Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide and Asians are the most active users of Facebook.

India has the most number of registered Facebook users not only in Asia but in the world. There are now more than 251 million Facebook users in India, becoming the single largest audience country for the social media giant. However, despite the strong gains social media penetration remains relatively low in India as compared to other regions.

With 131 million, Indonesia has the second highest number of Facebook users in Asia. The number of users increased by six per cent in the last year. It is followed by Japan with 71 million users. Surveys, however, show that most Facebook users in Japan are adults while younger ones are taking to other social sites like Instagram and Twitter.

Philippines has the fourth highest number of Facebook users in Asia with 62 million people registered on the social networking site. It is the most popular networking site in the country and the number of Facebook users almost matches the number of Internet users in the country.

Vietnam has the fifth highest number of Facebook users followed by Thailand. South Korea has seventh highest number of Facebook users and almost half of the country’s Internet users are registered on Facebook. Pakistan and Bangladesh have 32 million and 28 million users respectively. Bangladesh is followed by Malaysia and Myanmar.

South Asian country Nepal has 8.7 million Facebook users followed by Cambodia with 6.3 million. Sri Lanka has 5.5 million.

Singapore has around 4.3 million Facebook users and more than 52 per cent are male while 48 per cent are female. Overall, Facebook users in the country are under 45 years of age. Laos and Mongolia have 2.2 million and 1.9 million Facebook users respectively. China, despite its huge population, has only 1.8 million Facebook users. However, these figures do not include Facebook users in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Bhutan and Brunei Darusalam have the least number of Facebook users.

However, for many, these devices also serve as an excuse to avoid interacting with other people when faced with an awkward social situation.

The latest survey by Moscow-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab found this tendency after 75 per cent of respondents admitted that they pretended to be busy with their devices when they do not want to talk to other people.

“Dependency on connected devices affect our lives more than we think. Undoubtedly, being connected is convenient. However, devices are also important to help people get through various social situations that are difficult,” said Kaspersky Lab product marketing VP Dimitry Aleshin in a statement on Friday as quoted by Antara.

Additionally, the study also suggests that 72 per cent of respondents have used connected devices when they do not know what to do in certain situations. This behaviour also serves as a form of distraction without having to appear busy or when they are avoiding eye contact with someone.

Meanwhile, up to 46 per cent of respondents said they used their devices only in their spare time and 44 per cent used it as a daily distraction. The study also shows that almost 31 percent of respondents prefer to book a taxi or look for directions when traveling via websites or applications because it allows them to not speak to other people.

Due to these two functions of avoiding direct contact and assisting in daily social situations, our constant dependence on connected devices causes a huge panic whenever they malfunction.

This goal was stressed by Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam at the Vietnam ICT Investment Forum 2018, which opened on Thursday in Hanoi.

The forum highlighted the importance of digital connectivity infrastructure in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It also focused on next-generation mobile technology, internet security and strategies to enhance co-operation between Southeast Asian countries.

Tam said the Fourth Industrial Revolution is causing unprecedented changes, leading to the emergence of new business models and production methods.

“We are witnessing a powerful industrial transition. There will be opportunities to make breakthroughs,” Tam said.

He stressed that, in the context of these global changes, Vietnam’s government is determined to develop forward-thinking policies.

The ministry has proposed |policy incentives that would boost the digital transition.

The incentives firstly aim to encourage the completion of the 4G network and then quickly move on to 5G to prepare for the Internet of Things.

According to Tran Tuan Anh from Vietnam Telecommunications Authority, 5G networks are the future of the telecommunications world.

Vietnam’s advanced mobile networks reach about 96 per cent of the population, providing 51.2 million users with 3G coverage and 13 million with 4G.

Viettel holds a 51.5 per cent share of the broadband market, followed by VNPT with 28.4 per cent, MobiFone with 12.7 per cent and FPT Telecom with 3.8 per cent.

Tam added the second purpose of the policy incentives is to attract new foreign investments in telecommunications and information technology sectors. The hope is to turn Vietnam into the region’s leading producer of communications and IoT equipment.

“The government hopes more technology companies will invest in Vietnam,” Tam said. He added that investment of foreign companies has played a big role in the development of the ICT sector.

The third and final policy goal is to build out a well-trained workforce, equipped with relevant modern skills, to ensure nobody is left behind by industrial changes.

The government has made an effort to improve policies to get ready for anticipated industrial changes, Tam said. It has also continued to integrate with the rest of the world, opening up space for business deals with foreign companies.

Indian Vice Minister of Communications Ravi Kant also spoke at the forum. He said India wants to strengthen co-operation with Asean member countries, including Vietnam, to expand its IT exports.

India is interested in digital innovation and developing sustainable infrastructure.

