Hi there. It’s Brady.
Every year, Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company publish joint research about Southeast Asia’s internet economy. And every year, the predictions are rosy. There are good reasons for that. We are alive at a time when useful technological advancements are easily accessible and cheap enough for almost everyone. That means emerging economies have the most to gain, and they’ll move forward quickly.
One number tells us how true that is: 440 million people in six countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—are online right now. That’s more than 75% of their aggregate population.
It’s natural to expect them to move more and more of their spending patterns onto the internet. For any one person who has doubts about platforms’ capabilities to protect user data, there are many more who are simply after the convenience that apps provide.
While many stakeholders hold optimistic views about the internet economy’s outlook, there are some uncertainties. Chief among them is when and how conditions brought on by the pandemic will change, and the ways consumers will react.
When people earmark a bigger portion of their personal budgets to different forms of entertainment and spending, moving back to in-person experiences from online expenditure, how will that reshape the customer bases of platforms that became indispensable when movement restrictions were in place? And what sort of companies are best prepared for those changes? At the moment, the answers are anyone’s guess.
Khamila picked out eight key points from the report. You can read them here.
Daily Roundup
Southeast Asian digital artists are building online communities to foster regional adoption of NFTs.
Huobi Global to sunset Singapore users by March 2022 due to “strict requirements for licenses.”
China will promote the digital yuan by improving link-ups with mobile payment apps.
Nio’s Q3 losses narrow due to growing demand for EVs.
Game streaming firm Huya fends off stiff competition with Q3 revenue and MAU growth.
Nykaa’s blockbuster market debut gives birth to India’s richest self-made woman billionaire.
Check out Startup Wire’s first newsletter.