The following term paper of master's course looks into the spread of ICT technologies and internet and their influence on the local economy of South-East Asian Countries (Particularly ASEAN Countries)

Introduction

The paper discusses the impact of Internet and social media on Society and Economic Development. It highlights the role of internet in promoting economic growth and incresing communication accessibility. The paper also raises the hypothesis of whether Internet Penetration correlates with Economic Development in different south-east asian countries and their infrastructures. The paper uses a quantitative approach, specifically simple linear regression, to verify the correlation between GDP and economic development and social media in different ASEAN member states. The paper also examines the trends between GDP, social media, and economic development over a period of 7/8 years. The data and discussion aim to provide insights into how GDP has impacted the emergence of the Internet and social media over the years.

Importance of Internet and Social Media

The internet and social media have been a groundbreaking innovation which has contributed to exceptional growth to many world economies. While Internet penetration has been linked to economic growth, the timing and reach of its adoption varies based on socio-political and economic factors. Social media platforms, on the other hand, have experienced explosive growth over the past two decades and have become a significant factor in commerce and political change.
Social media and internet has changed the world. The rapid and vast adoption of these technologies is changing how we find partners, how we access information from the news, and how we organize to demand political change. And thus, it is important to study and research their tendencies with regards to different regional factors.

Internet and social media in South-East Asia

Relationship between Economic development, the Spread of the Internet and Social media

Looking through the previous research on relationship between Economic development versus the Spread of Internet and Social Media, we can infer the following

1. There should be a positive correlation between Internet pentration and Economic Development
2. There should be a positive correlation between Spread of SNS services and Economic Development

In order to measure economic development in this context, the paper conisders Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the respective countries

Methods used: Microsoft Excel for Quantitative Analysis(Linear Regression Analysis)

Economic Development v/s Spread of Internet

The paper analyses the relationship between the two variables (GDP v/s Internet Penetration) for the following countries and checks the relationship

Country	Multiple r (Absolute value)	r2	Significant F (p≤0.05)
Indonesia	0.544	0.296	0.164
Vietnam	0.946	0.894	0
Cambodia	0.952	0.907	0
Malaysia	0.274	0.075	0.511
Brunei[1]	0.893	0.797	0.003
Singapore	0.813	0.66	0.014
Thailand	0.808	0.653	0.015
Laos	0.961	0.924	0

[1]It is note that data from Brunei leads to having a negative r value of -0.893, which means that as GDP has decreased, internet penetration has increased

The data visualisations of the relationships is as follows:

Indonesia Vietnam Cambodia Malaysia Brunei Singapore Thailand Laos

Economic Development v/s Spread of Social Media

The paper analyses the relationship between the two variables (GDP v/s Social media penetration) for the following countries and checks the relationship

Country	Multiple r (Absolute value)	r2	Significant F(p≤0.05)
Indonesia	0.888	0.789	0.008
Vietnam	0.988	0.977	0
Cambodia	0.964	0.929	0
Malaysia	0.324	0.105	0.478
Brunei	0.371	0.138	0.413
Singapore	0.85	0.723	0.015
Thailand	0.167	0.028	0.72
Laos	0.966	0.933	0

The data visualisations of the relationships is as follows:

Indonesia Vietnam Cambodia Malaysia Brunei Singapore Thailand Laos

Discussion of Results

• The correlation between Internet and the spread of internet shows a positive correlation in most of the countries of SEA. However, it is not consistent in every country and the P-test is also not consistent in every case
• The correlation between Internet and Social Media shows a positive Correlation in most of the cases but just like the spread of internet, it does not stay consistent in every case.
• This inconistency could be explained by due to the size of the Sample, which is too small to actually conduct a substantial result. A robust sample size is required to do a proper analysis
• There could be unknown variables which are affecting the relationship between GDP and Internet, SNS

Limitations

• The linear regression was lacking more data to create a more comprehensive analysis
• The correlation is not consistent across the board and thus requires more literature review to figure out what could be the variables which can affect the analysis
• Correlation ≠ Causation, while we can see strong correlation between the variables, we should also consider the place were the relation is not necessarily seen. Thus there is more need to figure out the Framework of our analysis to make more robust

Conclusion

The results of the linear regression tests confirmed, for the most part, that Economic development correlated to the Spread of the Internet and Social media for the majority of the countries in southeast asia considered for this study.
However, some countries did not have a reasonable correlation between the variables. This inconsistency could be explained by a factor such as policy effects regarding digital technology in the region, which could be an extra variable affecting the correlation.
Future research regarding the understanding of this correlation should include consideration of regional and international politics, which affect policies regarding digital adoption; there should also be customer perception surveys to understand the perception of the Internet and social media in the region and level of access to technology in the region.

Thank you for going through my Term paper!

This term paper was submitted as a course requirement for my Master's Seminar at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany