Malaysia’s digital economy poised to achieve US$30bln gross merchandise value by 2025

06 Nov 2023

Malaysia’s digital economy can reach its full potential of US$30 billion gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2025, according to a report jointly released by the United States multinational technology company Google, Singaporean Government-linked investment company Temasek and global consultancy company Bain and Company.

GMV refers to the total value of goods or services sold.

In a joint statement today, Google, Temasek and Bain and Company said the eighth edition of the e-Conomy Southeast Asia (SEA) report revealed that Malaysia has made significant progress in digital inclusion, extending connectivity to rural areas to bridge connectivity gaps.

“The percentage of households with internet access has increased from 76 per cent to 97 per cent in urban areas and from 49 per cent to 89 per cent in rural areas between 2015 and 2022.”

However, they said consumers outside of metropolitan areas are at risk of facing a widening digital economic divide in terms of digital participation, which is the active involvement in the digital economy through the consumption of products or services across sectors.

Nevertheless, they said high-value users (HVUs) in Malaysia spent 5.3 times the amount that non-HVUs spend online of which, more than half of HVUs reside outside of metropolitan areas, demonstrating that opportunities for digital businesses to grow exist beyond metros such as Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

They said in comparison, over 70 per cent of digital economy transaction values in Southeast Asia were generated by the top 30 per cent of spenders.

“Bridging the digital participation divide is the collective responsibility of all digital economy stakeholders.

“Removing barriers, such as supply and security issues, can improve the participation of non-HVUs and enable Malaysia’s digital economy to reach its full potential of US$30 billion GMV by 2025,” it added.

Source: Bernama