Asean
The State of eCommerce in Southeast Asia
Mobile apps are playing a vital role in the development of e-commerce. According to a report by Google and Temasek, there are more than 350 million internet users in the six largest markets in Southeast Asia

The Map of E-Commerce ranks Thailand’s top e-commerce players based on their average quarterly traffic, mobile application ranking, social media followers and number of staff. Data was collected in April 2019.
Shopee and Lazada dominate, but some local champions such as Tokopedia are thriving, according to an iPrice study
More than 90% of Southeast Asians connect to the internet primarily through mobile devices.
Overall, Google and Temasek expect the e-commerce market in the region to be worth US$102 billion by 2025.
Mobile apps are playing a vital role in the development of e-commerce. According to a report by Google and Temasek, there are more than 350 million internet users in the six largest markets in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).
This figure is expected to rise as smartphones become more accessible and networks become faster.

Mobile dominates but Desktop is still alive
Although mobile applications are an important aspect of e-commerce, e-commerce websites remain relevant to consumers as well. A study on the State of E-commerce in Southeast Asia noted that consumers were more likely to conduct purchases via desktops as compared to mobile.
In addition to this, the same report by Google & Temasek stated that the internet economy will rapidly grow to become a US$240 billion industry with e-commerce as a key driving force and is estimated to garner as much as US$102 billion by the year 2025.
As e-commerce companies today are racing to realise the digital potential, we conducted a study to ascertain the leading e-commerce shopping applications of today. iPrice Group partnered with App Annie Intelligence, an app market data, and insights company to identify which e-commerce mobile shopping applications were most actively used in Q1 2019.
The e-commerce shopping apps were ranked via the average monthly active users (MAU) recorded in Q1 2019. Utilising MAU, App Annie Intelligence aggregated and ranked applications for six key markets in Southeast Asia (SEA) namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Asean
The Latest on Covid-19 in Southeast Asia
Thailand has largely avoided widespread community transmission of Covid-19, but the kingdom is not faring well on the economic front, with a projected contraction of 7.1 percent this year.

As a region, Southeast Asia has fared relatively well in keeping coronavirus cases low, with the notable exceptions of the Philippines and Indonesia.
(more…)Laos
China’s debt-trap diplomacy: Laos’ credit rating downgraded to CCC
Laos’ debt challenge is deeply concerning, with some media commentators suggesting the country is falling into a debt trap as a result of Chinese infrastructure investments connected to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

On 23 September, the Fitch Ratings agency downgraded Laos’ credit rating to CCC — the second downgrade in 2020, having dropped to B- in May.
(more…)Vietnam
Foreign capital still heads to Vietnam
As many as 798 projects added a combined over 5.11 billion USD to their investment capital, down 23 percent year-on-year in project number but up 6.8 percent in value.

Hanoi (VNA) – The total amount of foreign investment poured into Vietnam this year to September 20 reached 21.2 billion USD, equivalent to 81.8 percent of the same period last year, reported the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
(more…)