Internet in East Asia

Like their counterparts in other nations, Internet communities in East Asia exhibit characteristics of two types of virtual community structures. Since the mid1980s, communities of Internet users in China, Japan, and South Korea have emerged from traditional, geographically bounded communities that addressed local, regional or national issues. These communities followed the lead of early geographically based cybercommunities such as The Well in San Francisco and digital communities in Europe. Also as in the West, Chinese, [Page 795]Japanese, and South Korean Internet communities have formed through common interests or to address certain issues. Groups of users with common personal interests and the desire to discuss social, political, and cultural issues have also appeared. The number and range of these groups has grown exponentially as Internet user populations dramatically increased in Southeast Asia since the mid-1990s.

However, in comparing the development of Internet communities in China, Japan, and South Korea with those in Western countries, a number of important differences surface. The particular economic, political, social, and cultural environments in each nation have greatly influenced Internet utilization by various Internet communities. Until the mid- to late 1990s, a combination of high hardware costs and low levels of computer literacy hindered Internet penetration in many areas in Southeast Asia. Strict political control of the use of the Internet as a mass medium and mass communications channel, particularly in China, has also influenced Internet utilization.

Furthermore, transferring social, cultural, and linguistic norms to the Internet has resulted in an intriguing glimpse into social relations in China, Japan, and South Korea. Tightly knit communities emphasizing face-to-face relationships have traditionally played important roles in defining social relations and supporting cultural ties in these countries. How these have been simultaneously transformed and reinforced through the Internet illustrates important aspects of its utilization as a communications medium.

Finally, varying patterns of Internet diffusion among these countries have played a key role in the growth of Internet communities in Southeast Asia. Despite different telecommunications infrastructures, the potential reach of Internet communities has been broadened by expanding platforms of Internet access. Certain Asian Internet users communicate not only with desktop personal computers but also with a wide range of advanced mobile and cellular phone services that offer short message transmission and direct Internet access. The close attention to infrastructure investments in telecommunications that started in the early 1990s has culminated in high rates of broadband access, especially in South Korea. These Internet-related features have had a major impact on promoting the emergence of Internet communities in Southeast Asia.

The growth of community networks in China, Japan, and South Korea occurred in three phases. In the first phase, which lasted from approximately 1984 until the early 1990s, the growth of community networks occurred unevenly in these countries. The national governments of China and South Korea started to establish telecommunications infrastructures, as the number of telephone lines in these two countries more than doubled in the period from 1984 to 1990. Economically prosperous Japan, with close economic ties to the West, specifically the United States, initially had the most highly developed infrastructure to support communitybased networking efforts. During the first wave of emerging Internet communities, Japanese “netizens” were highly motivated to use the Internet. Yet, access costs, closed network systems, and low user populations prevented Internet use from spreading dramatically in Japan until the mid-1990s.

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