Malaysia Internet Marketing Survey – Ecommerce Exposure

I recently send out a survey form to my Malaysian friends, and got an overwhelming response. In fact, I got close to 500 responses, with no free gift or offer to entice them to fill in the short questionaire.

Here are the questions asked:

1. Age, Sex & Other Demographics (not shared here)
2. Experience & Exposure to Internet Marketing
3. Level of Interest to Venture Into Internet Marketing

Here’s the overall data I collected, which I dont mind sharing:

(Chart: Internet Marketing Exposure in Malaysia. Copyright 2006 Gobala Krishnan)

According to the survey of Internet marketing in Malaysia:

• The majority of Malaysians interested in e-commerce and Internet marketing are Males (66%)
• Males below 30 years (42%) is the largest individual group of Malaysians interested in e-commerce
• Only 4% of the people in this survey are already making money with their own Internet based home business. 26% just got started but don’t make much yet, and the remaining 70% are completely new to the concept of making money from the Internet.
• 17% said they were curious to find out more, but are not planning to start their own Internet business anytime soon.
• Only 50% said they were willing to do what it takes to get started now.

So that’s what the stats say…

But what does it all mean?

Here’s my conclusion of what to make of the Malaysian crowd in Internet marketing:

• There’s still a lack of exposure to females. Part of the reason could be due to the fact that the nature of Internet marketing is favored by males, especially those below 30 years old that are more tech-savvy.
• Females may tend to favor job opportunities, or business opportunities that involve more of a person-to-person approach instead of the Internet, which is seen as a technical, “desk-job”.
• Overall, the idea of making money on the Internet is still very new to Malaysians. That explains why all those overly-general Internet marketing seminars over here make the most amount of money.
• If you’re cerating an “Internet marketing” info-product or seminar targetted towards Malaysians, you make more money if you make it general and appealing to a wider audience.
• There’s still a considerable level of scepticism among 1/3 of Malaysians whether it works. Almost 80% expressed their desire to start their own Internet business, but not all of them want to get started right now.
• If you can prove or convince them that it works, about 50-60% of the general market would be interested.

Part of the reason for having this survey is for me to gauge exactly what type of information to deliver for a project I’m planning early February, which is going to be huge and involves a lot of local Internet marketers, me included.

It will be an interactive event, thats all I can say for now.

The signs look good. Now I need to adapt the information and strategies to cater to this new-found local market that is currently just under 3,000 people and expected to reach 10,000 by end of January.

-gk-

P/S: If you feel this survey will benefit your readers, please feel free to link to this post.

Related Articles:

• Survey of Internet Entrepreneurship in Malaysia
• Malaysia Internet Marketing Squidoo?
• Internet Marketing Malaysia – The Big Problem
• Malaysia 10K Internet Marketing Case Study
• Fione Tan’s Article on Internet Marketing