Skip to main content

Digital Marketplace to Flourish in Asia-Pacific

The homegrown Web 2.0 industry is projected to boom with a regional population of 900 million consumers under the age of 16. This accounts for approximately a third of its population, compared to under 20 percent in mature economies such as the U.S., UK and Germany.

More than 80 percent of these consumers are coming from India and China. In terms of users, IDC estimates that a third of all (unique) Internet users in 2007 are Web 2.0 users in India, 83 percent for the same in Korea and 70 percent in China, indicating that Internet users are quickly going beyond emailing, chatting and Web surfing.

"The Digital Marketplace will flourish in Asia-Pacific because of the sheer size of the population, the growing consumer influence with the rise of new money and government push to create a vibrant IT and Internet savvy population in many parts of the region including the rural areas and villages. The region's entrepreneurial spirit and aspiration combined with the strong need for localization will lead to homegrown versions of global Web powerhouses." said Sandra Ng, Vice President of IDC Asia-Pacific Digital Marketplace research practice.

IDC estimates that the total ICT spending from the provider community of this sector to range between 0.05 percent to 0.2 percent of the total ICT spending within most countries. While this proportion and the revenue generated by these providers are small, IDC believes that monetization of business models will take off in the next 2-3 years.

With the entry of new Web 2.0 providers in these markets, the local economies will attract new venture capital, angel investors and other investments. Given the extensive localized nature of the consumer space in many parts of the Asia-Pacific region, the entry of homegrown Web 2.0 companies and their extensive activities collectively, will generate a lot of momentum, interest, demand and excitement.

This marketplace affects not only the providers and their customers, but also the regulatory authorities. The government bodies responsible for content, education and economic development often keep a close watch, in some cases discouraging certain activities and in other times encouraging efforts with incentives (such as education and economic development).

Most governments, in general, encourage the flurry of investments and activities in this space as it creates a vibrant ICT industry that supports an IT and Internet savvy population. In this newly launched research program, IDC will broadly categorize Web 2.0 in several sectors, characterizing them based on the types of services offered in India, Korea, PRC and ASEAN.

The Web 2.0 services to be explored include Multimedia, Search, and Community, among others. While not every sector or provider has figured out ways to monetize their services, the collective opportunity is growing. Advertising and subscription are the most common business models today and these are expected to grow aggressively.

Premium charges -- at times on top of subscriptions -- are a high margin model although identifying and going to market with commercial services that are extremely well received is never easy. This model, however, is generally well received among SMB users.

Transaction charges typically on top of the commission or revenue sharing model is another popular business model as more online transactions are made and linked to Web 2.0 services.

Popular posts from this blog

How Cloud Fuels Digital Business Transformation

Across the globe, many CEOs invested in initiatives to expand their digital offerings. User experience enhancements that are enabled by business technology were a priority in many industries. Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 21.7 percent to a total of $597.3 billion in 2023 -- that's up from $491 billion in 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Cloud computing is driving the next phase of digital transformation, as organizations pursue disruption through technologies like generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web3, and enterprise Metaverse. Public Cloud Computing Market Development "Hyperscale cloud providers are driving the cloud agenda," said Sid Nag, vice president at Gartner . Organizations view cloud computing as a highly strategic platform for digital transformation initiatives, which requires providers to offer new capabilities as the competition for digital business escalates. "For example, generativ

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul