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.