2009 Asian - Internet Market

While there is considerable activity in the Internet and online markets across the region, the market in Asia continues to be dominated by the big players of North Asia, (South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, etc), with a significant role also being played by some of the South East Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia, etc). Of course, in terms of sheer Internet user numbers, China (300 million) and India (95 million) maintain a real presence, despite their modest user penetration figures. Notably, China surpassed the US in 2008 to become the largest nation of Internet users in the world and by end 2009 was showing no signs of slowing down.

In fact as highlighted in the table below, the Asian Internet market can be broken into three user penetration groups. The top group includes the more highly penetrated markets in terms of users and subscribers. They also tend to have sophisticated and extensive broadband access facilities in place. Typically we find that countries from this group are among the global leaders in broadband Internet. South Korea, with a user penetration of over 77%, leads the regional market with a broadband subscriber penetration of 32%. Closely following in second place is Hong Kong with a 75% user penetration and 28% broadband subscriber penetration. The countries in this top grouping are characterised by their start of the art national infrastructure and, most importantly, strong regulatory support for expansion of telecom and IT services.

The countries in the second band – roughly between 10% and 30% user penetration – are to be found in expansion mode when it comes to their Internet market segments. But there is a clear gap (almost 20%) to be bridged before they can be counted in the top grouping. China has jumped from 16% penetration in 2007 to 23% by mid-2009; however, its broadband penetration is still languishing around the 5% mark. Thailand and Vietnam (both with 26% user penetration) play lead roles in this middle grouping. We typically find that in the last few years both operators and governments have started to give priority to expanding Internet access and speed in these countries. Indonesia has moved strongly into this group, overcoming major infrastructure challenges to provide Internet to its citizens; its 14% penetration represents a very significant 33 million users.

In the third grouping – those markets with a user penetration of less than 10% - we tend to find those countries that, for whatever reason, have not yet ‘got their act together’ when it comes to Internet. Of course, some are performing relatively well under difficult circumstances. The war-ravaged Afghanistan is managing 2% user penetration under extremely difficult circumstances. Then there is the tiny fledgling nation of Timor Leste (East Timor), which has continued to struggle with political instability as it attempts to build its national infrastructure. At the bottom end of the Internet scale in Asia, however, we find a number of countries that are simply struggling with poor telecom infrastructure and generally underdeveloped regulatory regimes. Included amongst these are Nepal, Turkmenistan, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Internet penetration and users in Asia by country – ranked by user penetration - June 2009

(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)

Top 10 broadband markets in Asia – ranked by subscriber penetration – June 2009

(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)

Note: Users are those accessing the Internet from school, university, cybercafes, work accounts as well as from individual household or business accounts. Subscribers are the number of individual paid Internet access accounts, eg a work account is just one subscription but can have many users within that one subscription.

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.