Malaysia: Internet Landscape
 | In this section: 1. Malaysia Among Asian Countries 2. Internet Usage 3. Online Purchases 4. Malaysia's Latest Project |
| Internet only exists in Malaysia for less than 20 years. Malaysians started their internet experience with dial-up internet during the early nineties with Broadband (or narrowband) only available since year 2001. This section provides you the most up-to-date statistics of the internet landscape in Malaysia and the future prospects that would excite everyone looking to enter into the Social Media market in Malaysia. Do stop by to check out the Top 5 Websites in Malaysia, specifically classified into different categories - Search engines, Blogs, Social networking sites and Video sharing sites. |
| Malaysia Among Asian Countries |
 | A study by Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) shows that Malaysia is one of the top 5 most connected countries in Asia-Pacific, alongside with New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. These countries all have between 55 to 80% of their populations using the internet by 2007, while the average in this region is at 20%. A quick check at Internet World Stats does confirm that 59% (14.9 million) of Malaysia's population are internet users. By this ratio, they are no.5 in Asia behind Japan (73.8%), South Korea (70.7%), Hong Kong (69.5%), Taiwan (67.2%) in 2008. In terms of total internet users, Malaysia is no.9 in Asia as illustrated below. This, of course is weighted by the total population and does not represent how connected the country is. |
| Internet Usage | |
| Internet Users as of Population (2008) | |
 | There is an increasing awareness of technology in Malaysia. With the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Project and the government’s commitment to a technological society, a large number of high tech companies from around the world have started to set up in Malaysia. Malaysia's internet users as of population has been steadily growing as depicted in the graph. At the end of 2008, it has reached its all time high of 62.6%. The growth will continue to escalate as the Malaysian government seeks to encourage the use of the internet. For more information: World Bank Development Indicators |
| Broadband Usage | |
 | Broadband made a later entry into Malaysia in 2001. It has met with a steady growth since, with an total increase of 127.5% between 2006 - mid 2009. With the government plunging in funds to support the IT sector, Malaysia could see further improvement in their internet services. Despite Malaysia being one of the most connected in the region, their poor infrastructure has always always been the limiting factor for its expansion. It still remains as a catch-up market. Malaysians typically need to fork out about RM100 for a 1.0Mbps broadband service, out of our RM3,686 average monthly household income. The high costs becomes a barrier to use broadband internet, especially for the middle and lower income groups. That is why not all 14.9 million internet users are using broadband service, and how we can further improve our internet penetration. Majority of the internet users here are still only connected in offices, schools, cybercafes, hotspots or even dial-up internet access. According to MCMC, we only have around 6.38 million (24.8%) broadband subscribers from total population of 25.7 million, in the 1st half of 2009. For more information: Internet Penetration |
| Online Purchases |
| Internet Users vs Buying Online |
 More than 8 million Malaysians (half of our internet population) have actually bought something online. In Malaysia, more than 50% of the customers who shop online tend to rely on personal recommendations to make their purchasing decisions. Other main deciding factors are search engine results (37%) and special offers (34%). Creating that first positive shopping experience is key in order to capture loyalty and money – Malaysia online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60% saying they buy mostly from the same site. Let's dive deeper into the specific product categories and services Malaysians' look out for. |
| Products or Services Bought Online |
 By comparing to the 2007's statistics, the gap between travel and the rest of the gang is narrowed, which is a good thing to prove that e-commerce in Malaysia is not all about airline / hotel / tour reservations. By the latest statistics, Malaysian online shoppers mainly buy airline tickets or book travel reservations over the internet (82% of users), purchase books (69%) or buy general consumer goods (59%). |
| Online Consumer by Age Group |
Malaysia's Latest Project |
To improve the internet service, the government declared on 11 November 2009 that they have decided to support building the internet infrastructure in Malaysia. More than 1.2 million households and business premises in the country will be wired up with optical fibre to enable them access to mega-speed Internet connection. Telekom Malaysia has been tasked with laying the optical fibre and is expected to complete half the job by next year. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the high-speed broadband network of between 10Mbps and 1Gbps would give the public, businesses and government agencies a competitive boost via cutting edge communications. (At these speeds, it will be possible to offer, among others, high definition TV online, live video chat and e-health services. Downloading a full-length feature film to your PC, for example, can take less than two minutes compared with at least two hours under the current speeds of 2 to 4Mbps). It will also give the country the platform to develop the information and communication technology of tomorrow, Najib said at the opening of the 12th Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) International Advisory Panel meeting. Najib, who is also IAP chairman, said the move would also help Malaysia catch up with global leaders in industrial developments. He said Malaysia needed a new paradigm to not only help the country catch up from where it was left behind but also take on a quantum leap to the ranks of developed nations. “Our industrial advancement has not kept pace with global leaders and we remain somewhat under- developed in this respect.” A new economic model would be introduced by the year-end with emphasis on innovation, creativity and high-value activities. So far, Malaysia had already put in place a comprehensive reform of its capital market and introduced sweeping measures to liberalise its service sector. It is also in the midst of putting in place a system to drive high performance at all levels of society. Najib said the push for MSC Malaysia as a platform for developingworld- class ICT applications and a seeding ground for Silicon Valley-type entrepreneurs was vital, saying no economy could claim to be developed without having a significant technological component. "Countries which are technologically advanced have and will continue to triumph while those that fail to make innovation a centrepiece of the economy will fall behind. It is no accident that technologically- advanced countries, like the US, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada and Australia, also dominate the list of the world’s wealthiest nations.” He said MSC Malaysia is on its way to become a bustling creative multimedia hotspot with more than 200 digital content companies generating US$200 million (RM676 million) in revenue. He said MSC Malaysia was entering its third phase of its development and would expand its ICT vision for industries and society. “The next phase of MSC Malaysia will build upon our success and accelerate the use of ICT to boost the nation's economic growth and societal well-being.” |
Source: New Straits Times
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