VN’s digital economy to reach $14 billion in 2020

Southeast Asia’s digital economy remains resilient at $100 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) despite headwinds and is on track to cross $300 billion in GMV by 2025, according to a report from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.

Indonesia and Việt Nam continued to grow at double-digit rates, and Singapore remains a regional enabler for growth, despite short term GMV decline due to the online travel sector.
The report, which covered Indonesia, Malaysia, Việt Nam, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, showed that Internet usage in the region continues to multiply, with 40 million new users this year alone. That pushed the total number of internet users in these Southeast Asian countries to 400 million or nearly 70 per cent of the population.

The coronavirus brought about a permanent and massive digital adoption spurt, with more than one in three digital service consumers (36 per cent of total) new to the service. Of the number, 90 per cent intend to continue their newfound habits post-pandemic, it said.

Many of the new users came from non-metropolitan areas in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The report looked at seven internet economy sectors in Southeast Asia, including e-commerce, transport and food delivery, online travel, online media, financial services, health technology and education technology, with health and education technology added to the 2020 version.

E-commerce is expected to grow by 63 per cent to $62 billion in 2020 and is poised to hit $172 billion in 2025.

Digital financial services are also gaining momentum as more small-and-medium-sized businesses have become receptive to accepting online payments. Digital payments are set to grow from $600 billion in 2019 to $620 billion in 2020 and could reach $1.2 trillion by 2025.

The health technology and education technology sectors received a boost from the pandemic as many people turned to online health consultations while schools shifted to remote learning. Investments in those sectors are growing.

Source: Vietnamnews