Asia Pacific

There were an estimated 738,257,230 internet users in Asia (representing about 19.4% of the Asian population), according to statistics updated on 30^th September 2009 by Internet World Stats. This represents an increase of 545.9% compared to 2000.  

Asia top 10 countries:
1. China: 360,000,000 (26.9% of the population in the country)
2. Japan: 95,979,000 (75.5%)
3. India: 81,000,000 (7.0%)
4. South Korea: 37,475,800 (77.3%)
5. Indonesia: 30,000,000 (12.5%)
6. Philippines: 24,000,000 (24.5%)
7. Vietnam: 21,963,117 (24.8%)
8. Pakistan: 18,500,000 (10.6%)
9. Malaysia: 16,902,600 (65.7%)
10 Taiwan: 15,143,000 (65.9%)
(Internet World Stats, November 2009)

The Asia-Pacific region has seen significant growth in the past year, increasing 22% to nearly half a billion visitors to internet sites, with most individual countries in the region experiencing double-digit growth rates, according to comScore.

In September 2009, the internet population in the Asia-Pacific region reached 484 million visitors age 15 and older that accessed the internet from a home or work location, an increase of 22% from the previous year. With nearly half a billion people online, the region now accounts for 41% of the total 1.2 billion person global internet audience. China, home to the largest internet population in the world, experienced a 31% increase to 220.8 million, making it the fastest-growing internet country in the region. Japan saw its online population surge 18% to 68.3 million, while India climbed 17% to 35.8 million users. 

Asia-Pacific region and individual country growth by unique visitors, September 2009 (Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+, Home & Work Locations):
ASIA-PACIFIC: 484,245,000 (+22% compared to September 2008)
1. China: 220,834,000 (+31%)
2. Japan: 68,319,000 (+18%)
3. India: 35,810,000 (+17%)
4. South Korea: 29,197,000 (+10%)
5. Australia: 12,746,000 (+12%)
6. Taiwan: 12,060,000 (+14%)
7. Malaysia: 9,401,000 (+8%)
8. Hong Kong: 3,939,000 (+5%)
9. Singapore: 2,725,000 (+14%)
10. New Zealand: 2,618,000 (+15%)
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Asia is not only home to the largest internet population in the world, but it is also one of the fast-growing, according to comScore. (comScore, November 2009) 

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)

38.6 billion searches were conducted in Asia-Pacific in September 2009, with searchers averaging nearly 88 queries per person during the month, according to comScore. Google Sites ranked as the top search destination in Asia Pacific, commanding more than 44% share of searches performed in the region. Baidu.com Inc. followed with 8.2 billion searches (21.3% share), while Yahoo! Sites grabbed the #3 position with 5.3 billion searches (13.8% share). 

Top 10 search properties in Asia-Pacific by number of searches, September 2009 (Total Asia-Pacific Internet Audience*, Age 15+, Home & Work Locations):
1. Google Sites: 44.1% (Share of searches)
2. Baidu.com Inc.: 21.3%
3. Yahoo! Sites: 13.8%
4. NHN Corporation: 5.1%
5. Microsoft Sites: 2.8%
6. Lycos Sites: 2.6%
7. Alibaba.com Corporation: 2.5%
8. Tencent Inc.: 2.0%
9. Facebook.com: 0.7%
10. Sohu.com Inc.: 0.6%
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

An analysis of top search destinations across the 10 individual markets in the Asia-Pacific region currently reported by comScore revealed various search brand preferences across markets. Google Sites was the search market share leader in six of the markets including Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. Yahoo! Sites captured the majority share of searches in Hong Kong (58.9%) and Taiwan (65.4%).

Although multinational search brands led many of the markets in the region, the popularity of local brands was evident in both China and South Korea. Baidu.com Inc. led as China's top search destination with 63% share of searches performed, while NHN Corporation captured 49.3% of queries in Korea, leading the market as the top destination. (comScore, November 2009)