The populations of Asia and the Middle East are far ahead of the Western ones in terms of adopting new technologies due to greater knowledge and greater optimism which also causes there to be more trust in these technologies. This is what emerged from a survey conducted by HSBC worldwide.
"Trust in Technology", the new HSBC report, includes research carried out among more than 12.000 people in 11 countries, underlining how the trust and use of new technologies changes enormously in different parts of the world, with the East being ahead of the West.
An example of the differences between the two areas of the globe is evidenced by the rapid adoption of fingerprint recognition technology in the Eastern hemisphere. The Chinese (40%) are the largest users of the fingerprint reader, with India (31%) and the UAE (25%) in second and third position respectively in the ranking of the countries surveyed.
In the lower positions of the ranking, however, we find the French and Germans with 9%, while only 14% of the inhabitants of Canada have used fingerprint recognition to identify themselves.
In the West, the use of traditional technologies is still very common, with the French being the most fond of using passwords and, at the same time, the least inclined (37%) to switch to a more secure method such as the letter reader. Fingerprints. The figure must be compared with the 46% totaled by the inhabitants of Hong Kong and with 56% by the Chinese population.
When it comes to money management, the Chinese (48%) and Indians (50%) are the most likely to agree that computers already offer more accurate advice than humans. Conversely, only 18% of the Canadian population and 21% of the UK population agree with this statement.
Germany, at just 4%, has the lowest rate of use of banking via smartphone or tablet, compared to 15% reported in the UAE and 9% in Hong Kong. “Eastern people seem to have a broader understanding and greater confidence in emerging technologies and how they can benefit their lives.
The speed of change and the overwhelming rate of adoption of new technologies means that countries like India, China and the UAE are ahead of most of the Western world,” said John Flint, Global Chief Executive of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at HSBC.
The data suggests that trust in new technologies and their subsequent use are not only driven by consumer trends but can also be encouraged through wider government support. In 2009, the Government of India was the first to launch a biometrics-based program called the Aadhaar Project, creating the world's largest biometric database.
This likely contributed to India's population being three times more likely to use iris recognition technology than the global average (9% versus 3%). A national approach based on greater openness, combined with government support for the launch and promotion of new technologies, could have a disruptive effect on a nation.
However, there are clear reasons to be optimistic about Western countries' use and attitude towards new technologies. However, this is not the complete picture. 50% of the Chinese population still own a fax machine, while 39% of Indians own a pager, both with the highest percentages among the sample that took part in the survey.
Even though the east has overtaken the west in terms of the use and adoption of new technologies, there is still a high prevalence of older technologies being employed on a daily basis. Furthermore, the data show that progress is not distributed widely evenly, with a large gap between rural and urban areas.
