Boom versus Culture: Understanding Online in Southeast Asia--Online Business in South-East Asia versus Western Business Routines

Abstract

                  When talking about the internet, most people still assume it is related to the US or the western world. With ASEAN on the horizon, more and more companies however under-stand the importance of Southeast Asia and try to copy and paste their western models into the area--and fail. What are the reasons for failing and what does succeed? Entertainment often comes first in the ‘Asian web’. That however does not mean it is ‘behind’ the western world. In fact many (Southeast) Asian companies are far ahead of their competitors from the west while choosing different approaches to common problems. This paper shows successful online business approaches by some of the biggest Asian companies and examines user behavior in Social Media and the world-wide web, while comparing the most successful companies in Social Media and user habits such as gaming and sharing.