In The Nielsen Company’s latest survey of 52 countries, into global citizens’ entertainment technology ownership and consumption habits, five from Asia-Pacific occupied spots in the top 10 list with the highest levels of ownership and usage across a range of media devices, including home entertainment, music, videogames and digital media. The Philippines took pole position, Singapore came second, while Australia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand came in at fourth, eighth and tenth positions respectively. However, countries plagued by content piracy problems are also likely to perform strongly on results for the survey, which does not make a distinction between users engaging in legal or illegally obtained media. The findings emerged from the entertainment portion of the biannual Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, which reached 26,000 online users in September 2008. Rankings were computed by measuring a range of scores in response to thematically similar survey questions. The so-called digital divide between emerging and developed economies worldwide may not be that wide. While Western countries tend to be heavy users of media hardware like DVD players and gaming consoles, next-generation devices like video-enabled handsets are more popular in the up-and-coming markets, particularly in Asia. Through the survey, it has been noted that many Asian consumers largely skipped landlines in favor of wireless technology. The same leapfrogging is also taking place with entertainment – with consumers circumventing the need for a relatively expensive gaming console to play subscription-based videogames online. Other factors identified responsible for media usage in many Asian countries include the broad uptake of mobile due to widespread use of public transportation and government policies maximizing broadband access in China and Singapore.