The first APIRA meetings were held in Macau and Hong Kong last Thursday and Friday respectively. The APIRA -- Asia Pacific Internet Research Alliance is an interesting group that focuses on research statistics including domain registration as well as internet penetration and usage statistics.

The meetings featured a number of general Internet usage reports, such as level of penetration, types of activities and times of access, from the different members and participants including from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Korea and Japan.

An interesting highlight, which I found relevant to our discussion on this site is that according to the studies done by the City University of Hong Kong, one of the main reasons that prevent end-users from adopting and using the Internet is language barrier. Many people who stated that they are not considering to use the Internet also mentioned that they believe that it would be difficult for them to utilize the Internet because of their lack of English language skills, as such they are not considering adopting the technology any time soon.

I think this is a good indicator of how important native language usability is for the continued adoption of the Internet and to closing the digital divide. Even in such an international city as Hong Kong people are intimidated by the English requirements of the current Internet, think about all those other less English-exposed region. Because domain names is the most important direct navigation tool on the Internet, the importance of broad adoption and usability of IDNs remains a key aspect of helping bring the Internet and closing the digital divide for the rest of the world.