Southeast Asian nations are adopting digital technologies at an unprecedented speed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, says a report.
The e-Conomy SEA 2022 report prepared by Google, Singaporean investment firm Temasek, and venture capital firm Bain & Company, zones in on Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam – the six biggest and most digitally connected economies.
The report noted growth in internet users, as 100 million of 460 million users joined over the past three years.
This prompted projections of the region’s digital economy to be worth over $200 billion in 2022. It adds that it “is expected to grow twice as fast as GDP in most Southeast Asian countries and could reach up to $1[trillion] by 2030 if the full potential can be unlocked.”
While previous e-Conomy reports looked into COVID-19’s effect on the uptake of digital technologies, this year’s version included environmental and social impacts of the growing digital economy, from its resultant carbon footprint to income inequality.
According to Google Southeast Asia vice president Stephanie Davis, the region’s “digital decade continues to provide opportunities for people, businesses and communities to grow, and there are boundless opportunities ahead.”
She also noted that although profitability and growth momentum are key for companies in the region, equally important is that the digital economy “scales in an environmentally and socially sustainable way.”
