Mobile Phones Are Top Internet Access Point in Taiwan

Mobile phones are the No. 1 internet access device in Taiwan, according to June 2015 research. Nearly seven in 10 internet users in Taiwan ages 12 and up used a mobile phone to go online, according to the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC).

That put mobile phones 12.5 percentage points ahead of desktop computers. Laptops were far behind?less than a quarter of the internet audience used them to go online. Just 17.0% accessed the internet via tablets.

Mobile phones may be the most popular devices for using the internet, but most internet access takes place at home, the TWNIC found. More than nine in 10 internet users said they went online at home, and 29.0% said the same about work. No other location had more than 10% of respondents.

Overall, the TWNIC reported, about eight in 10 consumers ages 12 and older had accessed the internet over the past six months. That tracks closely with eMarketer’s estimates for monthly internet usage in Taiwan: We estimate that this year, 79.5% of individuals of any age will use the internet at least once per month. That amounts to 18.6 million people this year, a figure set to change only slightly through 2019, with annual growth rates hovering around 2%.

eMarketer does not forecast mobile phone internet usage for Taiwan, however, we estimate 16.4 million people in Taiwan own and use a smartphone at least monthly this year. Not all smartphone users are mobile phone internet users, but smartphone penetration amounts to about 88% of the internet audience in Taiwan this year.