Virtual Economy of Asia – Market That Has Not Born Yet

In contrast to Europe and the USA where online payments and e-commerce became part of everyday life Asian countries only begin to develop the market of digital money. According to the survey of eMarketer in 2006 the total amount of e-commerce sales for five major markets in Asia-Pacific region was only $59.1 billion and 62.3% share of them belongs to Japan market.

But the financial analysts predict that by 2011 Japan and another giant of Asian e-market Korea will lose their positions to China and India which develop in galloping tempo. But it is not easy to develop e-commerce industry there as these countries lack nationwide credit card system or other networks and the whole economy and B2C transactions are built on cash-basis.

The smaller countries in that region like Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia also tend to develop in this sphere and represent a tasty morsel for investors. The economy of this region is very weak and undeveloped but the markets are very promising and too big to be simply ignored.