When looking at the statistical data, Sri Lanka has shown an adult literacy rate of 92%, which is one of the highest in Asia. However, the country is still lagging in internet penetration and usage compared to the rest of the region.

As of 2011 the household access to the Internet is at a mere 11.2%, which is an increase of 35% from the 2010 value of 8.3%. This indicates a positive growth towards internet usage. A possible reason for growth could be a result of the government coming up with an ambitious 5 year plan to increase the household internet access to 75%. The plan was based on the realisation that a failure to acquire the requisite technical knowledge will prevent large segments of the population benefiting from the fruits of the Information Age. Although hitting the 75% mark is very ambitious, looking at the 2010/2011 growth rate it could be stated that a percentage increase of 30.7% is possible by 2015.

In less than 3 years as of today, there could be a figure of 6,030,360 Facebook users in Sri Lanka. This figure is backed up by the statistics, where there are 1,220,100 Facebook users as of 2011; a growth of 191,660 new users in 6 months was seen. According to latest statistics, Sri Lanka is ranked No 75 in the ranking of all Facebook statistics by country. This could be a tremendous opportunity to develop a new product or service online in Sri Lanka using social media marketing.

An obvious fact in the last 6 months has been that more and more companies are visible on Facebook. Most of these companies have identified that online marketing could be the key with regard to been visible to the target market via a social media platform. In addition, it is becoming a lot easier to focus on the target market using Facebook or Google; which would be a reason why most companies have opted for social media marketing. However, according to available statistics there is a big disparity between urban and rural population with regard to computer literacy, where the urban internet user segment is 3 times the rural sector.

This could be a result of simple economics such as per capita income being higher in urban areas or the more complex issue of English literacy rate been lower in rural Sri Lanka. If the English literacy rate is the main reason for people not using the internet then it would be an uphill battle to reach high internet penetration levels. This is because at present there are limited translation software available to translate from English to native Sri Lankan languages. Currently, some brands have started advertising in native Sri Lankan languages by using pictures on Facebook.

By taking into consideration the points discussed above, it could be stated that there is a tremendous potential for growth for online sales and marketing in Sri Lanka. Have a look at the Youtube clip below as I found it very interesting which is about the potential of social media in Sri Lanka.

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