Asia will be mobile leader: Schmidt

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, speaks during a teleconference media event, “Mobile first world,” at the New Horizon Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Google

By Bahk Eun-ji

TAIPEI ― Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, said Tuesday that Asia will be the mobile leader.

During a teleconference event under the title “The Mobile First World,” he stressed the importance of the fast growing mobile market in Asia where networks are faster and people own sophisticated smartphones.

“Asia is going to be the mobile leader for a very long time,” he said. “Asia is going to be a huge market, with hundreds and hundreds of users, and it is a big deal for us.”

Schmidt said Asia is driving innovation and changes in the world, and the company has looked into how mobile is impacting Asia and the entire world ― from users to developers, mobile apps and the platform itself.

Asia already has a decent network infrastructure ― Korea’s 3G network payment system works very well. However, for example, in Africa, the problem is the connectivity, and as for the Europe, it is still not fast enough, and Latin America has structural problems, he said.

A growing number of people will purchase smartphones and use more and more mobile apps, he said.

“This trend will end up being a mobile innovation when it combines with Asia’s unique and different cultural approach to use of the Internet,” he said.

Schmidt said the world is soon changing to “mobile only” from “mobile first generation.”

Mobile first means accessing the Internet through mobile devices for the first time, but mobile only means accessing the Internet only with such devices.

He said the mobile only world will start in Asia.

The mobile first has been prevalent cultural phenomenon in Asia over the past 10 years, and now mobile only has been seen in majority of Asian countries even in those without enough network infrastructure, Chris Yerga, vice president of engineering at Google, said during the conference.

“Mobile first is happening right now in Asia, compared to Europe and western countries,” Yerga said.

According to a data from Google, 50 percent of YouTube views were on mobile devices in Korea. Vietnam and Taiwan uses mobile phones for listening to music way more than western countries.

It is a prime example that proves that phones are not just a phone, but a computer; the first connected device.

“In that sense, Asia is still ahead of other countries in smartphone adoption, and it is about not just mobile first but mobile only,” he said.