A new report released by GSMA indicates that the Asia Pacific mobile industry contributed $1.1 trillion in 2014 to the region’s economy. Further, the mobile industry contributes 4.7 per cent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) with over a quarter of this economic contribution generated directly by mobile operators. The $1.1 trillion contribution represented an increase of nearly $200 billion compared to previous year i.e. 2013.
The key highlights of the GSMA study include:
Mobile operators directly contributed $286 billion to the total in 2014, equivalent to 1.2 per cent of regional GDP. It is forecast that the Asia Pacific mobile industry will be worth $1.8 trillion by 2020.
Asia Pacific now accounts for half of the world’s unique mobile subscribers and mobile connections will continue to grow at a faster pace than the global average over the next five years, adding 600 million new unique subscribers by 2020.
Migration to 4G networks and services in markets such as China is now happening at a faster rate than was the case in developed regions such as Europe and North America, supported by rapidly expanding 4G network coverage and the increasing adoption of 4G smartphones.
The Asia Pacific region features some of the world’s most advanced mobile markets, as well as fast-growing emerging markets that are using mobile as a platform to deliver essential services such as education, healthcare and banking.
At the end of the first quarter of 2015, there were 1.8 billion unique mobile subscribers in Asia Pacific, representing 45 per cent of the region’s population.
Four markets in the region China, India, Indonesia and Japan – account for over three-quarters of the region’s subscriber base. Many of the largest markets in the region are still relatively underpenetrated. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, for example, have a combined population of over 1.6 billion, but a unique subscriber penetration rate of only 36 per cent on average. Connecting these unconnected citizens will therefore be a major focus for both the mobile industry and policy makers in the region over the coming years.
The number of unique mobile subscribers in the region is forecast to grow by 5 per cent per year over the remainder of the decade (2014 to 2020) faster than the global average (4 per cent) and making Asia Pacific the second-fastest region globally behind only Sub-Saharan Africa.
Total mobile connections in the region stood at 3.7 billion in the first quarter of 2015. 4G accounted for 9 per cent of these connections.
4G migration varies widely across the region; South Korea and Japan lead the world in 4G adoption, but the region also has markets where 4G deployments are at an early stage (such as India, Indonesia and Pakistan) or where 4G licensing has yet to take place (such as Bangladesh, Myanmar and Vietnam).
Smartphones now account for 40 per cent of the total mobile connections in the Asia Pacific region and are set to account for two-thirds of the total mobile connections by the end of the decade. Alongside expanding mobile broadband coverage, smartphone adoption is driving strong growth in mobile data traffic.
In 2014, the mobile ecosystem directly and indirectly employed 12.5 million people in Asia Pacific. Any by 2020, the industry is expected to provide employment to 15 million people.