Ofcom this week published its most recent report comparing the UK’s communications (telecoms, TV, radio, web and post) market with 16 other countries, including China, India and Japan. Whilst Ofcom’s press releases have focused on the comparatively good performance of the UK (which oddly enough seems to reflect well on the UK regulator – Ofcom), the report also contains some useful insight into the three of Asia’s biggest economies: China, India and Japan.
Some of the interesting snippets of information from the report include:
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Mobile take up continued to exceed population size across all comparator countries with the exception of China. However, in China the number of mobile connections per 100 people more than doubled in the last five years, up from 40 to 83.
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Smartphone ownership is now commonplace among comparator countries. Excluding Japan, which has a very high take up of advanced featurephones not readily available in other countries, the US was the only country to report a smartphone take-up level of less than 50% in our online survey. The majority of respondents in all other countries reported that they now use a smartphone.
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Global TV revenues increased in 2012, by 4.1% year on year, to £252bn, driven by an increase in both subscription and net advertising revenues (up 4.4% and 4.6% respectively). Despite the challenging economic conditions, global TV revenues have increased by 4.4% on a compound annual basis over the four years since 2008. As in 2011, the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – experienced the largest year-on-year growth, with their joint revenues increasing by £4bn, or 12.4%, in 2012, to £37bn.
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Japan had the second highest spend, at £7.50 per head on mobile advertising.
The table below (reproduced from the Ofcom report) summarises key statistics by market: