ICA presentation in Singapore. 26 June 2010

1. Asia’s Social Media
Map and Users’
Online Behavior
Michael Netzley, PhD
http://communicateasia.asia

2. Two Premises
Predominantly American “Asia” is often used as a
and western European geographic generalization.
• 4+ billion people
perspective in PR
• 47 countries
research • 2000 spoken languages
- K. Sriramesh
• Economic, political,
Same pattern in social religious, & historical diversity
media discussions • Reflected in media use
Ethnocentric Fragmented
Bias Markets

3. Why Map Asia’s Digital Space?
The western-centric conversations overlook
what is unique and important about digital
media in Asia. Here you will find the world’s
most advanced mobile market, many of the
world’s leading information societies, the
largest Internet market, and leading media
companies which have bested global
competitors such as Google, Yahoo, My Space,
Facebook, and many others).

4. Percentage of Worldwide Online Population
Asia: Fast-Growing Internet
100% 5% 6% 6% 7% 7% 7% 7%
6%
9% 9% 9% 9% 10% 10% 10% 10%
80%
34% 35% 38% 39% 40% 41% 42% 43%
60%
40%
29% 29% 28% 27% 26% 26% 25% 25%
20%
22% 21% 19% 18% 17% 16% 16% 15%
0%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
North America Europe
Asia, Asia Pacific, and Oceania Latin America and Carribean
Middle East and Africa
Source: JupiterResearch Worldwide Internet Population Model (3/08) Steven Noble, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research. Presented Ad-Tech, SG

5. ICT Development Index (2002-07)
Economy Rank 2007 IDI 2007 Rank 2002 IDI 2007
Sweden 1 7.50 1 6.05
Korea (Rep.) 2 7.26 3 5.83
Denmark 3 7.22 4 5.78
Hong Kong, 11 6.70 12 5.10
China
Japan 12 6.64 18 4.82
Australia 14 6.58 13 5.02
Singapore 15 6.57 16 4.83
Malaysia 52 3.79 50 2.74
Thailand 63 3.44 70 2.17
China 90 3.11 73 1.95

6. Measuring Internet Societies with
ICT Development Index
• The ICT Index illustrates the level of advancement of
information and communication technologies (ICT) across
more than 150 countries and compares progress made
between 2002 and 2007.
• Various factors were incorporated into the index:
– ICT infrastructure and access: Available infrastructure and
individuals’ access to basic ICTs.
– ICT use and the intensity of use: Actual use of ICTs and level of
intensity of use.
– ICT skills: Proxy indicators like level of education and literacy.

7. Leading Internet Markets
Countries Number of Netizens Country Population Internet
Penetration (%)
China 338,000,000 1,338,612,968 25.3%
Japan 94,000,000 127,078,679 74.0 %
South Korea 37,475,800 48,508,972 77.3%

8. Developing Internet Markets
Countries Number of Netizens Country Population Internet
Penetration (%)
India 81,000,000 1,156,897,766 7.0 %
Taiwan 15,143,000 22,974,347 65.9 %
Hong Kong 4,878,713 7,055,071 69.2 %
Singapore 3,104,900 4,657,542 66.7 %

9. Catch Up Internet Markets
Countries Number of Netizens Country Population Internet
Penetration (%)
Philippines 24,000,000 97,976,603 21.1 %
Vietnam 21,524,417 88,576,758 24.3 %
Malaysia 16,902,600 25,715,819 65.7 %

10. Follower Internet Markets
Countries Number of Netizens Country Population Internet
Penetration (%)
Indonesia 25,000,000 240,271,522 10.4 %
Thailand 13,416,000 65,998,436 20.3 %

11. Source: Thomas Crampton

12. National Networks Vary
Wikis Social Networking Search Engines
China Hudong Renren (formerly known Baidu
as Xiaonei)
Japan Wikipedia Japan Mixi Yahoo Japan
South Korea Wikipedia Korean & Cyworld Naver
Naver Dictionary

13. National Networks Vary
Blog Service Provider Email File Sharing Application
China Blogbus 163.com Xunlei
Japan FC2 Yahoo Mail Japan Share
Share (ソフトウェア)
South Korea Tistory Hanmail by Daum ClubBox

14. SG 2009: Behavioral Preferences
wiki contribution
Microblog
On-line Ratings
Personal Blog
Upload Videos
Leave Comment Blog
Visit Friends' SNS
My SNS
Watch Videos
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10
0
n = 480
30+ 20-30 <20
© 2009 Michael Netzley, research.

15. SG 2010: Behavioral Preferences
Wiki Contribution
Microblog
On-line Ratings
Personal Blog
Upload Videos
Leave Comment Blog
Visit Friends' SNS
My SNS
Watch Videos
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
n = 578
© 2010 Michael Netzley, research. 30+ 20-30 <20

16. Grew 308.5%
Compare to
2009 Results

17. SG: Why We Go Online

18. Digital Media Across Asia Wiki

19. Internet Blocking and
Communication Risk

20. Bibliography
• Shriramesh, K and D. Vercic (2009) Chapter 3:
The Relationship Between Culture and Public
Relations. The Global Public Relations
Handbook: Theory, Research, and Practice, pg
52.
• International Telecoms Union (2009) Measuring
the Information Society: The ICT Development
Index. Accessed online at http://www.itu.int/ITU-
D/ict/publications/idi/2009/index.html
• Digital Media Across Asia Wiki at http://comm215.wetpaint.com/