The Internet in Asia

Of rumours and the Internet

Last week, rumors were circulating via email and SMS that Bollywood beauty queen and popular actress Aishwarya Rai has passed away in a car-crash and investigations were being carried out as to whether she was driving under the influence of alcohol. These email and text messages resulted in a wave of sadness among Bollywood fans in Singapore and Malaysia, and in other parts of the world.  According to her manager who received calls from both Indian and international media, she was safe and sound in India, on the set filming for her next movie.

Where did these rumors come from? Apparently they originated from FakeAWish.com,  a spoof website that was created in the name of fun. Templates for the 'news-reports' are available -- all one needs to do is to fill in the name of the celebrity and the place.  Icons at the bottom of the template allow the user to email, IM or discuss the newly prepared 'news report'.  The website however does feature a disclaimer - stating that it is meant for fun and purely for entertainment purposes only.

My response to this takes the form of two questions-

1. Why?  Sure, the Internet has made possible a multitude of activities - and it is also glaringly obvious that some people have the time to generate such 'news reports'. But why?

2. Don't people learn? Bollywood fans for one, should remember that a few years ago there was a similar rumor going round, involving Shah Rukh Khan's death. With the amount of spam that keeps appearing in our inbox, you would think that people would have learnt that not everything you receive via email is true!

What maybe more important for us to consider is the other potential mis-uses of such a website - especially at a point in time that terrorism and natural disasters are major concerns for most of us.

Dr M turns to online alternative news site to air his views

Dr Mahatir Mohamad, ex-PM of Malaysia has started granting interviews to  Malaysiakini to air his critical comments of the current Malaysian administration of some of the bigger bilateral issues facing Malaysia and Singapore. The independent site, whose reporters were often banned from government functions and was faced with threats of shutdown when he was in power. At the outset, he said that I never liked Malaysiakini before as it was very critical of him. However, now that the mainstream Malaysian press (that is widely known to be government controlled) is no longer giving him much coverage, it seems that he may have changed his mind.  Read the interview here.

Mobile telephony and militants

It was only in 2003 that New Delhi allowed mobile services in war-torn Kashmir, banning it in fear that militants would use this service to plan terror attacks. Now, security officials say troops have eliminated many militants by tracking their mobile phones and tapping conservations. For example, when a senior member of an Islamist rebel  called a newspaper office a few minutes after a bomb blast from his mobile phone in Kashmir. Little did he know that this single act would lead to him being captured, by way of tracking down his mobile phone signals.

Militants and governments in other parts of the world are more aware of this potential threat to their activities. The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka for example have banned the use of mobile phones for this very reason. Instead they use satellite phones that are harder to track. In Nepal, the now ousted royalist government of King Gyanendra  shut down mobile phone services when these instruments were used to plan big rallies against him.

In addition to helping track down militants, mobile phones have also helped save lives in another way in Kashmir- both citizens trapped in building controlled by suicide bombers and hostages kidnapped by militants have used mobile phones to help alert authorities of their where-abouts.

Google CEO predicts that India will be the largest Internet market

Google CEO Eric Schmidt  has predicted that India, and not China will be the world's largest Internet market in the next 5 to 10 years. Interestingly, he also predicts that Hindi and not Hispanic is likely to become one of the 3 leading languages on-line along with English and Chinese in the near future.  Unsurprisingly, his remarks have left analysts searching for answers to what Google plans to do in India soon. 

He also predicted that on-line mobile telephony would set the stage for the next social, political and economic impact.

China's online dating market set to boom by 2008

China's on-line dating market is expected to grow by 60% each year, reaching US$81 million in value by 2008. This figure still does not come anywhere close to the on-line dating markets in the US and Europe that are estimated to be valued at US$520 million and US$110 million respectedly in 2005.

New google service tracks service trends

A new service launched by Internet web search engine Google - Trends is still in its development stages, but can reveal some very interesting information. All you need to do is enter a certain search word, and it tells you where the word is most popular. For example, entering the word blog reveals that people from Lima are most likely to search for it. Americans and Australians  on the other hand top the search for terrorist.

Mobile phone technology to be localized.

Motorola researchers based in Bangalore are examining usage patterns there in an attempt to understand how those in rural areas use their mobile phones, with the aim of making their phones more user-friendly for these folk.  They are not alone - Microsoft in India is attempting to do the same thing, but at a slower pace. One modification that may be put into use soon is to simplify the main page, making it easier for users to access the specific application they want to use. Speech recognition (in different South Asian languages) is another option that is on the table.  Looks like mobile phone technology may become more  'local context friendly' quicker than computers or the Internet!

Southeast Asia vulnerable to terror attacks

According to security experts, Southeast Asia is likely to be attacked on the cyber-front, as soon as terrorists master the necessary technology to do so. Until now, terrorists have mainly been using the Internet to communicate with each other, spread propaganda and to raise funds on-line.  For example, it is estimated that there are over 1,000 jihadist websites in Southeast Asia.  The conference five-day conference held in Kuala Lumpur brought together security officials and analysts from Malaysia, the United States, Japan, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand with the aim of discussing how governments can prevent terrorists from exploiting information technology.

Indians go online to search for jobs

Searching for jobs on-line is one of their top 5 activities when logged on to the Internet among Indian Internet subscribers. The other four activities are e-mail, surfing, chatting, and web searches. Both recruiters and job seekers use it as it is an effective way of accessing a large pool of candidates/organizations. India currently has 38.5 million Internet users and the, maintaining an annual growth of 60%.

Blogging boom in China

According to a recent report released by Chinese search engine Baidu.com there may be up to 60 million bloggers in China by the end of this year-- up from the 16 million Chinese bloggers currently on-line.  The number is expected to increase to 100 million by the end of next year.

Zhang Xiaorong, strategy development director of "Bokee," which was set up in 2002 and claims the biggest share of China's blogging market, said his company adds about 100,000 blogs a day.