Asia's E-commerce Surpasses Online Travel Market

[Asia Economy Kuala Lumpur Correspondent Hong Seong-ah] In the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) internet economy-related industries, the e-commerce market surpassed the online travel market for the first time last year. The e-commerce market size is expected to grow to $153 billion by 2025, accounting for more than half of the entire internet economy. The internet economy includes e-commerce, online travel, online media, ride-sharing, and digital finance sectors.

According to local Malaysian media such as The Edge Market on the 4th, the total merchandise transaction value of e-commerce in six major ASEAN countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines) surged from $5 billion in 2015 to $38 billion last year. The online travel market grew from $19 billion to $34 billion during the same period but could not keep pace with the growth rate of the e-commerce market. Following the travel market, the internet media market increased from $4 billion in 2015 to $14 billion in 2019, and the ride-sharing service market grew from $3 billion to $13 billion.

Accordingly, the ASEAN region's internet economy size is expected to expand from $32 billion to $300 billion by 2025. The rapid growth of the ASEAN e-commerce market is largely due to the increase in internet and smartphone penetration along with the announcement of specialized strategies one after another. In Malaysia, the government set a goal in 2017 to make the country an ASEAN e-commerce hub by establishing a digital free trade zone and announcing the National E-commerce Strategic Roadmap (NESR). According to Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM), Malaysia's e-commerce market is expected to reach $11 billion by 2025, recording an average annual growth rate of 24%. Last year, Malaysia's e-commerce market size was about $3 billion, approximately three times larger than in 2015.

As of last year, the city with the largest internet economy size was Singapore, where the annual per capita expenditure was $2,218. Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley, the metropolitan area of Malaysia, ranked second with $681. The Jakarta metropolitan area (Jabodetabek: Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) in Indonesia followed with $555, then Bangkok, Thailand with $549, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam with $364, and Manila, Philippines with $273.

Meanwhile, the mobile e-commerce application with the highest monthly active users in the ASEAN region was Lazada. Lazada ranked first in four markets: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. In Malaysia, following Lazada, Shopee, Taobao, 11st, and OLX Express had the highest monthly active users in that order.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.