Asia’s Digital Dilemma: While many Asian firms understand the importance of embracing the digital age, a deep-seated cultural wariness prevails

Faced with a massive fridge recall in Australia last year, South Korea’s LG Electronics did something bold: It tweeted about it.By Western standards, the move may not seem particularly daring, but in an Asian culture where the fear of “losing face” underlies most decisions, it was nothing short of revolutionary. And it won the firm a crisis-management award.LG’s approach, however, remains the exception. Asian firms usually eye digital media warily. Only 40% of the region’s top firms use branded media channels like Facebook and Twitter for corporate marketing purposes, compared to 79% globally, and just 12% have corporate blogs, compared to 33% world-wide, a recent survey by public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller found.
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