SINGAPORE, Dec. 23, 2020 — By Piyush Bhatia, Vice President – Asia Pacific, SHAREit
Piyush Bhatia, Vice President – Asia Pacific, SHAREit
Covid and the ensuing lockdowns have indisputably had a direct and tremendous impact on global digital entertainment consumption. Digital consumption in 2020 has seen unprecedented heights. The recent e-Conomy report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Co suggests that 1 in 3 of all digital service consumers are new to the service because of COVID-19, and 94% of them intend to continue with the service. In Indonesia, the internet economy has reached US $44 billion despite the challenging situation in 2020, and it is supported by the online media which has grown by 24% since last year. On an average, Indonesians spend 4.7 hours online each day, and we are likely to see this trend continue in a similar pattern even after COVID-19 related mobility restrictions are eased.
This has opened an opportunity for content distribution platforms to answer the needs of consumers especially in Indonesia. With the current 175,4 million internet users, content distribution platforms are expected to complete the needs of the customers, starting from entertainment, gaming, and even live-streaming. Therefore, market players across video platforms need to work hard to give the user an unforgettable experience with their mid and short form video platforms, focusing on bringing the sleekest technology, fresh and unique content, vast libraries with portfolios that marry local content with global technology.
As a leading tech company with a user base of over 1.8 million people, SHAREit is dedicated to making digital content equally accessible for everyone. In today’s world, it is common that people are now online longer than ever before, consuming 6-8 hours’ worth of content in a day. Indonesia and SHAREit are altogether experiencing the phenomenal industry-wide trends of vigorous surge in digital content consumption.
The latest Ericsson Mobility Report 2020 estimates an expected 220 million 5G subscriptions by the end of 2020, along with a predicted 380 million 5G subscriptions from Southeast Asia by 2026. In the second half of this year, we’ve seen 5G launches in South East Asia; with Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines leading while Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia are in line.
Creating a sustainable ecosystem that channels business opportunities in an organic, user-driven fashion will be a great opportunity for content providers & distribution platforms especially with the strong market in Indonesia. It is undeniable that economies will be driven by mobile internet users and digital ad spenders and Indonesia will be no exception to that. In the near future, technology like 5G which offer 1 Gbps connection will allow users having an immersive experience in consuming digital content every day. The surge of digital content consumption and current user behavior will be endless, especially for the Indonesia market, where the young generations seem to have inexhaustible needs of digital content.
What could be believed that in 2021, the Internet economy and digital content industry will apparently continue to expanse their pace in an unstoppable way. People will spend more time to consume and enjoy digital content as it’s already become a part of their life. Together with SHAREit, more and more users in emerging markets will witness the tremendous growth of the digital content industry.
