Latest Report on Digital Payment in Southeast Asia

Digital payments in Southeast Asia have grown from $600 billion last year to $620 billion this year, according to a new report released jointly by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co.

Overall, Southeast Asia's booming internet economy continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. The epidemic has also caused significant changes in the entire Southeast Asia region, with the report showing that about 40 million people went online for the first time this year, increasing the total number of internet users in Southeast Asia to 400 million.

The report also notes that more than one-third of digital service users have started using new online services as a result of the epidemic, with a significant number of new digital consumers coming from non-metropolitan areas, especially in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"The COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how people live on a daily basis, and digitalisation is expected to be realised within a few years," said Stephanie Davis, vice president of Google Southeast Asia.

Singapore remains a leader in economic growth in Southeast Asia, despite its internet economy shrinking 24% this year. The report said that once industries severely impacted by the outbreak resume operations, Singapore's internet economy could reach US$22 billion by 2025.

As expected, due to the government’s lockdown and travel ban, travel industry was the worst-affected sector, which shrank by 58%.

"Investors are obviously very cautious, but inspired by the resilience of the region's internet economy, we believe the tourism market will return to normal in 2021 and M&A transactions will pick up again," said Rohit Sipahimalani, Temasek’s chief investment strategist and head of Southeast Asia.