Eastern Indonesia Region Now Leads the Highest Internet User Growth in Indonesia

The hope of an even growth of internet users throughout Indonesia may soon be achieved, the article according to a report from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) that recently revealed that the Eastern Indonesia region was incidentally often considered a “third class” area, it is recorded that it has the highest growth of internet users compared to other regions in Indonesia.

Through a survey report released by BPS together with the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII) for industries that was recently disclosed, one of the regions in Eastern Indonesia has succeeded in becoming the region with the highest internet growth, beating several regions in Western Indonesia.

As reported by Between on (18/1), explained by Suryamin as the head of BPS, North Sulawesi region is recorded as a region or province that has almost 100% adopted computer and internet equipment in its business activities, this automatically makes the North Sulawesi region the region with the highest ranking in terms of growth of internet users.

Following North Sulawesi, the provinces of West Kalimantan and DKI Jakarta had to settle for being in second and third positions with growth percentage gains of 94,12% and 90,83%, respectively. Although recorded the highest growth in internet users, the lowest growth in computer and internet users is also in Eastern Indonesia. It is recorded that only about 40% of industry players in North Maluku have adopted the use of computers and the internet for their business activities.

According to the report, the growth of internet users which is increasingly evenly distributed in areas far outside the capital city is the result of the government's efforts through Kemenkominfo in strengthening the internet infrastructure base in the regions, with the aim of equitable access to information needed by the community.

It was revealed that the ministry at the end of 2013 had succeeded in building 32.208 Service Connection Units (SSL) in non-commercial areas or in areas located far from the capital area. The construction of the communication infrastructure is claimed to have succeeded in reaching 33.184 villages out of a total of 72.800 villages in Indonesia. In addition, the government has also succeeded in building 1.857 District Internet Service Center Cars (M-PLIK), 5.956 District Internet Service Centers (PLIK) and 1.222 PLIK in productive centers. Through this development, it is clear that the growth of internet information access in the regions can be spread well.

Some time ago, we ourselves had the chance to “smell” the growth potential of these areas. If you still remember, the city of Klaten, located in the Central Java region in mid-2013 yesterday had time to launch a Wi-Fi balloon with the support of Telkom, although in the end the balloon was last reported to have shot by irresponsible parties.

In addition, growth in regional autonomy is not always initiated by the government. Rakuten who is a big name in the industry E-commerce who came from Japan also on the initiative expand its service area to Wamena, Papua. Rakuten's initiative was triggered by the high demand from the region and the market potential is much more lucrative than the rest of Indonesia in general.

In addition, in 2013, Hadi Wenas, the leader of Zalora Indonesia at the time told DailySocial that 70% of Zalora's transactions in Indonesia come from outside the capital and growth outside Jakarta is indeed much faster. Lazada also told DailySocial about some of their experiences handling goods orders from Papua. This indicates that the need and demand for internet services, especially e-commerce, has expanded to reach various regions in Indonesia.

With the reports released by BPS and APJII as well as the growth of internet consumption in islands other than Java and Bali in Indonesia that we had also reported on, it was certainly a bit surprising when we received news that the growth of the internet in Indonesia in 2013 not as high as previously thought, even less than half, according to APJII's own data.

In addition to improving infrastructure, it is also hoped that there will be education or counseling regarding the use of the internet that is more comprehensive in each region so that the Indonesian population in using the internet is not only limited to consumers but also various other activities such as education, business, research, and so on.

[photo illustration from: Shutterstock]