By APD writer Alice

HANOI, Dec. 4 (APD) -- The Vietnamese internet economy has almost tripled in three years to reach 9 billion USD in 2018, driven by e-commerce and online media, a new report released by Google and Temasek showed.

According to the report, titled “e-Conomy SEA 2018”, the internet economy is growing in all six Southeast Asian countries surveyed but the stage of development relative to the size of each country’s economy differs. It is most developed in Vietnam, where the gross merchandise value (GMV) of the internet economy is 4 percent of the country’s GDP.

With e-commerce almost doubling in 2018 from a year earlier, and with online advertising and gaming growing at more than 50 percent year on year, the Vietnamese internet economy is booming. Amidst one of the lowest penetrations of online travel bookings in the region, the online travel market has huge room for growth.

E-commerce adoption has also accelerated in Vietnam, where it reached nearly 3 billion USD in 2018.

Online media is also growing rapidly in the country, hitting 2.2 billion USD. This is not surprising considering Vietnam ranks among the top 10 globally in terms of user engagement on gaming, social media and video platforms.

According to the report, powered by a large, growing, and incredibly engaged internet user base, the Southeast Asian internet economy has reached 72 billion USD in GMV in 2018 across online travel, e-commerce, online media and ride hailing. Growing at 37 percent from a year earlier, it has accelerated beyond the 32 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) that was recorded between 2015 and 2018.

The report also estimated there are more than 350 million internet users across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in June 2018 – 90 million more than in 2015.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)