Authors:
- Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Southeast Asia and India, Google
- Rohit Sipahimalani, Joint Head, Portfolio Strategy and Risk Group, Temasek

As hundreds of millions of Southeast Asians come online, we should pay attention to the opportunities in the region’s dynamic internet economy. In last year’s “e-Conomy 2025 Southeast Asia” report, Google and Temasek examined the incredible growth in Southeast Asia’s internet economy. It turns out that Southeast Asia’s internet economy growth has exceeded expectations. The region’s internet economy will reach $50 billion in 2017, outpacing earlier growth expectations by 35 percent. In the “e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017” report, we’ve found that the region is well on track to realizing a $200 billion internet economy by 2025. 

Southeast Asia’s internet economy market size (in USD billions)

Here are some other striking numbers about Southeast Asia’s internet economy from the latest report:

• 330 million internet users. With more than 70 million new internet users since 2015, Southeast Asia now has the third largest number of internet users in the world — bigger than the whole population of the United States.
• 3.6 hours on the mobile internet every day. Southeast Asians spend more time on the mobile internet than anyone else on the planet. Thailand is top of the list with 4.2 hours per day, with Indonesia a close second at 3.9 hours per day. To compare, the US spends 2 hours per day, the UK 1.8 hours per day, and Japan 1 hour per day on mobile internet.
• 140 minutes shopping online every month. Southeast Asians spend almost twice as much time as Americans in e-commerce marketplaces. The region will have an $88.1 billion e-commerce market by 2025.
• 6 million rides booked through ride-hailing platforms every day. The ride-hailing market in Southeast Asia has grown four-fold since 2015 and will be $20.1 billion by 2025.
• More than $12 billion raised by Southeast Asian startups since 2016. At 0.18 percent of GDP, the amount of investment into Southeast Asian startups is on par with India’sand a vote of confidence in Southeast Asia’s huge internet potential.

Learn more about Southeast Asia’s growing internet economy with the “e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017”.