APJII Survey: Internet Penetration in Indonesia Reaches 73,7 Percent

The latest survey by the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII) shows the number of internet users in the country has increased again. In addition to the presence of infrastructure broadband more evenly distributed, the pandemic factor that requires people to work at home has also contributed to the increase in internet penetration.

The APJII survey for 2019 to the second quarter of 2020 found the number of internet users reached 196,7 million or 73,7 percent of the total population in Indonesia. The penetration rate rose 8,9% compared to the previous number of users. Even so, the growth rate for 2019 - Q2 2020 is still lower than the growth rate in 2018 which reached 10,12 percent.

"When compared to research in 2018, the increase from the previous year was 10,12 percent or 27,9 million people. This means that this year has decreased in absolute terms," ​​explained APJII Secretary General Henri Kasyfi.

Java Island is still the largest contributor to internet users in Indonesia with 55,7 percent. Sumatra is in second place with a contribution of 21,6 percent. Sulawesi (7%), Kalimantan (6,3%), Bali & Nusa Tenggara (5,2%), and Maluku & Papua (3%) followed behind.

Home internet is still low

One of the findings that became the highlight of the APJII survey this time was the increasingly powerful use of smartphones to surf the internet. The survey found that 73,2% of respondents no longer use a personal computer (PC) to surf the internet.

Meanwhile, those who use laptops to surf the internet are only 15,4%. The two devices were far behind the smartphones used by 95,4% of respondents.

The dominant use of smartphones certainly affects the type of connection used to surf the internet. That's why data packages from cellular operators are the main choice for 97,1% of respondents to connect to the internet. From the survey, it is known that only 14,5% of internet user respondents who subscribe to the internet stay at home.

"As many as 97,1% access the internet by buying data packages from cellular operators. This is a challenge for all of us to increase penetration fixed broadband forward. For that, APJII is ready to cooperate with related parties," said APJII Chairman Jamalul Izza.

The survey also explores the effects of the pandemic on respondents' internet lifestyles. APJII found that there was a slight shift in consumption of internet entertainment content during this pandemic. Jamal mentioned watching streaming video (49,3%), online games (16,5%), streaming music (15,3%) as the most frequent activities carried out by the respondents.

"As many as 61 percent of respondents often access YouTube to watch movie, music, and sports content," said Jamal.

The APJII 2019 - Q2 2020 survey was held on 2 - 25 June 2020. Usually the survey is held at the beginning of each year to calculate internet penetration in the previous year. However, the Covid-19 outbreak forced APJII to postpone its activities until the middle of the year.

Survey method using probability sampling, multistage random samplingand random sampling area variance. The number of samples they used reached 7.000 respondents in all provinces of Indonesia with margin of error 1,27% and level of confidence 95%.

"Therefore, interviews with the help of questionnaires were conducted in the second quarter, on June 2-25, so that the results of this survey can describe internet users in mid-2020," concluded Jamal.