China’s Major Tech Firms Will Dominate SE Asia’s Emerging Markets: Who Wins And Who Loses?

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

By Alex Capri

China’s giant tech firms are primed and ready to dominate Southeast Asia’s emerging markets.

Digital behemoths Alibaba and Tencent are expanding their e-commerce, cloud and data capabilities across the SEA region, which has a rapidly growing population of more than half a billion people.

Special attention is being given to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Small businesses hold the key to unlocking Southeast Asia’s next phase of economic growth, and, as MSMEs begin to harness the power of the platform economy, Chinese tech firms are mounting well-orchestrated campaigns to pull new customers into their digital ecosystems.

This presents a tempting scenario for policy makers as they pursue their own agendas for economic growth. Partnering with Chinese companies would seem like a no-brainer: they bring scalable leading edge technology and provide plug-and-play opportunities that produce instant results.

Photo courtesy of Abd allah Foteih.

Source: Forbes (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance, Technology
Tags
e-commerce, fintech, MSMEs, public policy