Growth Trends in Asia - Factoids

Internet Use in Asia is growing fast

Internet users in Asia represent 42 percent of all internet users in the world. Still, Internet penetration in Asia is less than 19 percent of the population.

As of the second quarter of 2010, China has the most users in the region - 338 million a quarter of the population, and Japan, the next highest in the region has 94 million. By comparison, India has 81 million users (7 percent penetration).

Australia and Japan have the highest internet penetration rates - 79.6 percent and 74 percent respectively.

Patent Performance

In 1978, only five Asia Pacific countries were represented among applicants for U.S. patents - Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and New Zealand - for a total of 310 patent filings.

Patent filings from Asia have accelerated in the past 10 years. In 1998 - more than 2,400 applications were filed by applicants from Asia Pacific countries - by 2008 more than 6,800 were.

The number of filings from Chinese applications alone grew from 16 in 1998 to 647 in 2008.

Meanwhile Japanese applications represent 16 percent of all filings to the European Patent Office and South Korean applicants, 3 percent.

Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office