Taiwan's mobile Internet usage rate less than those of neighbors

Mobile Internet, The, Feb, 2005

The results of a recent global survey show that Taiwan's mobile Internet usage rate in 2004 reached 43 percent, lagging behind Japan's 64 percent, South Korea's 51 percent, and Hong Kong's 55 percent. Taiwan's authoritative Web site, the Focus on Internet News and Data (www.find.org.tw), organized and operated by the Advanced e-Commerce Institute and the Institute for Information Industry, along with similar facilities in other countries and areas including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, the United States, Finland, and Greece, conducted the

"Worldwide Mobile Internet Survey" simultaneously in October and November in an effort to study mobile Internet developments and trends.

According to survey results, Taiwanese users spent an average of 21.3 minutes on mobile Internet services in the most recent month that the poll was carried out, compared with 22.1 minutes in South Korea, 29.1 minutes in Hong Kong and 33.5 minutes in Japan.

The figures reflect the fact that there is ample room in the Taiwan market for mobile network service providers to expand their business, according to a report by the Web site.

In terms of the monthly amount of money that online users paid for their mobile Internet services in 2004, Taiwan also saw the smallest average figure of NT$168.6 (US$5.36) among its neighbors, while Japanese users spent NT$671.9 on average, followed by NT$301.6 in South Korea and NT$204.1 in Hong Kong.

The results also show that in Japan, the most popular mobile Internet service was the E-mail service, with the most recent usage rate recorded at 85 percent.

In the case of other mobile online services, those for downloading pictures and telephone ring tones were also frequently used in the countries conducting the survey.