Sept. 1 – Citing the rapid growth of the Chinese internet market, a report released today by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) expects the number of internet users in India to reach 237 million within five years.

“The unexpectedly rapid pace of China’s online migration is a sharp reminder of how quickly the other BRICI markets are likely to evolve in terms of Internet penetration rates, the number of hours spent online per day and e-commerce adoption,” the U.S.-based consulting firm said in its report titled, “The Internet’s New Billion.” In addition to the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the report also throws Indonesia into the mix. BCG believes that the total number of internet users across these five nations will reach 1.2 billion by 2015.

The national internet penetration in India is expected to increase to 19 percent of the population by 2015, up from the 7 percent, or 81 million internet users, recorded in the country last year. The average time spent online in India, though, was lowest among the five countries at a little over half an hour per person per day last year and a little over 40 minutes per person per day forecasted for 2015. In the report, an internet user is defined as someone over two years old who has been online within the past 30 days.

By comparison, the national internet penetration in China is expected to increase from 28 percent in 2009 to 47 percent in 2015 and increase its number of internet users from 384 million to 650 million. The average amount of time spent online in China was 2.67 hours last year and is expected to increase to a little over three hours five years from now.