Reader Response (Draft 1) (Global digital divide persists but is narrowing)

Euromonitor's blogpost on ‘Global digital divide persists but is narrowing’ (2011) made inferences from the statistics provided by Euromonitor International that developed economies will continue to enjoy higher broadband diffusion rate due to larger government expenditure, advanced IT framework and higher wages that allow ownership to computers. However, the developing countries are slowly catching up due to the rapid economic growth. This has led to a wide range of effects on the society, such as varying business opportunities, reducing urban-rural disparities with better information diffusion, social and cultural integration and altering government expenditure and policies.

With the statistics provided in Euromonitor International’s blogpost (2011), it shows clear signs that the developing countries are slowly catching up with the developed countries in terms of broadband diffusion rate. However, we must question the sustainability of such strong growth experienced by the developing country. With unforeseen circumstances like the recent outbreak of Ebola in the West African regions, the Government is diverting large amount of money to the containment of the virus. These funds do not appear out of nowhere. They are the results of reducing expenditure in other areas of developments of the country which will result in a poorer performance in areas such as economic growth. Euromonitor International’s blogpost (2011) also mention that “The best-connected country in 2010 in terms of broadband enabled computers was South Korea...This is thanks to low costs, good IT infrastructure and high consumer incomes.”, and both government, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have launched many efforts to provide internet access for people. With the government and (NGOs) playing such a big role to create and maintain the strong growth of Internet diffusion rate in developing regions, the shift of focus from providing broadband access to resolve the recent Ebola crisis coupled with poorer economic performance will have a devastating impact on the growth of broadband penetration rate in the developing countries.

Another issue Euromonitor International blogpost has failed to point out is the rural-urban disparity. This is very evident in most countries in the world. It is stated in the Go-Globe blogpost (2013) on ‘Internet usage in China- Statistics and Trends [Infographic]’ that 72.4% of the Internet users live in urban areas. However, according to The World Bank’s statistic, only 53% of China’s population living in the urban area as of 2013, the urban population has close to 3 times the internet penetration rate as compared to that of the rural areas. Even with the exceptional growth of Internet penetration rate, most of it is attributed to the urban areas due to having better Information Technology (IT) framework and more attention from the government. The exceptional growth is largely due to the influence of the government due to the various benefits they can reap from it, such as economic growth, and this is very evident from the exponential economic growth and development experienced by states like ShangHai and BeiJing. This motivation is not as apparent for the rural area. A lot more efforts and resources will be needed to be able to achieve similar results seen in ShangHai and BeiJing. This actually deters the government from placing large amount of resources into rural areas and concentrate on the urban areas, eventually leading to a widening rural-urban disparity which will lead to many other negative implications on the society such as widening of income gap.

Euromonitor International blogpost has pointed out various trends and analyse the reason for Internet penetration rate and is well supported with statistics. It also discussed the possible reasons and implications of these trends. However, from my example, China, it is obvious that the growth is not uniform between rural and urban areas and these will lead to many other social implications in the long run. Therefore, I believe that it is also very important to analyse the demographic of a country thoroughly and dissect it accordingly to spot any underlying trends and observations. However, given the amount of research, studies and observations required to fully dissect a country, it may be too much to ask for a blogpost. Overall, it is a good read as it not only allows me to broaden my understanding on Internet penetration rates and its impacts, but also give me a chance to explore demographics that people have always failed to discuss due to the scale of the topic.

References:

Euromonitor International. (2011, February 2). Global digital divide persists but is narrowing. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://blog.euromonitor.com/2011/02/global-digital-divide-persists-but-is-narrowing-1.html

Go-Globe. (2013, August 14). Internet Usage in China – Statistics and Trends [Infographic]. Retrieved September 5, 2014 from http://www.go-globe.com/blog/internet-usage-china/

The World Bank. (n.d.). Urban Population (% of total). Retrieved September 5, 2014 from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS