Why Google supports a strong Asean community

MANILA, Philippines — MicroSourcing helps foreign companies establish and manage their operations in the Philippines. The ability to attract new overseas customers is critical to their business, as well as the livelihoods of the thousands of Filipinos they employ. But customer referrals and word-of-mouth can only take you so far. In 2017, MicroSourcing decided to use digital advertising to engage key overseas markets and customer acquisition has since boomed.

MicroSourcing found a new solution to an old problem by leveraging on the internet revolution taking place across Southeast Asia. Southeast Asians spend more time using mobile internet than any other region in the world. Their incredible level of engagement translates to a significant economic opportunity for every Southeast Asian country.

Research by Google and Temasek finds that the Philippines’ internet economy grew from $2.1 to $3.6 billion between 2015 and 2017. 

That same revolution is unfolding throughout Southeast Asia – an incredibly diverse region of over 630 million people that have come together as one increasingly prosperous community. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. In the last half century, the region has overseen a miraculous transformation touching the lives of all its people.

The region’s prosperity was engineered by design, not accident. The leaders of the region set out to achieve peace and encourage trade.

Today, they are building the ASEAN community, a single market and production base that will be the fourth-largest economy in the world by 2030. Its accomplishments show that we achieve more by working together.

ASEAN should apply this lesson as it navigates the Fourth Industrial Revolution. China and India have adopted digital-first policies and are outpacing ASEAN’s overall growth. Cities like Bangalore and Beijing are emerging as Asia’s leading hubs for technological innovation and talent. To maintain its competitiveness, ASEAN must develop a robust digital strategy.

First, the region needs to recognize that the digital sector is an important growth engine. In a joint report, Google and Temasek forecast that Southeast Asia could have a $200-billion internet economy by 2025. With an annual growth rate of 27 percent, ASEAN’s internet economy is expanding five times faster than the overall economy.

Southeast Asian countries should also approach the digital economy as one community, rather than 10 separate countries. If ASEAN’s digital market remains fragmented, it will lose out to larger competitors. A more digitally connected ASEAN benefits every Southeast Asian country by improving local businesses’ access to regional customers, technology and ecosystems.

Southeast Asian governments have a vital role in supporting the emergence of more success stories like MicroSourcing. There would be so much to gain by removing barriers to the free flow of information within the region. They affect the economy in the same way as tariffs strangling trade in goods. By harmonizing differences in national regulations and streamlining complicated reporting requirements, governments could also lower business costs and increase ASEAN’s appeal to investors. Small local enterprises stand to benefit the most from such changes.

Growth in Southeast Asia’s digital economy should be inclusive. Small enterprises are the backbone of Southeast Asia and a digital ecosystem cannot thrive without them. That’s why Google supports greater digital literacy for everyone in the region.

In the Philippines, we are supporting DigiBayanihan’s efforts to give one million Filipinos across Visayas and Mindanao the know-how to access the internet and find new opportunities online.