Asia is home to approximately 3,922,066,987¹ people, spread over some 17,226,000 mi².²  The continent of Asia is the largest land mass and the most populous on the planet.  Internet users as of June, 2012 stood at 1,076,681,059, or 44.8% of the population.³  The region had 254,336,520 Facebook users as at December, 2012.⁴

In Q4 of 2011 the total number of mobile subscribers in Asia was approximately 3,347,065,000 and in Q4 of 2012 the total was approximately 3,617,671,000, a year-on-year increase of 8.03%.⁵  This figure includes both contract and pre-paid connections.

In 2010 Asia became the leading region for Internet growth for the first time.  Rapid growth in Internet access, particularly through mobile devices in some countries, belies the fact that poverty and poor infrastructure remain a significant constraint on accessibility.

The region, however, continues to alter the global balance of the Internet in terms of usage and content.  In 2011, for example, Chinese became the second largest user by language after English⁶ and the approval of Chinese top-level domains will only serve to accelerate its growth.

Family online safety in the region has benefited from the well funded, government-led investment in ICT in many countries.  As a result, South East Asia, in particular, continues to show extraordinary growth in Internet access rates, predominantly through mobile devices.  Research from Yahoo!, partnering with TNS (Kantar Media) Nielsen and Synovate, shows some important trends.⁷  The Net Index 2010 indicated that in the 15 - 24 years age group, mobile access to the Internet was being accompanied by an even more dramatic growth in the use social networking web sites.

Asia held its first regional Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Hong Kong in June of 2010.  The rIGF Asia roundtable and conference were an opportunity to raise awareness and discuss Internet-related issues at a regional level.  To find out more go to http://rigf.asia/

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Sources

Page last reviewed April 16, 2013

¹ http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm (last accessed April 16, 2013)
² http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/38479/Asia (last accessed March 9, 2010)
³ http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm (last accessed April 16, 2013)
⁴ http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm (last accessed April 16, 2013)
⁵ https://www.wirelessintelligence.com/ (last accessed April 16, 2013)
⁶ http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm (last accessed April 16, 2013)
⁷ http://ycorpblog.com/2010/06/09/yahoo-netindex/ (last accessed July 22, 2010)