Indonesia Makes a Statement on Asian Internet Scene
May 12th, 2010
Who knew that Indonesians were such an active online crowd? The country, which boasts the world’s fourth-largest population (at 230 million people), is the third biggest Facebook-using nation in the world, and has the most Facebook and Twitter users in Asia.
Indonesia has over 20 million Indonesians using Facebook. What’s especially impressive about this number is that the year before, only a few million Indonesians were active Facebookers. Indeed, in 2009, there were an estimated 30 million Indonesians online, and that number is predicted to climb fast.
Indonesians are eager to protect their democratic rights to freely view online content. The government recently introduced a bill that would require internet service providers to filter online content, but was forced to shelve it after massive online retaliation from Indonesian people.
The country was famous for having the highest-priced internet access rates in the world a few years back, but new laws are trying to force the cost of internet down by half, by 2011. This is excellent news for anyone looking to target Indonesians in a big way – with so many online, the first ones into the market with sites that speak to them in a culturally distinct way, will be the winners.
