Skip to main content [aditude-amp id="stickyleaderboard" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":463093,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"A"}']

How Asia is kicking our butt, according to Mary Meeker’s tech stats

Countries in Asia and the Indian subcontinent are far outpacing the U.S. and Europe when it comes to tech adoption, according to stats published today by analyst demigod Mary Meeker.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":463093,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"A"}']

The report shows massive growth, both in data-capable cell phones and Internet adoption, in countries like Japan, China, the Philippines, India, and Korea. While the U.S. is still leading in the total number of 3G mobile subscribers and the total number of Internet users for a single country, it’s clear that other regions are gearing up to swipe those titles, and fast.

Meeker’s research also shows a disturbing trend, however: Very slow mobile and Internet growth in the developing world. Throughout Africa and South America, in some of the areas that most need better access to life-changing information, Internet adoption has lagged.

AI Weekly

The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.

Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.

For example, Nigeria is the only country from both of those continents to make the top-10 list for Internet adoption, access, and population penetration. Today, only about one third of Nigeria’s citizens have Internet access.

And only four countries from these two regions (Nigeria again, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil) are in the top-30 list of countries for 3G mobile penetration, and percentage penetration ranges from six to 21 percent in these countries.

Here’s a visual breakdown of Meeker’s spredsheets, courtesy of your friendly spreadsheet jockeys at VentureBeat:

[vb_gallery id=463110]

Graphics by Jolie O’Dell. Top image courtesy of Supri Suharjoto, Shutterstock

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More