Asian Firms on ‘Dot-Com’ Wave, Says New Survey

Americans aren’t the only ones getting the hang of e-commerce. A survey by Boston Consulting Group reveals that Asian firms are jumping on the “dot-com” bandwagon.

In a survey of 12 Asian countries (excluding Japan, which BCG said has too many sites to count), South Korea led the pack with 396 business-to-consumer electronic commerce sites as of late October. China came in second, although Hong Kong contributed more than half of the country’s 339 B-to-C sites. (Taiwan boasts an additional 168 e-commerce sites.)

At the low end of the scale are Indonesia, with 31 business-to-consumer sites, and Malaysia, with 34.

The most popular site category is online malls, accounting for 11% of the sites in the survey. Computer hardware and software sites came in second with 10% of the total, followed closely by books and magazines; cards, gifts and flowers; travel; and financial services.