Home › iMedia Asia

asia

Marketing to the Asian inbox

January 19, 2010

PRINT
SHARE
COMMENT

9Global's chief revenue officer reviews email marketing laws in China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia -- all hotbeds for online marketing.

With globalization, and online marketers realizing the huge potential that expanding their efforts internationally has, it is of utmost importance to realize that what constitutes email marketing best practices in one country is different than in others. However, there is one common denominator upon reviewing email marketing laws worldwide: opt-in.

China
In recent years, international trade issues with China have been contentious. However, when it comes to controlling the international flow of spam, China is very much on board.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Information, China is the world's second largest producer of spam, behind the United States. Thus, any effort to combat this costly nuisance requires a commitment from China. As of yet, China has no national legislation dealing with spam. However, the Ministry of Information is working on developing such regulations. Perhaps more importantly, China has declared its commitment to put in its best efforts to fight spam and cooperate with other signatories when it signed the London Action Plan on Spam Enforcement Collaboration -- a US and UK-led international effort to combat spam -- on July 20, 2005.

According to UK Ecommerce Minister Alun Michael: "China engaged constructively in the Asia-Europe meeting on ecommerce in London in February. We have long been keen to engage with China on the issue of spam, in particular because China is probably the second biggest source of spam in the world. As China reaches the 100 million internet users mark, we welcome this opportunity to work with China to make the internet safer for users."

Another important development is the increasing efforts made by private parties to address the problem of spam. First, there is the Internet Society of China (ISC) which includes all of China's largest internet service providers (ISPs) whose members are bound by its "standards for web-based public email service" which requires policies against spam and rates ISPs partly based on spam ratios.

On Sept 2, 2004, the ISC and eBay/MS/America Online/Yahoo! signed a memorandum of understanding to explore areas of cooperation in protecting users from spam, developing anti-spam technology, promoting public education about spam, and promoting the punishment of spammers. Additionally, the ISC and the Internet Industry Association (IIA), an Australian agency, signed an agreement to help manage spam, reduce the inappropriate blacklisting of ISPs and minimize the effects on internet users' ability to send and receive emails.

Japan
When it comes to email laws, Japan is an interesting country. According to Toshihiko Shibuya, deputy director of the Telecommunications Consumer Policy Division in the Ministry of Interior Affairs and Communications (MIC), "Around 73 percent of all spam in Japan is sent to mobile phones and about 80 percent of that is from dating agencies." Due to this, the government is currently revising the anti-spam law passed in April 2002 titled "The Law on Regulation of Transmission of Specified Electronic Mail".

The law defines "'Specified Electronic Mail", as email sent for advertisement of senders' businesses to individual users. Advertisers, or email marketing companies that deploy on their behalf, are required to comply with the following obligations of labeling for senders of specified electronic mail:

Identification as specified electronic mail
Sender's name and address, email address, opt-out email address
Administrative orders by the Minister to publicize the law (As of July 1, Japanese legislation requires senders of email advertising to attach messages telling receivers the email is unsolicited advertising and how to reject any future ads)

According to a July 2007 article titled "Anti-spam Legislation in Asia" by Mark Brownlow, published in Email Marketing Reports: "The current law is pretty weak, allowing unsolicited email provided the email is labeled correctly and the content satisfies certain criteria. The new proposals look like they would ban unsolicited emails, presumably meaning a switch to opt-in requirements."

South Korea
According to a November 18, 2007 New York Times article titled "In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession: "South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the 'PC bang', dim internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner."

It is apparent South Korea is an economic and technological leader, which makes it an important example for the rest of the world. One distinct area of leadership is South Korea's success in dealing with spam where recent policy changes seem to be effective. The new regulations, enacted July 2005, are similar to those found elsewhere, but with some notable distinctions. They require marketers to identify their emails as advertisements and allow people to opt out from future emails through a toll-free hotline. Additionally, it is also forbidden for marketers to harvest or generate email addresses. Most notable, however, is the penalty that can reach up to $853,000, according to a report in the Washington Times.

At least initially, the regulations seem to be successful as the percentage of email that is spam has dropped from about 40 percent in March to 20 percent in July. Furthermore, pornographic spam dropped 27 percent over the same period, according to the Korean Information Security Agency. Although it is always difficult to establish a chain of causation, the changes are truly dramatic and will no doubt influence other nations in dealing with spam.

However, despite the short-term drop in spam, there is ample evidence that the problem continues to grow. For instance, BusinessWeek reports that South Korea currently produces 19.7 percent of the world's spam compared to 11.6 percent in the previous year. Although it is possible that Korean users are actually receiving less spam and that the increased production is all exported, it is likely that this summer's lull was only temporary.

Exactly how effective Korea's regulations are is still unclear. What is clear, though, is that given the combined international and technological problems facing governments, such regulations will not do the job alone. What is needed to curb this growing problem is continued global coordination and incentives for the development of anti-spam technology.

Malaysia
According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), it has no specific provisions on the illegality of spam and no immediate plans to legislate. However, with Malaysia's increasing internet connectivity and mobile penetration, the MCMC should be prepared to deal with email marketing laws.

According to the Computer Industry Almanac, as of March 2005, 37.9 percent of Malaysia's population is online. The number of users has tripled in just five years. One of the reasons for such rapid growth is the Malaysian government's involvement in bringing broadband access to its people. In July of 2008, Datuk Seri Lim Keng Yaik, Malaysia's minister of Energy, Water and Communications, announced plans to bridge the countries' digital divide by making broadband available to all.

Additionally, according to Huei Min Lee, research manager, telecommunications research, at IDC Malaysia, "In the next five years, Malaysia's broadband subscriber market is expected to increase at a healthy compound annual growth rate of 32.9 percent from 2004 to 2009."

Malaysia has over eight million users online, about one-third of the total population. The online population is two times that of the entire population of Singapore already. Having said that, the internet infrastructure needs to be improved in order for the online population to continue its growth and encourage greater usage of the internet. This also means that the MCMC needs to take preventative measures such as self-regulation by users through education and awareness initiatives; and management of email service providers.

At the end of the day, whether it is in China, South Korea, or Malaysia, responsible email marketing adheres to the same key elements: