As Measure 2.3.1 of the Pacific Regional E-commerce Strategy and Roadmap points out, together with affordability and reliability, internet demand is determined by the relevance of internet contents to its users. Relevance is driven by the availability of local content which provides an incentive to go online. From a private sector perspective, websites and social media (mainly Facebook) are the two main channels for promoting business through the development of local content. Except for the hospitality and travel sectors, the websites of businesses are quite simple and are mainly used to promote goods and services. The development of additional local content by both companies and non-private sector entities can increase the share of business operations conducted digitally in any given sector, facilitate the transition of existing activities into the digital space, and create new business activities. More local content will generate more demand for internet use, which should increase profitability of the telecommunication sector and reduce the need for subsidies, especially in rural areas.
Measure 2.3.2 focuses on how, in the Pacific, large sections of the population have access only to pay-as-you-go packages which allow the subscriber to buy a service for a set fee. Pay-as-you-go packages are hindrances to the extensive uptake of E-commerce, because the intensive use necessary for online shopping with calls and texts, sending e-mails, downloading data and accessing the internet can be more costly on a per-megabyte basis than with a fixed-price contract. Additionally, the current disconnect in Governments between investing in cable and negotiating access to international bandwidth at competitive rates must be addressed, to stop situations where existing capacity is critically underused due to prohibitive wholesale costs.