A recent study of 18 to 30 year olds conducted by Ooredoo, the Qatar-based parent company of telecommunications service provider Indosat, looks at the digital attitudes and aspirations of Indonesia’s youth, a group that comprises half the country’s nearly 250 million people.
It shows that youth crave greater and more advanced Internet reach, with 91% saying they don’t spend as much time online as they would like due to problems with connectivity. In rural areas, where a third of the 1,400 respondents live, 60% claimed poor Internet coverage and 82% said they were frustrated by slow connection speeds.
Average connection speeds in Indonesia at 2.4 megabits per second are among the lowest in Southeast Asia, according to a recent “State of the Internet” report from cloud services provider Akamai. Mobile connection speeds in the fourth quarter of the year were even lower, at 2.0Mbps. The lowest speed was recorded in India (1.3Mbps) while the highest was in Japan (5.7Mbps).
The Ooredoo study has its limitations. It was conducted online, for example, so is a better gauge of current user’s views on the Internet than a reflection of overall Internet use.
It does, however, highlight some of the challenges the incoming government must address to meet the technological and economic goals of its under 30 population.
Like most of the country, the main barrier is basic infrastructure.
Four out of 10 people still don’t have a reliable mobile signal, with smartphones being the way many people in Indonesia access the Internet. In rural areas, where smartphone use is less prevalent, the lack of Internet connections is equally problematic.
The frustrations extend to the job market, says the study, with 36% of respondents saying they aren’t doing the work they would like to do but nearly all of them saying they hope to improve their job knowledge and skills online.
“A challenge we face is helping Indonesia’s young people make the transition to using the Internet as a ‘monetization drive’ to earn income, transact commerce or establish business,” Ooredoo Group said in an email statement.
More than 90% said the Internet has encouraged them to become more entrepreneurial and 83% are intending to, or have already, set up an online business. That’s not a factor in success, says tech blogger Aulia Masna, who points out that many online ventures have failed due to lack of know-how or financing. But it does indicate that youth view the Internet as an outlet for learning and innovation.
Indonesian youth also used the Web to actively participate in this year’s election – helping campaign and, once the polls were over, keeping a close watch on the vote counting. Social media and the Internet will likely play a big role in the next administration, with President-elect Joko Widodo having shown support for more e-government.
And that means technology and telecommunications will have to be a focus as the government works to increase growth, boost the economy and improve connectivity across the sprawling archipelago.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sara Schonhardt
Quelle/Source: The Wall Street Journal, 13.08.2014
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