The digital arena in Southeast Asia is feeling the heat, and not just from its tropical climate. While the internet economy is still growing, the pace has slackened considerably. Recent research from Google, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Co suggests the internet economy will grow only 11% this year to hit $218 billion, the slowest rate since 2017. That’s – a little concerning.

Over 70% of online spending is thanks to the top 30% high-value users

But that’s not the entire story. What’s truly interesting is the unequal distribution of this digital spending. Over 70% of all online spending comes from the top 30% high-value users, who are primarily concentrated in big cities. In simpler terms, if you’re an internet company targeting the Southeast Asian market, you’re likely fishing in a small, albeit wealthy, pond.

In a region that’s home to more than 650 million people, why is the digital economy so skewed towards the urban elite? One reason could be rising inflation and interest rates, making consumers more cautious with their wallets. But that doesn’t entirely explain the digital divide. The investment climate also mirrors this caution. Private funding for companies in Southeast Asia has nosedived to a six-year low. Investors who hopped on the Southeast Asia bandwagon five to seven years ago are now seeing only a 4% return on average, a far cry from the 50% in China and 40% in the U.S.

So, where does that leave internet giants like Grab, Sea, and GoTo? Facing intense competition in urban markets while still struggling to tap into the vast yet untapped rural consumer base. With e-commerce estimated to reach just $186 billion by 2025, these companies may have to rewrite their growth strategies.

The digital landscape in Southeast Asia is more than just numbers and percentages; it’s a tale of a growing divide, a challenge to innovators, and a test for investors. And for now, it’s the big cities taking home the lion’s share of the digital pie.

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(Via)

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Asia is a very crucial market for the smartphone industry, as it contains the world’s largest markets for smartphones, which are India and China, both amounting to nearly 3 billion potential customers using smartphones. Thus, it is no surprise that there are a wide variety of smartphone brands in the region such as Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Samsung, Tecno and Infinix competing in the space.

And recently, StatCounter by Global Stats, published their data on Mobile Vendor Market Share in Asia for February 2023, and Apple had overtaken Xiaomi as the 2nd most popular smartphone brand in Asia, while Samsung remains on top.

The data shows that Samsung leads the pact with a 22.25% market share, Apple in second with 17.15%, Xiaomi in 3rd with 16.19%, Oppo in 4th with 10.82%, and Vivo in 5th with 9.76%.

Samsung’s large market share in Asia could be easily explained by its brand presence, as the smartphone manufacturer puts a lot into brand advertising as well as the availability of its offline retail and service stores. In addition, with the discounts given to its devices post-launch, makes it seem like a good bargain, which entices more customers to buy their smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Samsung Galaxy S23 series.

Meanwhile, Apple has now become the 2nd largest smartphone brand in Asia, which could be attributed to the brand expanding more of its presence in Asia. With the departure of Huawei, previous Huawei flagship owners might prefer iOS over stock Android due to iOS’ similarities to Huawei’s previous EMUI operating system, thus switching over to iPhone. And with the introduction of student discounts to developing Asian markets such as Malaysia and Vietnam, helps to expand the brand’s market share as well.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo had not launched any devices for the global market during February, and with the stagnation of the Chinese smartphone market, the global market outside of China should be a primary focus of these Chinese smartphone brands. Just this week, Xiaomi had just launched the Xiaomi 13 series for the global market with a free 6-month Google One subscription that includes features such as the Google Pixel Magic Eraser.

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(Source)

The post Apple Overtakes Xiaomi’s Smartphone Market Share in Asia for February 2023, Only Behind Samsung appeared first on Gizmochina.

After the ban on Huawei by the Trump administration in the United States which bans US-based company from doing business with the Chinese telecom giant, Huawei tried to put on a strong face. However, the company’s business is looking bleak at this moment and the uncertainty about its future is severely affecting the company’s sales.

The UK-based trade-in site Music Magpie revealed that it saw a huge increase in Huawei trade-ins during the 24 hours that followed Google’s announcement of suspending business ties with the company on Sunday. The site reported a surge of 154 percent for the company’s smartphones and, by 1 PM BST on Monday, Huawei devices were being sold more than any other brand.

A report from ADSLZone claims that within the space of just 36 hours, over 10,000 Huawei orders were canceled on Amazon’s Spanish website. Moreover, the mega Prime Day campaign that Huawei was planning with Amazon has reportedly been canceled. The company has also suspended all digital as well as retail advertising campaigns in Spain, including those focused on its latest flagship, the P30 Pro.

El Pais reported that sales in local department stores such as El Corte Inglés and Mediamarkt have fallen between 50 percent and 70 percent in Spain since the news broke on Sunday. Further, Spanish customers have returned over 15,000 Huawei devices to Amazon over the past few days.

In the Asian markets, Japan’s Softbank and KDDI have postponed the launch of numerous Huawei devices, including the P30 Lite that was set to go on sale this Friday, May 24th. Like Vodafone and EE in the UK, the reason for this decision is the uncertainty surrounding future device support.

It’s pretty evident that these recent developments are already starting to affect Huawei’s business. Even when the situation improves, the negative impact will likely ease off, but the company will undoubtedly come out with a severely damaged reputation.

Read More: Huawei reported to have already stockpiled 12 months of parts ahead of the US ban

After the ban on Chinese technology giant, many companies including Google, Intel, Qualcomm, and ARM among others have suspended business with Huawei in order to comply with the order from the US government. However, the US recently eased some aspects of the ban by 90 days, allowing Android OS updates to be certified on existing Huawei and Honor phones.

(Sources – 1, 2, 3)

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A study carried out by the United Nations University in Japan has revealed that the amount of e-waste in the Eastern and SouthEastern parts of Asia has increased by 63% between 2010 and 2015. The waste currently sitting at 12.3 million tonnes has Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland as major waste generators.

The huge surge in e-waste has been attributed to the rapid rate at which the middle class in countries like China is growing. People can now afford to buy more electronics and easily replace faulty ones or outdated ones. It has also become cheaper and easier to import products.

According to the research, some countries don’t have e-waste laws or don’t enforce them. It is also not unusual to see people uneducated about proper disposal of electronic wastes and those who are educated find it difficult to do so since recycling locations are far and few.

READ MORE: Ninety Percent of Phones old in China are from Domestic Manufacturers

It is not all that bad though as countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are doing well when it comes to e-waste management. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and China have created laws related to e-waste disposal recently and should get better as public awareness increases.

(Source, Image Source)

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