Malaysia's Internet traffic increased by 51% to 349,227 Mbps in 2013, driven in part by the spike in the number of smartphone ownersand the popularity of networking sites.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Internet traffic increased by 51% to 349,227 Mbps in 2013 from 230,631 Mbps in 2012, says statistics from the Malaysian Internet Exchange (MyIX).
In a statement today, MyIX said the statistics revealed that the biggest difference was in January, February, March and November, with average increases of between 75% and 80%, when compared to the same months of 2012.
Chairman Chiew Kok Hin said the reason for the increase was co-related to several synergistic trends amongst Malaysian Internet users, such as the spike in the number of smartphone owners.
"The sudden boom of user access to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as a jump in data messaging applications like Whatsapp, Wechat, Viber, Line and more, was the reason behind the increase," he added.
He said the government's Youth Communication package that offers a RM200 rebate for the purchase of smartphones by young adults aged 21-30, encouraged mobile phone vendors to introduce 25 new smartphones priced around RM600.
"Cheaper smartphones contribute to driving Internet accessibility worldwide. We also see its impact here in Malaysia as Internet usage explodes. With the recent Internet network infrastructure upgrade by MYIX having been completed, we can better support Internet traffic increase by end-consumers in Malaysia," Chiew added. – Bernama
