Internet Development in Asia-Pacific : Spatial patterns and Underlying Locational Factors

Abstract

A digital world has emerged with the international diffusion of the Internet. Many research works on the geography of the Internet at the global and national scales have focused on the West, particularly the United States (US) and European countries. Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has developed rapidly in Asia. Ip to date, few studies have been conducted on Internet development in Asia. With such rapid development, there is an urge for geographers to review, analyse and identify the spatial patterns of Internet development and their underlying locational factors. This paper attempts to identify the spatial patterns of Internet development in the Asia-Pacific and to find out the factors affecting Internet growth in the region. It is hoped that the findings can lead to further studies on the geography of the Internet in the Asia-Pacific.

The geographies of the internet

“…Hargittai (1999) examined the distribution of Internet hosts in the European Union and showed that economic factors such as per capita income and telecommunication pricing were key in understanding the diffusion of Internet use. Using a combination of Internet indicators, Loo and Wong (2002) found that per capita income, Internet pricing policies, and level of foreign direct investment were important explanatory variables for Internet usage in Asian and Pacific Rim countries.…”

Internet : une approche géographique à l'échelle mondiale

“…On aboutit ainsi dans la littérature soit à des monographies : par exemple, Internet en Tunisie (Ben Hassine, 2001), Internet en Islande (Dupuy, 2003), Internet au Japon (Yoshio et al, 2002), Internet en Corée du Sud (Cho, 2002), Internet en Russie (Vendina et Eckert, 2003); soit à des approches comparatives interurbaines (Wheeler et Kelly, 1999), internationales (Hargittai, 1999, Beilock et Dimitrova, 2003, plus rarement interrégionales (Strover, 2001, Benhamou, 2002, Loo et Wong, 2002, Grubesic, 2002. Les comparaisons s'étendent.…”