eMarketer: Digital buyer coverage varies widely across Asia Pacific countries

199IT original compilation

According to eMarketer's latest forecast for global B2C e-commerce activity, digital consumer activity in the Asia-Pacific region is more active in developed markets (Japan, Australia and South Korea) and less active elsewhere. Even if the measurement is based on Internet users rather than population, the gap between the coverage of digital buyers in these three countries and China (ranked fourth) is large.

eMarketer predicts that in 2014, nearly 80% of Internet users in Japan and Australia will shop online at least once, and the proportion in South Korea is 73.0%. This year, the coverage rate of digital buyers in China exceeded 50% for the first time, reaching 55.2%. In underdeveloped digital markets such as India and Indonesia, only a small number of Internet users will shop online.

These figures put Japan and Australia in the top five in terms of digital buyer coverage worldwide, even surpassing the United States. In contrast, India and Indonesia are the countries with the lowest coverage among the countries surveyed by eMarketer. Even in Mexico, which ranks third from the bottom, more than 30% of Internet users will shop online this year.

On the other hand, due to its large population, even if the digital buyer coverage rate is moderate, China's total digital buyers account for more than 60% of the Asia-Pacific region, reaching 319.9 million this year. Australia, with its sparse population, has only slightly more digital buyers than Indonesia, which will surpass Australia by 2018.

Compiled from: eMarketer Translator: Sun Ying