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The Internet came later to Asia than it's birthplace in North America, yet today countries like South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan can boast some of the highest proportions of internet populations on line worldwide. This is despite the fact that 3 of these countries require an internet rendered in language codings other than internet-native Latin characters. Varying factors affect the percentage online, the most critical being urban/rural concentration, wealth and affordability, telecom infrastructure, familiarity with computers (as Internet access is still broadly PC based until remote devices fully explot it), and IT sophistication. Other significant factors include culture, government policy, a competitive national telecom business sector, English familiarity (as most content on the Internet is mainly in English) and education The following graph indicates the raw number "on-line" (able to access the Internet from home or work) and the percentage this represents of the full population for 14 Asia Pacific countries. The raw data was compiled by Nua surveys from data from internet-related authorities in each country between November 2001 and May 2002, though most figures are for more recent dates in this range. We display the raw data for these countries side by side in order to highlight data that may help in predicting trends. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand can boast the largest proportions online, due to combined factors of their relative wealth, English speaking populations or urban population density. However Japan, China, and South Korea are the top 3 in terms of raw numbers of the population accessing the Internet. As is the general case for the uptake of many products and services, China represents a major market, despite low proportions of consumers per capita. One would expect both the raw numbers and proportions for China to rise fast while those countries that lead should be expected to level out and show much lower rates of growth in the future. Apart from Singapore, the less wealthy countries of South East Asia - Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, have a much lower proportion of the population on line, though Malaysia is clearly leading this group due to relative wealth, English speaking capabilities and a higher urban population. However Malaysian growth, especially for the poorer market segments is hampered by per minute phone charges for dial up access and relatively higher internet access fees. A clue to internet access trends can be gleaned from comparing percentage online and raw numbers. As suggested before, countries like Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan cannot expect major growth as percentage figures approach a ceiling. South East Asia can expect some good growth as telecom facilities become more sophisticated, and monopolies in the sector are reduced (in some cases). Thailand is hampered by the need to encode content in a distinct language and a high rural and poor population. Indonesia also has a relatively high rural population, lower English language skills and lower affordability. India, which provides some of the finest programming expertise internationally, has a high standard of English comprehension, and has set up major IT centres, suffers from extremely high levels of poverty and a large rural population. As the second most populated country in the world (after China) however, one should expect these factors to influence a rise in raw numbers online in future, other factors being equal. Email the Chao Phraya River Rat
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© Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine 2002
The views expressed here may not necessarily reflect those of partners, publishers, editorial board nor sponsors of the Asia Pacific Management Forum
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