Asia Pacific to Represent 30% of E-business Spending by 2003

Computergram International, August 24, 1999

By 2003 the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan will account for 30% of the world's e-business related IT spending, according to a new study by market research firm Dataquest. The study predicts $2bn in e-business-related spending this year, more than tripling to $6.5bn in 2003. This includes spending on web servers, e-commerce applications, internet software and services. "By the second quarter of next year we will see more business coming into e-commerce in the Asia-Pacific," Dataquest Asia-Pacific senior analyst Lane Leskela said. "This year companies are focusing their IT budgets on tackling the Y2K problem, while they can devote their IT budget to e-commerce next year, he said.

The study predicts good news for Asian ISPs and says the subscriber base is growing at a compounded annual rate of nearly 50%, with the fastest growth in China where the rate is 112% followed by Taiwan at 106%. "We believe that by 2003, 220 million people in the Asia-Pacific will have access to the internet, equal to the US population," Leskela predicted. Turning to online e-commerce transactions, he said by 2003 business-to-business e-commerce in the Asia Pacific will be worth $280bn, or 35% of the world total, while business-to-consumer e-commerce in the region will be worth $43bn representing 25% of the worldwide total.