Southeast Asia has one of the most growing industry in the world, thanks to the vast adoption of smartphone, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. Game consumers in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have spent $1,1 billion for games since 2014, Newzoo reported. The institution’s analysts predicted that until 2017, the annual growth in Southeast Asia would reach an average of 28,8% per year. By that time, the market of gaming industry in the region would be around $2,2 billion.
In 2014, 60 million comsumers spent $18,40 in average. Thailand was placed at the top of the list and is predicted to remain there until 2017. Indonesia, despite the fact that it was ranked as one of the least performers, will occupy the second position by 2017.
Southeast Asia has more than 626 million people, but only 29% of them or around 179 million people get own the internet access. The global game industry has surpassed the $93 billion consumption and developing countries will be its main determinant in the wake of reaching the milestone of $100 billion consumption in the future.
One thing that binds the Southeast Asian countries together would be the similarity in urbanization. This trend will help improving the amount of expenditure as there would be more and more people getting connected by internet. The countries in this region indeed have a vast growth of urbanization, around 1,4% per year in average. This number is almost three times more than China which ‘only’ possesses 0,5% of urbanization per year. Another contributing factor to the vast growth of gaming industry in Southeast Asia would be the demography of people living there, which is dominated by younger generation who are more tech-savvy than their old timers.
Interestingly, game developers who intend to enter and have a bite of this highly potential market might have their charm delivered much better through mobile games, as the growth of smartphone adoption in the region is extremely encouraging.
