Southeast Asia's Internet economy to hit 50 bln USD in 2017: report

SINGAPORE, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Southeast Asia's Internet economy is estimated to reach 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, with a compound annual growth rate at 27 percent, according to a report jointly released by Temasek and Google on Tuesday.

The e-Conomy SEA Spotlight 2017 report says the area's Internet economy is on a solid trajectory to exceed 200 billion dollars by 2025. The figure will account for 6 percent of Southeast Asia's GDP at that time, compared to 2 percent in 2017 and 1.3 percent in 2015.

The report says all sectors of the area's Internet economy have experienced solid growth in 2017. In a breakdown, online travel reached 26.6 billion dollars led by growth in airline and hotel online bookings; online media touched 6.9 billion dollars driven by online advertising and gaming; and e-commerce and ride hailing both saw compound annual growth rates exceeding 40 percent in the year.

According to the report, Southeast Asia's e-commerce sales of first-hand goods will reach 10.9 billion dollars in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2017, up from 5.5 billion dollars in 2015, with compound annual growth rate of 41 percent. It is estimated that the e-commerce market size in Southeast Asia will reach 88.1 billion dollars by 2025.

As for ride hailing business, the relevant services will reach 5.1 billion in GMV this year, more than double from 2.5 billion dollars in GMV in 2015. The 2025 projections for the ride hailing sector is 20.1 billion dollars in GMV.

The report says Southeast Asia's Internet user base continues to grow rapidly in 2017, as the monthly active internet user number will reach 330 million by the year-end, and the mobile Internet engagement in the area has reached an average of 3.6 hours per day. Enditem