As part of the two-day forum, the India-Asean ICT Expo has attracted nearly 40 IT firms to display their most innovative products.

Some highlighted fields include smart cities, transportation management and banking.

To celebrate its milestone 20th birthday last week, Google posted a nostalgic video as its trademark doodle on the home page of the search engine. The video features interesting searches through the years covering holidays, events, achievements, people, food, planets and languages.

Google came into being in 1998 to answer queries of the entire world. Started as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both PhD students at the Stanford University, US, the search engine became the go-to place for all sorts of general information in no time.

Google was able to bring information scattered across the world under its umbrella and make it accessible to all.

It now offers searches in more than 150 languages in over 190 countries.

From a simple search engine, Google has become a tech giant making itself indispensable in people’s lives across the world.

Down memory lane

The Google Doodle that day was a video that walks down the memory lane exploring popular searches across the world in the last two decades.

From ‘what will happen on Y2K’ to ‘How to tie a tie’ to ‘how do you pronounce gif’ — the video features many interesting questions Google has answered in the last two decades.

“Although more than 2,000 Doodles have adorned its homepage, Google has kept its site looking fresh by creating different variations of its logo, inspired by cultural icons, events and phenomena such as Pac-Man, the birth of hip-hop and more,” Google said in a statement.

In a blog post, Ben Gomes, VP, Search, News and Assistant, at Google said while almost everything had changed about “technology and the information available to us, the core principles of Search have stayed the same”.

Gomes sought to share a first look at the next chapter of Search, which he said would be driven by “three fundamental shifts”. These are:

The shift from answers to journeys: This will help users resume tasks “where you left off”.

“We’re bringing new features to Search that help you with ongoing information needs,” Gomes said.

The shift from queries to providing a query-less way to get to information: Google will surface relevant information related to a users’ interests, even when they don’t have a specific query in |mind.

The shift from text to a more visual way of finding information: Google plans to bring more visual content to Search and “completely redesign Google Images” to make finding information easier.

The company said on Friday that Dapps, focusing on various service categories including prediction, question-and-answer, product review, food review and location review, will be introduced in the coming weeks, kicking off Line’s efforts to build up a token economy system.

As part of the move, Line will also start offering its own digital token, Link, on its cryptocurrency exchange Bitbox, starting from October 16 in global markets, excluding Japan and the US.

Users in Japan, Line’s main market, will instead be rewarded with Link points that can be used within the Line-operated DApps. The Link coins were distributed via Bitbox earlier this month, and will also be issued as part of a reward system for users of Line’s DApps in the future, the company explained.

Among the five upcoming DApps, two are already running as a beta version: Wizball Overview, which rewards users for contributing to a Q&A platform for knowledge-sharing and 4CAST Overview, which brings users together to make future predictions.

Pasha Overview, which rewards users for writing product reviews, Tapas Overview, which rewards users for sharing restaurant reviews, and Step Overview, a social media platform for recreational activities, will be launched by the year’s end.

In doing so, Line said it wants to build a “co-creation economy” that aims to “flatten the relationship structure between users and service providers to promote co-creation and mutual growth”.

“Users simply need to register and begin using any of the DApp services announced today, or existing services that will become part of the Link ecosystem, to start earning Line’s universal coin Link Point [for Japan] or Link [for markets outside Japan],” Line said in a press release.

In addition to its own apps, Line is also looking to invite third-party developers into its custom blockchain network. Line plans to release a development kit in anticipation of third-party services to join the Link ecosystem, starting from next year at the earliest.

Line said it has leveraged its platform development expertise to create an outstanding blockchain network that guarantees stability and reduced processing time, making it suitable for hosting an exceptionally large number of users.

The FSA demanded the Osaka-based company report soon on the cause of its failure to prevent the cryptocurrency theft, as well as its response to affected customers.

This was the third FSA improvement order for Tech Bureau, a registered exchange operator under the revised payment services law.

The company was slapped with the first order in March and the second order in June in the aftermath of the theft of 58 billion yens in customer assets held in digital currency NEM from major exchange Coincheck in January.

The latest hacking attack was committed via a personal computer of a Tech Bureau employee on September 14. It confirmed damage from the attack by Septemebr 18 and announced the incident early in the morning two days later.

On-site inspection

Within the day of the announcement, the FSA conducted an on-site inspection of Tech Bureau.

As about 4.5 billion yens of the stolen assets belonged to its customers, Tech Bureau plans to compensate for the customer losses by receiving 5 billion yens in aid |from financial information provider Fisco Ltd by the end of this |month.

The FSA, however, ordered Tech Bureau to report on details of the bailout plan, which it claimed lacks specifics.

The agency believes that customer assets at Tech Bureau, worth about 47 billion yens in total, have been poorly managed as a relatively large portion of them has been exposed to the internet.