in the world. Cheaper data prices have played an important role in making the internet services in India more accessible.
Did you know that the internet penetration rate rate in India is still under 50% while it is above 93% in most developed economies including the US?
The demand for data in India will continue to grow as there are more than 600 million people that are yet to have access to internet services.
Dabba is tapping into this green-field market to make internet services accessible in underserved areas.
