Southeast Asia is a vibrant emerging market with over 400 million internet users and a booming digital economy. The internet penetration rate in Southeast Asia is as high as over 70 percent in all countries except for Laos, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste. Furthermore,
in several more Southeast Asian countries. Consequently, self-perceived digital literacy among Southeast Asian youth was low, despite the perceived importance. Despite it all, Southeast Asia is home to many successful startups and is looking to expand its internet economy.
Digital economy in Southeast Asia
The digital economy in Southeast Asia is expanding rapidly and was
projected to grow nearly two-fold by 2025. Digital economy segments such as e-commerce, online media, and ride-hailing have grown in the last few years while the online travel market has been recovering after it had significantly shrunk due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, all segments were forecast to see significant growth in the coming years. In particular, the e-commerce market, the largest segment, is predicted to see massive growth across all major economies, especially Indonesia and Vietnam.
Indonesia is the largest Southeast Asian digital economy overall due to the sheer size of the economy. The biggest e-commerce sites in Southeast Asia are based in Singapore and Indonesia, including Shopee, Lazada, and Tokopedia, along with the
leading ride-hailing apps, Grab and Gojek.
Consumer behavior
Southeast Asian internet users spend a lot of time using the internet daily. Among Asia-Pacific countries, they spend the most time using the internet, mobile internet, social media, and gaming. Internet users in Southeast Asia also appear to shop online more than some.
Thai internet users make weekly online grocery purchases, and overall e-commerce purchases the most, Malaysians use mobile commerce the most, and Vietnamese online users are only behind China in terms of digital content purchases.
Internet users in Southeast Asia appear to be curious about and open to new services and technologies. Value expectations for cryptocurrency and NFT among Southeast Asians are more positive than negative. Around half of those surveyed in
Southeast Asia were interested in the metaverse.
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