MANILA -- Hardly any other industry has developed as dynamically in recent years as the media sector. The impact of the so-called digital revolution is particularly evident in the way we communicate. Sending and receiving digitized data has become faster and faster; at the same time the costs have fallen dramatically. An end to this trend is not in sight.
At the heart of all this is the Internet. According to Jakob Nielsen, a leading consultant on Web-design usability, the Internet is growing at an annual rate of 18 percent. It now has 1 billion users, of whom 36 percent are in Asia (24 percent in Europe and 23 percent in North America). Nielsen believes the second billion will be added by 2015. He also predicts that most of the new users will be in Asia.
"People all over the world are experiencing unprecedented levels of empowerment," Nielsen said. This assessment has enormous implications, economically as well as socially and politically.