Internet Usage Predictions for this Year

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Although we are nearly two months in to 2012 it is interesting to note that some are predicting global internet growth of more than 3% this year.  In the past five years internet usage has grown a whopping 121% showing just how reliant we are on it in our daily lives.

By the end of this year almost 76% of the world's population will be on the internet and according to the infographic more than half of us will suffer from a malady termed 'e-anxiety' if we can't check our email or Facebook page.

40% of us will be accessing social media from our mobile phone and it is predicted that there will be 62.8% more Tablets users with the majority using the iPad.

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Social Media In Full Flush

A study of 3,000 people conducted by London's Science Museum  set out to prove how important clean drinking water but came up with results that were even more edifying.

What the survey actually proved was how pervasive social media has become in our everyday life. The British would rather forgo the use of a flushing  toilet than go without Facebook according to the results.

They'd even cast aside their shoes to ensure that they had Facebook access and a decent internet connection.

Not surprisingly for those of us who have lived or visited Britain during one of its wet summers, 'sunshine' ranked at #1.

Google is almost as important as a good diet of fresh fruit although Twitter languishes at the bottom of the list of fifty items.

The list of 'must haves' has a very 'techy' feel to it. Flat screens and mobile phones rank higher than a wedding ring which probably goes some way to explain the country's high divorce rate.

Here is the list in ranked order:

   1. Sunshine
   2. Internet connection
   3. Clean drinking water
   4. Fridge
   5. Facebook
   6. NHS
   7. Cooker
   8. Email
   9. Flushing toilet
  10. Mobile phone / smartphone
  11. Tea and Coffee
  12. Washing machine
  13. Shower
  14. Central heating
  15. Painkillers
  16. Fresh vegetables
  17. Vacuum Cleaner
  18. Kettle
  19. Sofa
  20. Shoes
  21. Fresh fruit
  22. Google
  23. Car
  24. Hair straighteners
  25. Public transport
  26. Laptop
  27. Chocolate
  28. DVD Player
  29. Wristwatch
  30. Make-up
  31. Flat screen TV
  32. Wedding ring
  33. Tumble dryer
  34. Bottled water
  35. Ebay
  36. Bicycle
  37. Ipod
  38. Air conditioning
  39. Disposable nappies
  40. Light bulbs
  41. Spell-check
  42. Sat Nav
  43. Push-up bra
  44. Nintendo Wii
  45. iPad
  46. Gym Membership
  47. Season ticket to your football club
  48. Freezer
  49. Xbox
  50. Twitter

The Museum's Exhibition Manager, Sarah Richardson is reported as saying: 

"Brits are obsessed by the weather, so it’s not surprising sunshine was rated as the top thing we couldn’t live without. But to say you can’t live without material things over drinking water is crazy"

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Upwardly and Outwardly mobile in China

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

According to Shan Phillips, Vice President, Greater China, Telecom Practice, The Nielsen Company, widespread ownership of mobiles is only a fairly recent development in China, but consumers there have fully embraced the technology.

Further more they are putting it to use in a far more robust manner than their US and European counterparts.

Landlines are either a thing of the past for consumers or they have leapfrogged this requirement and gone directly to their mobile for the web and voice communications.  Parts of the Indian subcontinent have experienced a similar trend.

As Shan Phillips states, they don’t require hardwired Internet access for their fix of the Web. With mobile phones, everything they need is in the palm of their hand.

Competition amongst providers is getting increasingly tough with even the world's biggest phone company, China Mobile,experiencing  a slump of 10 percent from a 12-month high set on Aug. 10, 2009.  The costs of promoting third-generation wireless services has also contributed to its slowed earnings growth.

Analysys International reports that the second quarter of 2010 saw the domestic mobile phone sales volume in China reach 59.16 million units.

Meanwhile 3G mobile phone sales reached nearly 150 million units in the first half of 2010.  It is the lure of being able to use abundant mobile phone functions which has ensured that "intelligent" phones have the highest uptake.

Mary Meeker April 2010 Internet Trends

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Why Asia Leads The Digital World

There is a constant drilling and tapping through our condo walls as I write this.  It is the sound of the Singapore government's high speed broadband initiative as they lay and connect free fibre optic cable.  This will be completed by 2012 and I, as a resident, will have not had to pay a penny to access this service.

These higher fixed connection speeds will mean an even higher adoption of broadband, provide a greater range of services capabilities and according to a new survey by Pyramid Research, boost service revenue to $5.1 billion by 2014.

In China the broadband commitment is as impressive.  According to a government white paper published on June 8th, China has invested heavily in Internet infrastructure construction.

"From 1997 to 2009 a total of 4.3 trillion yuan was invested in this regard, building a nationwide optical communication network with a total length of 8.267 million km."

" By the end of 2009 Chinese basic telecommunications companies had 136 million broadband Internet access ports Internet access to 99.3% of Chinese towns and 91.5% of villages, and broadband to 96.0% of the towns."

By the end of last year:

• the number of Chinese netizens had reached 384 million
• this is 618 times that of 1997 and an annual increase of 31.95 million users
• The Internet had reached 28.9% of the total population, higher than the world average
• There were 3.23 million websites running in China, which was 2,152 times that of 1997
• Of all the netizens, 346 million used broadband and 233 million used mobile phones to access the Internet
• They had moved on from dialing the access numbers to broadband and mobile phones

In New Zealand the government  is attempting to get a national ultra-fast broadband (UFB) network up and running but have thus far been frustrated by the actions of its major Telco.  They intend spending $US1 billion on the UFB.

Meanwhile the UK is still trumpeting a plan to roll out of 2mps to every household.  One of their new ministers, the Right Honourable Jeremy Hunt MP has described this target as "pitifully unambitious." and he is correct.

To put the British strategy into context, Korea aims to have broadband that is 500 times faster.

And then of course there are the costs that Internet Service Providers load on to consumers.

In Singapore all plans provide for 'unlimited' use and are based on speed.  A basic 6mps service costs a mere $Sing 34.95 per month and comes bundled with other goodies such as free TV viewing of the English premier league.

In New Zealand pricing is based on limited data use.  For $NZ39.95 a miserly 3Gb can be used, at speeds that are nowhere near as fast as Singapore's.  The cost of this limited service is obscene!  When you add phone line costs the real cost in NZ for the 3Gb is around $NZ90 per month.

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