"The primary payment method for mobile internet usage in most developing countries is prepaid, with the amount tied to a specific volume of data usage. Data volume is therefore a useful yardstick to determine how much is needed to carry out important welfare enhancing activities online. For foundati
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onal online activities, which include websites for public services, health information, shopping, learning, and news, we estimate using data from six developing countries that 660MB per month, per user are needed for these welfare-enhancing activities. For common recreational online activities – particularly social media use – we estimate that an additional 5.2GB per month, per user is needed, for a total of approximately 6GB per month, per user. While the cheapest 30-day data packages in most of the countries examined exceed this minimum estimate, the cost of these packages exceeds more than 2% of income for the bottom 40% of the population, which risks widening the digital divide. The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the demand for data by triggering widespread use of video conferencing for work, learning and health among others. This increased demand, along with the continuous development of more data-heavy content, will continue to inflate the minimum data needed for welfare enhancing activities, which may further exacerbate the digital divide if more affordable packages or other alternatives mechanisms for facilitating connectivity are not provided for the most vulnerable populations." (Key findings)
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"In order to maintain competitive edge over both domestic rivals and international competition, Chinese television companies have been looking abroad for ideas. A number of political and commercial concerns have come together to inform a sudden interest by Chinese media companies in creativity and i
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nnovation. Hunan TV has been at the forefront, carefully deciding on the United Kingdom and selecting partners with which to work. In the course of its explorations abroad, Hunan has changed its objectives from narrowly technical and managerial ones to strategic ones. It now buys foreign formats, develops its own ideas, and looks forward to exporting those ideas and perhaps formats abroad, a hitherto inconceivable ambition that reflects urgent Chinese government concerns about the country's need to expand its international 'soft power'. Meanwhile, Hunan TV's initiatives have not gone unnoticed elsewhere in China, and other television companies are following suit. This article describes how this came about and what measures are being undertaken as a result of it, and discusses the implications of such ambitions." (Abstract)
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