My focus has been on broadband for quite a while because this is the area where I think Australia is badly lagging. It is really important to have true broadband otherwise you can't watch video and you are less likely to have the internet "always on". True broadband (ie not like the fake one Telstra offers) totally changes the way people use the internet. I changes business models and usage patterns.
Despite all that I've taken another look at an old statistic that I had become bored with. Just plain old internet usage. Below I have selected some countries that interest me and their internet usage.
- Australia 68% (that is 14 million users)
- New Zealand 78%
- United States: 69% (that is 203 million users)
- Hong Kong: 71%
- China: 8% (that is 103 million users)
- South Korea: 65%
- Germany: 57% (that is 47 million users)
- France: 42% (that is 25 million users)
- Italy: 49% (that is 29 million users)
- Spain: 37%
- Switzerland: 65%
- Sweden: 74%
- United Kingdom 60%
- Portugal 58%
These numbers interest me because they have been my business in the past and maybe in the future.
The percentage usage by country is always of interest. In some ways it produces few surprises. As an example, few would be surprised that say Sweden rates higher than Spain........but you don't have to look long to see some weird aspects that are well known to anyone operating a global internet business. Look how low France is compared to Germany. Look how much higher Portugal is compared to Spain!
Then of course there is no way of getting away from the absolute numbers. You soon end up figuring out that German is the dominant native language of internet users in Europe. Germany alone has 47 million users. Then when you add in small German speaking countries of Switzerland and Austria you come to over 55 million German speaking users.
If you are serious about online business in Europe, the German language is where much of the action is. French is way less than half the German action. Then of course you get spending power and all the German speaking countries have the higher spending power.
Look how Italy has more in percent and absolute numbers than France.
China of course is an interesting giant...... only 7% usage but of course that translates to a whopping 103 million users in absolute terms. South Korea has a unique dynamic: highest ULTRA high broadband use in the world. Their overall usage though puts them at levels akin to Australia and the United States.
A country like New Zealand becomes inconsequential. Sure it is interesting that they have about the highest usage in the world but when you compare it to the absolute usage population you soon lose interest from a business perspective.
Finally of course there is the unmistakable big daddy of the internet: the United States with its 203 million users.
It's not surprising that Australia follows the US in the internet (eg with blogging etc). The common language is an enormous benefit for Australia (if you assume the US is doing most of the innovating).
One thing to hold Australia back is that it does not have free speech like the United States. Legal restrictions in Australia, including defamation will always make free speech impossible. Australians are relaxed with these restrictions and there is never any serious movement mounted to allow free speech in this country.
The defamation mentality goes hand in hand with Australia's dominant Georgian English culture. This culture was formed in the very early years in Sydney and became the Australian way. It is the same culture that produces the Australian penchant for authoritarianism, written about so eloquently in Tom Keneally's new book Commonwealth of Thieves.
Source of data above: World Internet Usage
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