Asia Internet Insights from Burson-Marsteller [INFOGRAPHIC]

The Infographic of the Day series visually expresses important stories from Asia and the world of technology.

We’ve featured a number of infographics on Penn Olson over the past year or so, but the recent series from PR firm Burson-Marsteller was unique in its scope. Below you’ll find not just one but rather 13 infographics, each pertaining to a different country in Asia-Pacific region.

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I got in touch with Zaheer Nooruddin, the company’s digital and social media head in China, to find out a little more about the insights that came out of all this research into the Asian Internet landscape. He was kind enough to elaborate on a few points that stood out:

The [most obvious one] that stands out for me is just how rapidly the internet in reaching more people in Asian markets – from China to India to Vietnam. There is no market where internet penetration growth rates over the past decade are not in the triple digits. Even developed markets such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, have shown hundred plus percent growth rates. And developing markets like Indonesia, India, China and the Philippines have shown thousand percent plus growth rates. Of course, the big story in internet penetration is Vietnam, clocking in at a phenomenal twelve thousand percent in the last decade.

We’ve talked about this to some extent on here in the past, particularly with regards to India where rural areas are expected to see a 98 percent rise over the course of this year. In terms of connection speed however, India still lags far behind according to recent numbers from Akamai. Indonesia is also taking great steps in bringing rural users online as well, most notably with its Palapa Ring Project.

Zaheer noted that the manner in which Asian nations have quickly adapted to new Internet technologies is unique as well.

[D]espite the internet being a new, emerging medium to so many users in Asian markets, users are remarkably sophisticated in their general usage patterns and media consumption habits. Asians have proved themselves to be early adopters of social networking and social media channels. They are quickly connected and are extremely adept collectively, at sharing information, ideas, news, and opinions online. The internet is relatively “new” to parts of Asia, and yet, at the same time, it is already so pervasive and powerful.

Indonesia seems to be the greatest example of this, rapidly embracing social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to rank among the top social media nations on the planet. Obviously it goes without saying that China, even despite censorship of many Western social media services, is very active on domestic platforms like Sina Weibo and Renren.

One final observation that Zaheer pointed out was that when thinking about the internet in Asia, the region’s diversity ‘should not be discounted:’