Euromonitor's blogpost on ‘Global
digital divide persists but is narrowing’ (2011) makes 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.
In this blogpost, the author has
raised many interesting issues related to global digital divide. However, given
the length of the blogpost coupled with the scale of the topic restricted the
author to discuss issues like the sustainability of growth and population
demographics in detail. In this response, I will explore how sustainability of
growth and population demographic has affected the global digital divide.
The statistics in Euromonitor International’s
blogpost (2011) show 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, governments in West Africa are 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 results 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 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 of the
rural areas. Even with the exceptional growth of Internet penetration rate,
most of it is attributed to the urban areas as they have better Information
Technology (IT) framework and more attention from the government. This
exceptional growth is largely due to the influence of the government as there
are various benefits such as economic growth. This is very evident from the
exponential economic growth and development experienced by states like ShangHai
and BeiJing. However, this motivation is not as apparent for the rural area. More
efforts and resources are needed to be able to achieve similar results seen in
ShangHai and BeiJing. The lack of motivation causes the government to
marginalise the rural areas and concentrate on the urban areas. The lack of
resources in rural areas will eventually lead to a widening rural-urban
disparity, resulting in many negative implications such as widening income gap.
Euromonitor International blogpost has pointed out
various trends and analysed the demographics for Internet penetration rate, and
is well supported with statistics. It also discussed the possible reasons and
implications of these trends. However, in the case of 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 population demographic of a country
thoroughly and dissect it accordingly to spot any underlying trends and observations.
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 very
informative blogpost 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
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