Growth of Internet users slowing down

Growth of Internet users slowing down

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The surge in the amount of Internet users in this country has
been slowing this year after doubling each year since 1998, as
its market, limited to the middle class and students, has reached
a saturation level.

Heru Nugroho, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Internet
Service Providers Association (APJII), said on Monday that the
number of Internet users this year would only top 5 million, a
slight increase from 4.2 million in 2001.

For the last three years, the amount of Internet users had
been growing significantly from 512,000 in 1998 to 1 million in
1999 and 1.9 million in 2000.

The current 4.2 million users also include some 581,000
Internet subscribers.

Heru said that the increase in Internet users in the first
three years was because many ISPs targeted their products to
offices and Internet cafes.

"But every office now has an Internet connection," he told The
Jakarta Post.

Aside from offices, the Internet industry targets students.
But, in fact, the number of students who became Internet users
has not increased much.

"So the market will not grow significantly," he said.

A survey by the association showed that most Internet users
were employees of private companies and a quarter were students,
including high school students (34.5 percent), university
students at the undergraduate level (39.8 percent) and graduate
students (5.7 percent).

The survey also showed that office and Internet kiosks were
the two most popular places where people used the Internet.

Heru added that the current slowdown in the amount of Internet
users was because there was hardly any effort by the government
or industry players to introduce the Internet to a wider market.

Richardus Eko Indrajit, an IT expert, concurred with Heru,
saying that the government had made several policies that had
proved to be not supportive for bringing more Internet users on
board.

He cited the government's policy to allow only several
companies to operate the Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
service.

Richardus added that introducing the Internet for education or
small business purposes would lure more people to use it.

Heru said that efforts to educate the public about the
benefits of the Internet were few and far between. Data from
APJII shows that of the 4.2 million Internet users, only 25
percent were active users who used the Internet on a daily basis
for various purposes, including browsing for information and
checking email.

"No one here bothers to educate people on how to benefit from
the Internet," Heru said.

Rising telecommunications costs have also reduced the public's
interest in the Internet.

State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom Tbk increased
local and long distance phone charges as well as the monthly
connection fee by up to 17.9 percent this year. It was part of
the government's three-year plan to jack up phone charges by
45.49 percent in a bid to help attract new investment to the
fixed-line telecommunications sector.

"Despite the rise in phone rates, the government should find a
way to boost Internet usage, such as giving a discount to
Internet users," Heru said.

Heru warned that unless the government changes its policy, the
whole Internet industry might be set for a decline.