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Malaysians spend five hours online daily and it is mostly on social media, says report

Malaysians spend an average of five hours online daily, and three out of these five hours are spent on social media.

And of the 19.2 million Internet users in Malaysia, 15.6 million of them are active on Facebook, said the 2013 Industry Performance Report published by Internet regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

A total of 64% of the population have social media penetration, said MCMC chairman Datuk Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi today.

“Now you know how many hours your staff spend online and which sites they visit,” he told business operators, including telco and media representatives, at the report’s launch in Kuala Lumpur today.

The 2010 survey conducted by international firm TNS found Malaysians to have the most number of friends on social networking websites like Facebook. They also spend the most hours per week on such sites.

According to the survey, Malaysians have an average of 233 friends in their social network, followed by 231 in Brazil and 217 in Norway. Japanese users had the least number of friends at an average of 29. The survey was based on recent interviews of 50,000 consumers in 46 countries.

Mohamed Sharil also said that more and more people are connected with broadband services. There were 20.3 million broadband subscribers in 2013, of which 88% are on mobile broadband.

He said wider wireless broadband coverage is expected in 2017 and this will enable the usage of information and communication technology to be further intensified in many areas of business.

Due to the growth in Internet usage, the commission will work with relevant parties on tightening security features for consumer safety.

“Singapore showed an increase of 400% in cyber crime last year and this could happen to us. Why? Because more and more people are connected but not many are cyber aware,” said Mohamed Sharil.

He said MCMC is working closely with the police and Bank Negara to monitor Internet abuse and other cyber crimes.

The report also noted a 4.5% growth in revenue for the communications and multimedia industry from RM51.1 billion in 2012 to RM53.4 billion last year.

The main contributors are telecommunication providers at 85%, broadcasting at 11% and the remainder from the postal sector and others. – September 11, 2014.