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Friday
- October 6, 2000
A Look at Asian Internet Markets
Open a cyber café in Korea and you should do
fine. Open one in Hong Kong and you might not be as lucky.
Why?
According to figures released today by French
Internet measurement company NetValue, Singapore has the
highest number of Internet users in Asia, with 46% of people
over age 15 going online in the past month. However, Korea
revealed it could be the next Internet hot spot of Asia with
42% of those surveyed connecting to the Internet in the past
month. Compare that to Taiwan with 36.4%, Hong Kong with
29.2%, and China with 23% in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Of these Internet users in Korea, 43% headed
to the nearest cyber café to go online. That makes Internet
cafés one of most popular spots for Koreans to gain Internet
access, second only to connecting at home. Compare that to
Hong Kong, where Internet / cyber cafés came in dead last
with only 6% leaving the comforts of home or work to enter
the world of web. Home ranked as the number one spot Asia-wide
for people to go online, followed far behind by work in all
countries except Korea.
The fact that Korea had such a high percentage
of people going online is particularly amazing when you consider
this; most of their Internet junkies are virtual online virgins.
The heaviest home users in Korea have been connected to the
Internet for less than six months (41%).
Everywhere else in Asia, it's the online old-timers,
those who adopted the Internet early on and have been connected
for two years or more, who are using the Internet the most
(Singapore 63%, Taiwan 52%, Hong Kong 49.6%, China 31%).
Looking at the region overall, we find that
the heaviest home user is usually a male student under 35
years old who has been connected to the Internet for over
two years (an early Internet adopter). The ones least concerned
with the Internet usually can't even remember when they gained
their Internet connection and most commonly are females,
over 35 years old and housewives.
The verdict is that Asia will not be left behind
in the worldwide universe of Internet. It has already come
out as an integral player in the global market with Singapore
having 53% of its households connected, leading the way over
the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Front-runners
of the Internet world should be very, very interested.
Beyond Today's Turning Point for Net Business
According to Forbes:
"As the Web's weak pure plays keep falling
away, and strong bricks-and-mortars gain, a sound business
model will be the only means of survival.
It looked like just another manic Wednesday
on Sept. 27, when Priceline.com warned that it would miss
-- ever so slightly -- analysts' estimates for the third
quarter. In these days of such volatility, the 42% one-day
drop in Priceline's stock price was hardly that unusual.
But taken another way, the company's miss signaled a new
turning point in Internet business..."
Click here for the full story.
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2000 News Archive
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