Abstract

The future of the IT industry, many would argue, lies in Asia. In the 2014 figures released by the International Telecommunication Union (a UN agency for communication and information technology), Asia stands out as an untapped new media market for manufacturers of mobile and wireless communication devices. The ITU predicts that,

Mobile-cellular subscriptions [globally] will reach almost 7 billion by end 2014, and 3.6 billion of these will be in the Asia-Pacific region. (…) By end 2014, fixed-broadband penetration will have reached almost 10 per cent globally. Forty-four per cent of all fixed-broadband subscriptions are in Asia and the Pacific, and 25 per cent are in Europe. In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of the world’s fixed-broadband subscriptions …

(ITU 2014, n.p.) Arguably, as demonstrated by these numbers as well as current research on the proliferation of Internet and cell phone use in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China, India, and the Philippines, digital and wireless technology is, and will be, transforming markets, industries, and social and political life in Asia.