Vietnam’s ACB ranked 2nd in banking website speed

The report rated the speed and availability of the top 10 websites of five industry sectors across six Asian countries -- Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines – focusing on industries of banking and financial services, government, retail, telecommunications, and travel.

In banking and finance, OCBC Bank in Singapore and Bank of Ayudhya in Thailand were ranked for the fastest response time of 1.3 seconds. Ho Chi Minh City-based ACB was the second fastest at 2.8 seconds. The worst performer came from Indonesia where Bank Rakyat Indonesia took a staggering 35.6 seconds.

Singapore had the highest availability average of 99.32 per cent in this sector, while the Philippines placed last at 85.63 per cent.

Results were mixed between countries in terms of response times. Singapore, for instance, scored the best speeds for most sectors but was edged out of the top three in the telecommunication segment.

In telecoms, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines emerged the top three in response times. Thailand’s True Internet had the best time of 2.1 seconds, followed by Vietnam’s Thien Duong Web at 3.8 seconds, and Digital Telecommunications in the Philippines at 5.1 seconds. Singapore’s SingTel was in fourth place with 5.3 seconds.

The Philippines’ Sun Cellular, however, had the second-worst response time at 28.7 seconds. Only TRI Indonesia clocked in a longer response time, with 36 seconds. Indonesia was also the weakest performer in availability with an average 75.09 per cent rate in telecoms, nearly 15 per cent lower than the Philippines’ average of 89.59 per cent.

In the retail sector, the gap between the best and worst response times was considerably wide for all countries.

Singapore took pole position with McDelivery scoring the fastest load time of 1.3 seconds. Groupon Singapore clocked 14.7 seconds, the slowest time. Vietnam had the second-fastest time with ringtone vendor Funring chalking up 5.7 seconds, and Nhom Mua, a daily deals site, clocked the sector’s third-slowest time at 23.1 seconds.

Philippine retail websites logged in dismal numbers, where 15 seconds – from the local Kentucky Fried Chicken website – was the fastest response time in the country. Its slowest response time, recorded by group-buying site Metro Deal, was twice as long at 30.9 seconds.
Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s worst performers also logged in response times of at least half a minute.

Singapore’s retail sites recorded the highest availability average of 96.56 per cent. Indonesia was last at 85.18 per cent.

In the travel sector, the top scorer in terms of response time was in Singapore, with Tiger Airways at 2.2 seconds. This was more than twice as fast as the Tiger Airways site in Vietnam, which clocked 5.6 seconds. Indonesia’s Lion Air was a close third with 5.8 seconds.

The slowest times for all six countries were in the double digits. AirAsia was Singapore’s slowest time at 10.8 seconds, but this was faster than AirAsia in Vietnam, at 18.5 seconds. Indonesia’s Agoda.com was the slowest at 24.6 seconds.

Sites in Singapore again were top with the highest availability at an average of 99.08 per cent. Indonesia came in last at 89.35 per cent.

In the government and public sector, Thailand came out tops in terms of response time, with the best performer – The Royal Thai Navy – clocking 1.1 seconds. Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority follows with 2 seconds. The two countries switched places when it came to slowest responses times: Singapore’s slowest performer – National Library Board – clocked 5 seconds, half of Thailand’s slowest performer – Ministry of Education – at 10.3 seconds.

Direktorat Jenderal Pajak (Directorate General of Taxation) in Indonesia was the slowest performer on the list at 33.4 seconds. Still, the country’s fastest performer, Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia, scored 6.9 seconds, beating Malaysia’s best time of 12.9 seconds by the Malaysian Treasury.

None of the Malaysian government sites logged response times below 10 seconds, according to the ZDNet Asia report.

US-based ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive. It was founded in 1991 as a general interest technology portal and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET Networks.