VIVAnews – Indonesia sees rapid growth in Internet users following especially the booming of social media sites. The number of Internet users in the country has now reached 50 million.
However, most users only sign in on the Internet only for fun including status updating in the social network sites.
An international consulting company Frost and Sullivan believes Indonesia has the potentials of boosting more in e-commerce. The lack of infrastructure has nonetheless been blocking up the promising chances.
“Right now, out of three main mobile operators, the 3G network is only capable of providing 20% of coverage," said Iwan Rachmat, a Senior Consultant at Frost and Sullivan.
Based on Frost and Sullivan’s data, the number of BTS of three operators supporting 3G connections until the end of 2011 only reached 19 percent of the total existing BTS. Meanwhile, the composition of handsets that support e-commerce in 2012 is still dominated by 2.5G handsets of 62 percent, non-GPRS of 15 percent, and 3G+ of 23 percent.
Iwan said the e-commerce market in Indonesia is getting bigger. The research shows that in 2010 the e-commerce market hit advertisement (39 percent), games (11.54 percent) and music videos (2.7 percent).
The company figures that the e-commerce industry in Indonesia will grow 10 times larger by 2015 if the nation furthers supports in its ecosystem, infrastructures, technology, and regulations.
Therefore, Iwan expected the backbone development in ring palapa system can soon be realized. Right now, 95 percent of the total Internet users in Indonesia use wireless network.
