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Taiwan’s Internet users keep rising: survey

Taiwan’s Internet profile • Household penetration: 75.46 percent, or 5.64 million households. • Technology: ADSL, 72.99 percent of households; cable modem, 8.69 percent. • Age: 15-to-19 years old, 99.45 percent; over 55 years old, 22.77 percent. • Sex: male, 73 percent; female, 68.86 percent. • Mobile users: 7.8 percent of total domestic Internet users.

The nation’s Internet penetration rate reached 68.94 percent last year, behind South Korea’s 77.1 percent and Japan’s 73.85 percent in Asia but ahead of Hong Kong’s 66 percent and Singapore’s 58.59 percent, a survey by Taiwan Network Information Center showed yesterday.

“In the Asia Pacific region, Taiwan definitely ranks somewhere between No. 3 and No. 5,” Liang Te-hsin (梁德馨), an associate professor at Fu Jen Catholic University’s department of statistics and information science, said yesterday.

An exact ranking, however, is unavailable because the participating countries use different metrics in evaluating Internet usage, she said.

For instance, Japan only polls metropolitan areas, as opposed to the entire nation, she said.

The center’s survey polled about 15.82 million individual Internet users nationwide last year, or 68.94 percent of Taiwan’s population. The figure was little changed from 2007’s 15.55 million people.

The local household Internet penetration rate reached 75.46 percent last year, or 5.64 million households, with the highest concentration in Taipei and Kaohsiung.

The survey also showed that 72.99 percent of households used ADSL, while 8.69 percent used cable modem. About 73 percent of the nation’s male population used the Web, compared with 68.86 percent for females.

By age, 15 to 19-year-olds make up the primary user group, with a penetration rate of 99.45 percent, while only 22.77 percent of those above 55 years old go online, the data showed.

As Taiwan’s mobile Internet usage increases, Liang yesterday urged local telecommunications operators to pay attention to pricing as well as building a stable infrastructure to tap into this burgeoning market.

The center’s statistics showed that from January last year to last month, the number of mobile Internet users — defined as using 3.5G high-speed downlink packet access, or HSDPA, technology to access the Internet — increased 2 percent from 1.15 million to 1.55 million, accounting for 7.8 percent of total domestic Internet users.

“What will happen from now on as a result of the global financial crisis, is anyone’s guess. But I believe if carriers set out to promote 3.5G data plans either via netbook or smartphone promotions, they would succeed,” Liang said.
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