A new report released today by the Internet Society has revealed there is a strong correlation between locally relevant contents and internet adoption especially in Africa. The report added that Local Internet hosting is key to the development of the Internet ecosystem in emerging countries.
The society said as the infrastructure necessary for Internet access is becoming more available in developing countries and emerging regions, efforts to increase Internet adoption rates are now focused on the development of such content. However, the impact of such efforts on Internet adoption rates will be limited if the infrastructure and enabling environment for local hosting and content delivery is overlooked.
In many developing countries and emerging regions, the vast majority of content accessed by local users is hosted abroad. As the content must traverse often expensive and sometimes under-provisioned international links, this can have a significant impact on the economics of access as well as the user experience.
“The lack of locally hosted content can have significant impacts on the entire Internet ecosystem in a country,” writes Michael Kende, ISOC’s Chief Economist and co-author of the report. “First, accessing any type of content abroad can be very costly for ISPs, and therefore, international links are often under-provisioned, resulting in slow access times that limit usage. Second, these increased costs for accessing international content are passed on to users, with high prices limiting usage. Finally, these limits on demand will, in turn, restrict the creation of further Internet content, keeping the entire ecosystem underdeveloped.”
The report, “Promoting Local Content Hosting to Develop the Internet Ecosystem,” co-authored by Mr. Kende and Karen Rose, Senior Director, Internet Society’s Office of Strategy and Research, uses Rwanda as a case study in exploring those dynamics, working in close partnership with the Ministry of Youth and ICT (MyICT) in Rwanda and the Rwanda Information and Communication Technology Association (RICTA). While focused on Rwanda, the situation there is common in many developing countries.
“Strengthening the enabling environment for the hosting of local content can have positive cascading impacts on stakeholders and the local Internet economy, including its end users,” said Ms. Rose. “Global hosting options have clearly been valuable for content developers, however, the local hosting environment is yet to mature in many developing countries, limiting the practical options available for content developers to host locally. The cost and latency involved in accessing content abroad from emerging economies can depress usage, with the result that the full potential and benefits of the Internet are not realized. Additionally, depressed usage impacts content developers directly, as less user engagement with content translates to a lower potential for content and service providers to earn revenue from advertising and sales.”
