MyIX: Malaysia's Internet Usage Doubled in Year 2013

Malaysia’s Internet traffic consumption last year showed biggest percentage jump in over a decade; Increase of over 50 percent as compared to in 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, 7 April 2014 – Malaysian Internet Exchange (MyIX) or also known as Persatuan Pengendali Internet Malaysia’, today released its latest statistics on the country’s Internet traffic consumption - that clearly shows the biggest annual percentage increase ever in over a decade.

MyIX Chairman, Chiew Kok Hin says, “In Year 2013, our statistics showed that Internet traffic in Malaysia increased by a whopping 51 per cent to a total amount of 349,277 Mbps, as compared to 230,631 Mbps in 2012.”

In specific, MyIX’s Internet traffic statistics revealed that the biggest differences were in the Year 2013 months of January, February, March and November – each recording an average between 75 to 80 per cent increase, as compared to the same months in Year 2012.

Over the entire of 2013, statistics showed that Internet consumption grew steadily over each passing month. In January, the nation’s Internet traffic stood at 22,511 Mbps – which is a 75 per cent increase as compared to 12,880 Mbps in January 2012. By November 2013, the highest usage for 2013 was recorded at 41,319 Mbps.

“2013 has been a great year for the Internet, here in Malaysia. While we have been seeing a steady annual increase in Internet usage among Malaysians in the last few years, the usage growth has simply multiplied beyond our expectations in 2013.”

“We believe that the reasons for this, co-relates back with several synergistic trends amongst Malaysian Internet users - such as the spike in the number of smart phones users; with the sudden boom of user access to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; as well as the jump in data messaging applications such as Whatsapp, WeChat, Viber, Line and more,” explains Chiew.

On the increase in smartphone users, IDC Research attributes this to the Malaysian government's Youth Communication Package (YCP) that offers a RM200 (US$61) rebate for the purchase of a smartphone for young adults aged 21-30 with a monthly income of RM3000 (US$916) or less.

This further encouraged mobile phone vendors to take advantage of the government incentive to introduce 25 new smartphones priced around RM600 into the market – and eventually contributing to the market share of sub-RM600 smartphones increasing from 24 per cent in the second half of 2012, to 39 per cent in the first half of 2013.

“Cheaper smartphones contribute in driving Internet accessibility worldwide, and we also see its impact here in Malaysia as Internet usage explodes. Together with MyIX’s recent Internet network infrastructure upgrade being completed, we can better support the Internet traffic increase by end-consumers in Malaysia,” ends Chiew.

MyIX Re-elects Its Committee at 3rd AGM.

Earlier in March 2014, MyIX also re-elected its latest committee at its 3rd AGM.

Chiew Kok Hin, who is also the CEO for the AIMS Group, was re-elected as the Chairman of MyIX for another two terms. He will be assisted by a new committee that comprises of the new Deputy Chairman, Lim Chee Meng, the Head of Core Network Engineering at Maxis Communications Bhd; Secretary, Wan Mohd Nizam, the General Manager of Celcom Axiata (M); Treasurer, Chew Choo Soon, CEO of MyKRIS Asia Sdn Bhd and an elected committee compromising representatives from Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Berhad, TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME), Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, and Redtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd.

“It is an honour to be re-elected by my peers and I look forward to work with the Committee to  take MyIX into the next level – especially to attract more peering members both local and international of various categories; towards the end of achieving a world-class level of Internet connectivity and ecosystem for Malaysia,” ends Chiew.