The Internet Is Not That Global After All

互联网根本不互联

The internet is flattening the world. Or so they say. Yet new statistics from the OECD, a rich-country think-tank, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) show that the global “network of networks” is shaped by local forces.

据称互联网正在抹平这个世界。然而，来自富裕国家智囊团（欧洲）经济合作与发展组织（OECD）及波士顿咨询集团（BCG）的新数据显示全球“网络之网”是由地方性的要素形成的。（无线通信技术的融合以及非接触式近距离无线通信技术的产生，构成了“网络的网络”，相关基础设施也已经准备就绪，建立在基础之上的先进应用不断增加。高效能的SIM卡是这些技术发展的最终动力。

The OECD’s statistics on broadband internet access in its member countries have long been closely watched (in particular the mediocre ranking of America, which still lags behind most of Europe in high-speed links). The organisation has now broken out numbers on wireless broadband subscriptions. And the national differences turn out to be even bigger.

长期以来，经济合作与发展组织发布的有关其成员国宽带上网的数据就被密切关注（尤其是美国二流的排名，在高速链接方面仍然落后于大多数的欧洲国家）。该组织还公布了无线宽带的订购数量，结果显示在这方面国与国之间的差异更大。

BCG, for its part, in a new study of 46 countries, looks at how businesses, consumers and governments use the net. The data show that different countries have distinct internet economies. Britain’s internet infrastructure rates poorly, mainly because of its slow broadband speeds, but it has the highest per-person online spending and its government agencies are very active. Hong Kong, by contrast, tops the world in connectivity, but its consumers prefer to spend their money offline.

波士顿咨询集团方面，在一项对46个国家展开的新研究中，着眼于企业、顾客及政府如何使用网络。数据显示，不同国家有各自独特的互联网经济。对英国的互联网基础设施的评价很差，主要是由于它的宽带速度慢，但英国的网络购物消费及其政府却是非常的活跃。相比之下，香港的连通性能世界第一，但香港消费者们更不喜欢网购。

The differences spring from a country’s political and economic heritage. South Korea, for instance, has more political ambition than Britain to lead in broadband. If the British like to shop online it is not least because they also like to use credit cards, the easiest means to pay online. In Hong Kong, with its dense retail infrastructure, there is not much need for consumers to shop virtually.

这些差异源自于一个国家的政治传统及经济传统。例如韩国，引领宽带，它比英国更有政治野心。倘若英国消费者钟情网购，其中相当重要的原因是他们也喜欢使用信用卡，而使用信用卡又是网上支付的最简单方法。在香港，因其零售基础设施密集，网购就没有多大必要了。

To compare countries, BCG has come up with an “e-intensity index”. South Korea, Denmark and Sweden come out on top, whereas India, Egypt and Indonesia wind up at the bottom. Some countries, including Britain and Japan, do much better than would be expected given their GDP per person; others – Saudi Arabia and Italy – do worse.

为了在国与国之间作出比较，波士顿咨询集团提出了“电子强度指数”。韩国、丹麦和瑞典名列前茅。而印度、埃及和印尼以垫底告终。考虑人均国内生产总值，一些国家，包括英国和日本在这方面要比预期做的好；其他国家——沙特阿拉伯和意大利在这方面做得要比预期差。

Some of these differences will certainly go away, says Paul Zwillenberg of BCG. But overall, he predicts, the internet will continue to become more and more local: cultures are different, so the more people go online, the more the internet will resemble them. “There will be hundreds of internet flavours,” he says.

当然，其中的一些差异将消失，波士顿咨询集团的保罗·兹韦伦勃格如是说。但他预计，总体而言，互联网继续变得越来越具地方性：文化各异，故上网的人越多，互联网就与他们越相似。“将会有成百上千的互联网种类。”他说。

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