Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Vietnamese interneteconomy has almost tripled in three years to reach 9 billion USD in 2018,driven by e-commerce and online media, a new report released by Google andTemasek showed.

According to the report, titled “e-Conomy SEA 2018”, the interneteconomy is growing in all six Southeast Asian countries surveyed but the stageof development relative to the size of each country’s economy differs. It ismost developed in Vietnam, where the gross merchandise value (GMV) of theinternet economy is 4 percent of the country’s GDP.

With e-commerce almost doubling in 2018 from a year earlier,and with online advertising and gaming growing at more than 50 percent year onyear, the Vietnamese internet economy is booming. Amidst one of the lowestpenetrations of online travel bookings in the region, the online travel markethas huge room for growth.

While e-commerce is experiencing healthy growth in allSoutheast Asian countries, Indonesia is leading the way, reaching 12 billion USDin 2018 and accounting for more than 1 USD in every 2 USD spent in the region.E-commerce adoption has also accelerated in Vietnam, where it reached nearly 3billion USD in 2018.

Online media is also growing rapidly in Vietnam, reaching 2.2billion USD. This is not surprising considering the country ranks among the top10 globally in terms of user engagement on gaming, social media and videoplatforms.

According to the report, powered by a large, growing, andincredibly engaged internet user base, it is estimated that the Southeast Asianinternet economy has reached 72 billion USD in GMV in 2018 across onlinetravel, e-commerce, online media and ride hailing. Growing at 37 percent from ayear earlier, it has accelerated beyond the 32 percent compounded annual growthrate (CAGR) that was recorded between 2015 and 2018.

With the addition of the new sectors of online vacationrentals, online food ordering and subscription music and video on demand, andamidst the accelerated growth observed across all sectors, the internet economyin the region is on track to exceed 240 billion USD by 2025 – 40 billion USDhigher than previously estimated.

The GMV of the internet economy stands at 2.8 percent ofSoutheast Asia’s GDP in 2018 – up from 1.3 percent in 2015 – and is projectedto exceed 8 percent by 2025. To put that into perspective, Southeast Asia isstill trailing almost 10 years behind the US, where the GMV of the interneteconomy already accounted for 6.5 percent of GDP back in 2016. The gap,however, has started to narrow.

The report also estimated there are more than 350 millioninternet users across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailandand Vietnam in June 2018 – 90 million more than in 2015.-VNS/VNA