Is 2010 The Year Asia Cuts the Apron Strings?

[Steve Bennett]

It has been many years since I last worked in China and a couple of recent announcements led me to wonder what has been going on there recently. When I started to review what I knew about analytics in China I started thinking about Asia in general. Would 2010 be the year we would see an upswell of analytics with a distinctly Asian (as opposed to US) flavour? What makes Asia Different? Analytically, it's both the size of the potential market as well as its fundamental differences from the West that intrigue me. Take a look at the mobile market for example: So not only is the absolute size greater but 75 per cent of mobile users own web-enabled phones - compared with only 41 per cent in the US. This data is care of Netpop Research. China is not alone in the region, IDC estimates that there are over 600 mn fixed line subscribers in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and over 1.6 bn mobile subscribers. Telco's in India expect 2010 to see Enterprise Mobility as a hot trend. According to local trade publication Voice&Data: "Enterprises will be relooking at their entire IT architecture and strategize ways to ensure that the entire workforce – be it blue collar manufacturing employees, gray collar service employees or white collar management employees – is able to leverage and add-on to the intelligence available at the back office." In the wired world, 5 of the top 10 most connected countries or territories are in Asia. South Korea led, where 95 percent of homes have broadband. Singapore and Taiwan are among the top five countries in terms of access to high-speed Internet, according to a survey released in 2009 by Boston-based Strategy Analytics. The United States, where just 60 percent of households had broadband as of last year, ranked 20th in the survey of 58 countries. The firm predicted the broadband subscriber base in the Asia-Pacific region will grow on average by a further 15 percent a year between 2009 and 2013. Strategy Analytics said South Korea's highly urbanized population and its government-backed broadband policy accounted for its high rate of broadband penetration. Singapore ranked second on the list with household broadband penetration of 88 percent, followed by the Netherlands (85 percent), Denmark (82 percent), Taiwan (81 percent), Hong Kong (81 percent), Israel (77 percent), Switzerland (76 percent), Canada (76 percent) and Norway (75 percent). Among other Asia-Pacific nations, Australia ranked 11th with 72 percent, Japan ranked 16th with 64 percent, New Zealand ranked 25th with 57 percent, China ranked 43rd with 21 percent and Malaysia ranked 44th, also with 21 percent. Thailand ranked 51st with seven percent, Vietnam ranked 52nd, also with seven percent, the Philippines ranked 53rd with five percent, India ranked 57th with two percent and Indonesia ranked 58th with one percent. Why Is Asia Important? Technology spend across Asia excluding Japan is expected to grow strongly in 2010. Singapore-based Springboard Research's recent Asia-Pacific Predictions 2010 report is predicting 8.8 per...



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