24/07/2012

IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (Asia)- Malaysia: Ambition, Growth and Censorship

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Dan Swinhoe (Asia)- Malaysia: Ambition, Growth and Censorship

Posted b y Dan Swinhoe Company IDG Connect 07/24/2012

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East Asia has b ecome a technology hotspot. Countries such as Singapore, China and Indonesia are seeing b oth high levels of internet and smart device use and healthy growth in their IT industries. Not wanting to b e outdone, Malaysia is also fiercely adopting IT into its way of life and pressing for IT to play an ever-greater part.

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IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (Asia)- Malaysia: Ambition, Growth and Censorship
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Following a 9% rise in internet users last year, b roadb and is expected to reach 65% b y the end of this year. Out of the average 21 hours a week they spend online, sending emails, social media, and YouTub e were most of the time goes. Faceb ook has 12.7 million users, equating to almost 48% percent of the country's total population and almost 75% of the online populace, and overall stands in 17th place glob ally. E-commerce is looking very healthy in the region generally, and Malaysia b oasts the most online b ankers in South-East Asia, with over 2.7 million users. This has b een b oosted a strong local b rand presence, and saw a 16% increase in unique users from 201011. Smartphones and Tablets Currently Malaysia's smartphone penetration stands at around 27%, with a third of owners aged 25-34. Smartphone usage across South-East Asia is on the riseand set to increase dramatically in the next year. Nielson studies say Symb ian is the most popular mob ile OS, with around a third of the market. Though slowly b eing rectified, last year nearly half of smartphone users said they didn't use them to access the internet. The majority put this down to cost, something which will come down as users go up and b andwidth expands. Rather surprisingly, Malaysia is South-East Asia's b iggest tab let market; b uying 1.6 million devices in 2011 and generating 1.1 million ringgit ($374 million). According to GfK, around 2/3 of these new devices were running Android, generally b ecause they were the cheaper option. Although a new local tab let, the 1Malaysia Pad has just entered the market, and aims to b reak into the market with the help of their in-house app developing team that can personalise to the need of the user. Cables & Security Following the activation of the underwater BDM cab le system in January, a system that connects Malaysia to Indonesia, a second cab le system should b e ready b efore 2015. The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) has received investment from Faceb ook and other companies including China Telecom and China Unicom, and will run directly from Malaysia to South Korea and Japan, b ranching off to other countries. This will ab le to channel high volumes of traffic at high speeds straight and provide room for the inevitab le data growth. As always however, the more opportunities people to get online, the higher the chance of b eing taken advantage of. Cyb er-crime rose b y 88% last year with fraud b eing the most common reported incident. The total cost of cyb er-crime over the last five years is estimated to b e around 2.75 b illion ringgit ($897.6M), with the financial sector b eing the hardest. The last year the country has suffered two b ig security prob lems. Last Novemb er stolen government digital certificates b elonging to the Agricultural Research and Development Institute were discovered on PDF files containing Malware , while around the same time a certificate authority in Malaysia was forced to revoke 22 certificates it issued with weak keys and missing extensions, causing Mozilla to revoke trust in certificates from the company. Role of the Government Much of the growth Malaysia has seen in recent years is due to the government's amb itious plan. The World Economic Forum's Glob al IT Report laid high praise on Malaysia, saying, "Trying to emulate the success of Korea and other Asian Tigers, the Malaysian government has b een pursuing a long-term plan with the amb ition of achieving high-income status b y the end of the decade, with ICT playing a critical role," which it claims seem to b e having a transformational impact on the economy and on society at large Support for IT isn't just coming from the state however, as the report also added that b usinesses are aggressively adopting technology. Aiming for 75% b roadb and b y 2015, the government recently launched a new initiative to push IT into a stronger position in the Malaysian economy b y creating new job s, and introducing various project and online services. Alongside these new initiatives are various new b ills and amendments; the most recent is a proposal for a uniform ICT security system and ICT offenses prevention method. However there is such a thing as too much regulation, and last year a b ill was proposed to force IT professional to register b efore b eing allowed to work, much like a doctor or dentist. And despite promising never to censor the internet changes to evidence laws could b e used b y the government to silence b loggers. And like so many counties in the last couple of years, the government has fallen foul of Hackers, with 51 web sites b eing hit b y the Hacktivist group Anonymous in retaliation again censorship policies. Malaysia is on the right track and constantly growing its ICT industry, and it's great that the government is driving this growth. But interfering, over-regulating and censorship could only end up having a detrimental effect on the desired result. Continuing to foster growth without using the heavy hand of the law to intervene at every corner is the b est the government can proceed.

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