When one looks at the number of Internet users, the "knowledge" industry in Macau seems to be doing pretty well. However, other figures are telling a different story and measures have to be taken if one wishes to see Macau becoming a true entertainment services-based economy.

According to the regulating body of telecommunications set up in June 2000, the Office for the Development of Telecommunications and Information Technologies (GDTTI), there were 29,061 registered subscribers for dial-up services in Macau, spending a total of 738,627 hours per month online, and there are 52,231 registered subscribers for broadband services, spending a total of 5,118,907 hours per month online, as of April 2005.

Strangely enough, the GDTTI is still relying on the figures provided by CTM for subscribers, not taking into account multiple users per account. More interesting, then, are the data collected and the survey conducted by Angus Cheong Weng Hin at the University of Macau. As of December 2004, the penetration rate of the Internet in the population was as high as 46% (6-84 years old) or 43% for the more conservative World Internet Project definition (18-74 years old). The majority of Internet users (51%) are below 24 years, and on average go online for 13.2 hours per week. 87% of the users connect from home, while only 24% connect from the office and 19% from their school or university. Most of time spent online is now dedicated to first "writing/reading/exchanging e-mails" (2.7 hours), second "looking for information/news" (2.5 hours) and third "participating in chat-rooms and forums (ICQ/MSN included)" (1.9 hours), and a distant fourth "online gaming" (1.1 hours). Broadband has become the most popular way of accessing the net since August 2004, and now accounts for 60% of Macau Internet users.

As for business usage, a report on the "Usage of Information Technology in Business Sector" released by the government in 2004 indicates that the overall rate of usage of information technology in the business sector is quite steady at 33% both in 2002 and 2003. Service-oriented activities (including travel agencies) and bigger structures have the highest rates. According to the same report, there were only 325 "business establishments" that had a webpage or a website, but more than 36% of the companies with more than 100 employees acknowledged having a website or a webpage In general, nobody has failed to notice some excellent websites in Macau: from cultural institutions (Macau Museum of Art, Cultural Institute, Macauticket), to local directories and portals (The Macau Yellow Pages, Macaustreet, macau.sina.com, CyberCTM), higher and continuous education institutions (The University of Macao, the Inter-University Institute of Macau, the Institute for Tourism Studies, the Macau Productivity and technology Transfer Centre), local news (Macau Daily News, Ponto Final, Teledifus?o de Macau, and even independent weblogs), and of course online gambling and the mushrooming of real estate "webwindows".

Despite the plethora of resources now available online, there are some worrying signs. First, there is a "detrimental" Hong Kong proximity that can be felt when examining web surfing in Macau – pretty much the same as the one felt in audience and readership for the news. According to the latest survey conducted by Angus Cheong, Macau netizens when asked "what are the websites you most often visit [multiple choices possible]" 40% replied "Macau websites" but 78% said they browsed "Hong Kong websites." And, if a fast-growing economy and the booming tourism and gambling industries seem to be conducive to "more" local content, one should be aware that a growing number of websites in Macau – if one excludes the official portals – are only available in Chinese, or a combination of rich content in Chinese and summarised parts in English – with Portuguese being progressively sidelined.

Then, there is a worrying erosion of Internet hosting in Macau. According to the survey of the Internet Systems Consortium, the number of Internet hosts under the ".mo" domain has dropped from 152 in July 2002 to a mere 70 in January 2005. That places Macau between Tajikistan (72) and Djibouti (58), and far bellow Taiwan (11th worldwide with 3,516,215 Internet hosts), Hong Kong (25th with 856,244) and even China (43rd with 163,626). If Internet hosts are one of the major benchmarks to scale the Internet infrastructure and the development of the Internet economy of a country, then one has to worry about Macau. Even without taking into consideration the loss due to individual dynamic IP addresses, the obvious reason is once again the detrimental effect of the proximity of two dynamic Chinese-speaking entities: Hong Kong and Taiwan.

What is to be done? First one has to acknowledge that partial liberalisation has made Macau residents and IT specialists full of expectations, but apart from mobile services, it has not lived up to its promises. CTM is de facto today the sole provider of Internet access, even though competition was opened in 2000, and cable TV seems unable to propose an alternative to that anytime soon.

Second, both the frequentation rate of Hong Kong websites by Macau Internet users and the steady decline of Internet hosts in Macau are clear indications that there is a lack of "trust" and "recognition" of internet content originating in Macau on the part of Macau residents themselves.

Who is to be blamed? Some people point the finger at the poor quality of the bandwidth and the services offered by CTM: a design company told us that it was advising its clients to use very simple graphics if their website was based in Macau proper – thus limiting the scope of creativity and appeal. Others just blame it on the lack of "knowledge" of the old generation pertaining to IT, or on "business profiles" that tend to consider IT as a somewhat superfluous new way of advertising. The lack of promotion and awareness building have also to be taken into consideration: Internet and IT-related stories are almost non-existent in the Macau newspapers and magazines, and most of the activities organised to promote IT are one-time events, "happenings" that do not keep the stream flowing. Finally, I truly believe that putting people online is not enough: one has to critically educate them to make the best use of what is an extraordinarily rich but amorphous and catch-all resource.

Las Vegas-style casinos and mega-events like the East Asian Games are full of possibilities, but will they prove sustainable for Macau’s IT industry? Macau’s mixed heritage (Macanese, Cantonese, Portuguese) along with its manifest Chinese destiny are the keys to a much needed "glocalisation": a global reach with local characteristics that will root the confidence of the Macau residents in their own abilities and capacities.

Eric Sautedé
Chief editor of Chinese Cross Currents, Macau Ricci Institute