Asia Pacific

There were an estimated 932,393,209 internet users in Asia (representing about 24.0% of the Asian population), according to statistics updated June 2011 by Internet World Stats.

Asia top 10 countries:
1. China: 485,000,000 (36.3% of the population in the country)
2. India: 100,000,000 (8.4%)
3. Japan: 99,182,000 (78.4%)
5. Indonesia: 39,600,000 (16.1%)
4. South Korea: 39,440,000 (80.9%)
6. Philippines: 29,700,000 (29.2%)
7. Vietnam: 29,268,606 (32.3%)
8. Pakistan: 20,431,000 (10.9%)
9. Thailand: 18,310,000 (27.4%)
10. Malaysia: 16,902,600 (58.8%)
(Internet World Stats, August 2011)

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Internet access in Hong Kong outpaces neighbouring markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, according to Nielsen.

Internet usage among consumers aged 15 years old and older in Hong Kong and neighbouring countries:
- Hong Kong: 87% in the past 12 months / 85% in the past 4 weeks
- Singapore: 67% / 67%
- Malaysia: 38% / 38%
- Philippines: 33% / 30%
- Thailand: 31% / 31%
- Indonesia: 21% / 19%

(nielsenwire, December 2011)

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Singaporeans led the South East Asia region in online usage, spending more than a day (25 hours) online each week, according to Nielsen's Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report examining the digital media habits and attitudes of consumers in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Filipinos and Malaysians came close behind, spending 21.5 hours and 19.8 hours a week online, respectively. Indonesians trailed the region, spending an average of 14 hours per week.

The increasing availability and uptake of internet-capable mobile devices is driving the surge in digital media usage across the region and bringing about considerable changes in the way media is consumed, according to Melanie Ingrey, APMEA Region Research Director. More and more, consumers are accessing multiple media platforms simultaneously, such as accessing the internet while watching TV.

Reading and sending email was the most popular activity for internet users in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand, while reading news was the favourite digital activity in Vietnam and Indonesia. Accessing social networks ranked in the top five activities for all of the countries except in Vietnam, with Facebook dominating the landscape in Indonesia, where 90% said that they maintained an active profile on the site, which was also popular in the Philippines and Malaysia. Facebook does not enjoy the same penetration in Thailand or Vietnam, however, with competitors such as 4Shared and Zing having significant popularity. YouTube ranked as one of the top five most popular sites in all six countries.

As in other parts of the world, social networking sites have become an increasingly important way for consumers to connect with the brands they like. In the Philippines, nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents said they interacted with brands, products or companies via social media, while 60 percent of Malaysians and 56 percent of Singaporeans did the same.

Online engagement with brands is particularly important for consumers in making purchase decisions, with vast majorities of consumers in four of the six countries (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) indicating that they read product reviews online. Majorities in those countries also post their own reviews of products and services purchased. (nielsenwire, November 2011)

Search Engines and Searches

Easy to forget when Google so often dominates in the West, but Yahoo has major consumer portals around the world that have a significant focus on travel. This is no more so than in South East Asia where a partnership with local metasearch player Wego is helping extend Yahoo's focus on extending  travel content and product search into individual country portals.

Wego currently runs flight, hotel and package search on Yahoo's Singapore and Malaysia portals, but the pair have now extended the agreement to push hosted metasearch into new territories. Yahoo portals in Indonesia and Philippines will now feature Wego search tools as part of the Yahoo travel portal.

Wego reckons the extension will mark the beginning of a new method for suppliers and OTAs to get in front of what it calls "a new generation of online travellers".

Yahoo's existing travel portals also include destination guides and other content from the likes of CNNGo and UnearthingAsia. (tnooz, May 2010)