Inter-Asia Internet traffic increases as demand for Video apps surge

An article in the New York Times about how internet traffic is increasingly flowing around the US is very poignant for those who forecast many ions ago that in Asia, network superiority combined with data centre assets would enable powerful platforms for content distribution. Citing Andrew M. Odlyzko, a professor at the University of Minnesota, that the United States carried 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic a decade ago, he now estimates that portion has fallen to about 25 percent. The article quotes World Stats, a market research organisation: Asia now has 578.5 million, or 39.5 percent, of the world's Internet users, although only 15.3 percent of the Asian population is connected to the Internet. Content and traffic are closely related and it is interesting to note that Friendster reports that 90% of their current traffic now comes from Asian countries. The Philippines has the third largest user base for YouTube in the Asia Pacific region, next to Japan and Australia. Facebook grew in Asia (June 07-08) by 23 per cent to about 200 million unique visits. It is not surprising therefore that many operators in the region are focusing on bandwidth provision technologies to help cope with upsurge in demand arising mainly from video apps.