2019东南亚数字经济报告.pdf

12 Reference Disclaimer e-Conomy SEA is a multi-year research program launched by Google and Temasek in 2016. Bain Online Media (Advertising, Gaming, Subscription Music and Video on Demand); Ride Hailing (Transport, Food Delivery); e-Commerce; and a first in the series, Digital Financial Services (Payments, Remittance, Lending, Investment, Insurance). The series kicked off in May 2016 with the inaugural “e-Conomy SEA Unlocking the $200 billion digital opportunity in Southeast Asia”. In that report, we projected that the Southeast Asian Internet economy would grow to $200 billion by 2025, fueled by rapid growth in Online Travel, e-Commerce and Online Media. We also looked at the funding pipeline and concluded that investors had ample reason to be excited about the regions potential. Since then, we have continued to track the growth of the Internet economy in the region closely, expanding our coverage to more sectors and charting their progress. And we are constantly surprised by how fast the Internet economy is growing. In last years report, “e-Conomy SEA 2018 Southeast Asias Internet economy hits an inflection point”, we noted that the economy had reached a turning point, which would see gears shift. Investors have been moving funds into the region since, resulting in billion-dollar investments into companies, talent and infrastructure. This years report, “e-Conomy SEA 2019 Swipe up and to the right: Southeast Asias $100 billion Internet economy”, shows that the Internet economy has, for the first time, crossed the $100 billion mark. The pace of growth has been unprecedented, leading to a revision of our own estimates. This and previous reports would not have been possible without the assistance of industry experts who have contributed to the research. In particular, teams at Golden Gate Ventures, Monks Hill Ventures, Openspace, Vertex Ventures, Wavemaker and Jungle Ventures helped provide insights on venture capital investments in Southeast Asia.8 Mobile Internet transforming Southeast Asia9 Home to some 570 million people, Southeast Asias largest economies comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore are among the fastest growing markets in the world. Economic growth in the region has averaged 5% a year in the last five years1 and has exceeded the global growth average by approximately 2 percentage points over the past decade. This is indicative of a stable and rapidly developing region that is on its way to becoming a major economic powerhouse. By 2030, Southeast Asia is expected to become the worlds fourth largest economic bloc. 1 World Bank10 Another phenomenon is reshaping Southeast Asias fastest growing economies: a highly-connected and Internet-enabled community has taken root in recent years and it is growing rapidly. A decade ago, almost four in five Southeast Asians had no Internet connectivity and limited access to the information superhighway. Today, Southeast Asians are the most engaged mobile Internet users in the world. The region added more than 10 million Internet users last year, bringing the total number of people connected to the Internet to 360 million in 2019. The Internet user base is now 100 million larger than it was in 2015. Many of the new additions were young users, aged 15 to 19. Supported by the regions healthy demographics, this savvy brigade is set to grow. Some 150 million Southeast Asians will turn 15 over the next 15 years, which works out to be 10 million people joining the “mobile age” every year.2 They will enter adulthood having grown up with a device that allows them to communicate with their friends and family, work with classmates on school projects, entertain themselves with the latest games, videos and music, and discover information that aids them in their studies. And as these waves of young, mobile and digitally connected users move into their working lives, they will naturally become part of the Internet economy, further fueling its growth. In line with previous research findings, users in the region continue to be the most engaged in the world, spending significantly more time on the mobile Internet than their global peers. According to the Digital 2019 research by We Are Social and Hootsuite,3 Internet users in Thailand spent five hours and 13 minutes per day on the mobile Internet, more than those in any other country. Users from Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, who are connected to the mobile Internet for approximately four hours a day, are also among the top 10 countries in the world by mobile Internet usage. The global average is three hours and 13 minutes. 2 World Bank 3 Digital in 2019 - We are Social, Hootsuite Number of Internet users added since 201511 Be it first-jobbers living in Chiang Mai, white-collar professionals based in Hanoi or small business owners residing in Singapore, the mobile Internet is transforming the lives of millions of Southeast Asians by giving them unprecedented access to people, information and services. Throughout the day, across both work and personal activities, Internet services are making their lives more convenient and productive than before. For most users, social media and communication apps account for almost half of the time they spend on the mobile Internet. Video apps follow close behind, with user engagement having doubled over the last three years.4 Such apps have become the preferred companion for activities beyond just entertainment. In Indonesia, where searches for “review” videos on YouTube grew by 40% in 2018,5 consumers use video platforms to find the best products and services. Elsewhere in Thailand, one in three millennials say they use YouTube to educate themselves on particular topics, and four in 10 mothers use the platform to learn how to do specific things.6 4 App Annie analysis for e-Conomy SEA 5 “Year in Search: 2018 insights for brands”, Think with Google, Indonesia 6 YouTube/ORC International, YouTube Audience Insights Study, Thailand, 201812 7 “Rethinking search strategies for SEA consumers”, Think with Google, Southeast Asia, 2018 8 “Year in Search: 2018 insights for brands”, Think with Google, Indonesia Towards a more productive and purposeful use Increasingly mindful about their financial needs, Southeast Asians are becoming more proactive when it comes to considering which Financial Services are best for them. While Financial Services continue to be primarily purchased offline, the influence of online research is growing. Research shows that 60% of Singaporeans and 50% of Vietnamese did research online prior to purchasing Financial Services offline.7 That is not all. Some 72% of consumers in Indonesia see Google Search as the online gateway for personal loan information and the second most helpful source of information for Financial Services, after bank branches.8 Apps that help consumers locate places and businesses or suggest the best routes to destinations have also become staples for many Southeast Asian users. Waze and Google Maps, for instance, use up-to-date maps, real-time traffic information and public transport schedules to help millions of people save time on their daily commutes. Such apps also serve as powerful tools for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the region. They allow users to discover SMBs, check their locations and opening hours, contact them to ask about their products and services, review and even book them, as in the case of many restaurants and hotels. At the same time, many Southeast Asians rely on cloud-based apps that are freely available and widely trusted, such as Gmail, Google Docs and Google Sheets, to work more efficiently. These apps help SMBs to cut costs, improve efficiency and boost collaboration. They allow employees to keep their work in one secure place, as well as collaborate and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations with teammates across devices. In a region where 10 official languages coexist with hundreds of local dialects, apps like Google Translate have become critical in bridging communication gaps, especially for users traveling in the region. Internet browsers like Google Chrome as well as popular e-Commerce, Ride Hailing and Travel apps in Southeast Asia use translation services to enhance communication in real time between users and service providers. These are just some of the many ways in which the mobile Internet is transforming lives in Southeast Asia. As most mobile Internet apps are free for use, they do not add to the monetary value of the Internet economy sectors covered in this research, such as e-Commerce, Ride Hailing, Online Media and Online Travel. However, their value to users and SMBs in the region cannot be understated.