MCMC to profile Internet users

CYBERJAYA: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) plans to conduct a survey to establish a profile of Malaysian Internet users.

The industry regulator said the survey would seek to determine the demographics as well as the trends and patterns of the Internet users. It would also try to ascertain if subscribers’ are willing to move from dialup to broadband access.

However, it said the survey – to be conducted between May 1 and June 30 and only in English – would focus specifically on household users and would exclude business and cybercafe customers.

Koay Hock Eng, MCMC manager for industry research and analysis, said the time has come to go beyond merely obtaining subscriber numbers from Internet service providers (ISPs).

“We feel there is a ‘data gap’ and we want to go beyond these basic figures to gain greater intelligence of who these subscribers are and what they do while on the Internet,” he told reporters here on Tuesday.

He said that while ISPs report subscriber growth data periodically to the MCMC, not much more is known about the subscribers.

“We know that there were 3.3 million Internet dialup subscribers (a 12.7% penetration rate) and just over 250,000 broadband subscribers (a 0.98% penetration rate) as of last December.

“But of these subscribers, we do not know what their surfing patterns are like, how often they log on, when they logged on, what they do when they’re online, or whether there are more men using the Net than women,” he said.

Koay said the survey would reveal the big picture of usage trends and behavioural patterns, and this will help MCMC better understand Malaysian Internet users.

He said the findings would also help MCMC formulate policies to address issues to do with bridging the “digital divide” – the socioeconomic gap between those who can afford to use the Internet and those who cannot.

“The data will provide us with a macro profile of a typical Internet surfer in Malaysia which will help us in framing strategies for the future,” he said.

An online survey

The nationwide survey will be based on a scientific footing with a sample size of 4,925 household Internet users.

According to Koay, the survey will be conducted in two phases. The first will involve survey officers from MCMC’s Computer Assisted Telephony Interview (CATI) centre calling a list of randomly generated phone numbers to ask whether a respondent has an Internet connection and if he would like to take part in the survey.

If the respondent agrees to take part, he will be given a username and password, and be directed to a website where he can proceed with the second phase of the survey – answer 38 objective questions.

Koay said he was optimistic that respondents would cooperate based on an earlier survey, which examined the usage patterns of handphone users, conducted by the MCMC last year.

“We want to be clear: We’re not selling anything over the phone or attempting to solicit money from the respondents. All information collected will be treated with the strictest confidence,” he said.

Koay also said that there are other surveys in the pipeline. “In future, we would be looking to conduct a similar survey for corporate users as well as cybercafe patrons,” he said. – EDWIN YAPP