As the company looks for emerging markets, SEA comes under the spotlight as a prime target for its expansion strategies.
FREMONT, CA: Over the past few years, the Southeast Asia internet economy has witnessed tremendous growth and changes. 2020, during the covid-19 pandemic, marked the most significant transformation yet. To navigate through unprecedented events, Southeast Asia uses the internet in innovative ways and on a larger scale. Since the beginning of 2020, around 40 million people in southeast Asia have connected to the internet for the very first time in their lives, and the number was 10 million in 2019.
As technology provides critical access to online shopping, healthcare, food, education, financial services, and entertainment, more and more consumers in Southeast Asia are going to employ digital services for their everyday operations. Google is aiming to tap into this growing market for expansion in the region. The company has been interested in Southeast Asia for quite some time. Via its philanthropic arms, Google has announced a USD 2.5 million grant to help Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), UNICEF, and International Federation of Red Cross, to scale up the covid-19 response in the region, including relief efforts in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Southeast Asia’s developing technology ecosystem is also under the spotlight as giant corporations look for emerging markets. The region not only houses a large community of tech-savvy youngsters but also represents technologists who are culturally, commercially, and economically distinct from global markets. The Cloud computing branch of the company, Google Cloud, is rigorously stepping up its efforts to expand its footprint in the Southeast Asia market, earmarking Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines as the next center of rapid development in cloud computing.
As Southeast Asia is set to triple its economy by 2050, it is not surprising that Google is developing innovative strategies to leverage the market. By collaborating with local brands and providing support to startup ecosystems, Google is set to massively influence technological development in Southeast Asia.
