I wrote an article for Singapore Business Review about understanding the digital surge in Singapore. For the past years, Singapore has not only grown in economy but has embraced technology for business and pleasure. Here is a part of my article.
A relatively small concrete jungle like Singapore is bound to be closely escorted with technological rise, and that’s for a couple of reasons, one of them is public behavior. The list of leisure activities only bounces around going to the mall, primarily for movies, food and shopping, hence a big slice of public goings-on is attributed to going online and the use of mobile gadgets.
Smartphone usage in Singapore is swelling at breakneck speed, and amazingly, distribution is consistent among all age groups – yes, including older netizens. It’s becoming so big that the market share is customized differently for the country, and its marketing potential is gradually overwhelming the industry.
Everyone knows how big the Smartphone scene in Singapore is, but taking a look at the actual numbers, a lot of you can still get mesmerized. Do the math:
Singapore 2012 population – 5,312,400
Number of internet users – 3,971,318 (That’s a whopping 75%)Now, couple that with:
Singapore smartphone penetration rate (Q1 2013) – 71.7%
(Ranks 4th worldwide, behind only UAE, South Korea and Saudi Arabia)The fact that the Singapore public, extremely active online, is among the top smartphone users in the world is a huge thing for marketers. The advertising and sales value of this phenomenon is unprecedented especially coming from a seemingly undersized territory, but the country is relentless – its Smartphone ecosystem has been growing increasingly vibrant over the last few years, which most noticeably peaked last year.
Read the whole post here: Singapore Business Preview
