Survey: Young Malaysians relying on Internet for info

KUALA LUMPUR: Young Malaysians are increasingly relying on the Internet for information and to keep themselves up-to-date, according to a recent survey by market research company Synovate.

About 45% of the Malaysian youth interviewed in the survey said they planned to use the Internet more than other media, Synovate said in a statement today.

"Young Malaysians are definitely turning to the Internet more for their information and entertainment needs and it's not surprising that the Internet is slowly becoming the medium of choice," said managing director of Synovate in Malaysia, Steve Murphy.

The fourth annual Synovate Young Asians study looks at what's in the hearts and minds of the region's youth, revealing their media consumption, purchase habits, attitudes, favourite singers and cartoons.

It covers 12 markets across Asia, including Japan and Vietnam for the first time. Besides Malaysia, the other markets were China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

The survey, supported by Microsoft Advertising, MTV and Yahoo!, found that young Malaysians were active bloggers with close to half (48%) spending a portion of their time blogging.

"Malaysians in general have embraced blogging and bloggers alike as a way of expressing themselves and this virtual form of communications has certainly had an effect on the nation's youth," Murphy said.

"A total of 21% of Malaysian youngsters create and update their blogs regularly and this figure is expected to rise," he said.

The survey also found that young Malaysians aged eight to 24 spend an average of 1.2 hours a day on email, one hour and thirty-six minutes a day as part of online communities, two hours and 48 minutes on instant messaging and two hours and 36 minutes on other Internet activities. - Bernama