Southeast Asia's digital economy is growing steadily. According to the '2024 Southeast Asia Digital Economy Report (e-Conomy SEA 2024)' jointly released by Google, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek, and global consulting firm Bain & Company in November last year, Southeast Asia's digital economy has grown by more than 15% every year for the past three years, with economic growth comparable to China's and digital-based services becoming routine.
The report stated that the gross merchandise value (GMV) of major digital-based services such as online media, food delivery, transportation, travel, education, and e-commerce in Southeast Asia is expected to reach US$195 billion in 2022, US$228 billion in 2023, and US$263 billion in 2024. In addition, with the expansion of QR code adoption across finance, including payments, currency, insurance, and loans, and the improvement of accessibility to app-based financial services, the digital finance sector's profitability is also expected to grow by 22%, from US$22 billion in 2022 to US$33 billion in 2024, indicating that the related sector is on track to rise.
Above all, Southeast Asia is expected to continue to see stable growth in the digital market size based on its population of approximately 670 million, historically high economic growth rates, and high digital participation. This is why domestic digital financial service companies and education service companies are targeting the Southeast Asian market. From fintech small-sum overseas remittance services that can eliminate inefficiencies that occur when money flows across borders, to education apps using artificial intelligence (AI), securities companies, etc. are targeting Southeast Asia based on digital services.
Accordingly, domestic companies and startups providing digital-based services are advancing into Southeast Asia.
◆ Qanda provides customized educational content by incorporating AI technology
QANDA, an AI-based education platform operated by Mathpresso (CEO Yongjae Lee), is a service that analyzes math problems taken by users with their mobile phone cameras within 5 seconds and provides solutions and related learning materials, and is occupying a unique position in the Southeast Asian education app sector.
According to the '2023 Qanda Footprints' data released by Qanda last year, Qanda users reached 90 million, and approximately 6.2 billion problem searches were made after the service was introduced. 90% of users came from overseas, with Vietnam having the largest number of users, followed by Indonesia and Thailand. In these regions, parents' enthusiasm for education is very high, but the educational infrastructure is known to be poor due to a lack of educational environments such as textbooks, learning platforms, and academies. Qanda is gaining attention as a new alternative for educational opportunities in Southeast Asia.
In fact, the Qanda service reached the top of the iOS App Store education chart within two weeks of its launch in Vietnam, and the top of the Google Play Store education chart within one week of its launch in Thailand. This is an unusual achievement in which a native Korean app dominates the local education market, beating out local education apps.
◆ Sentbe enters major Asian markets and provides overseas remittance services
SentBe (CEO Sungwook Choi), a global foreign exchange total solution company, has successfully launched its personal small-sum overseas remittance service 'SentBe' in Korea, and is providing overseas remittance services in major Asian markets such as Indonesia and Singapore in 2021 so that more global customers can operate simple and safe foreign exchange services at low fees through SentBe.
Sentbe's strengths include fast remittance speed, easy remittance process, and fees that are 90% lower than those of banks, and it supports overseas remittances to more than 50 countries around the world. Depending on the country, remittances can be made within a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 1 day, and its advantage is that the service can be used anytime, anywhere via the app or web. In addition, as much as money is exchanged, Sentbe has continuously monitored the latest technologies related to personal information protection and has made efforts to strengthen its security system to prevent and manage information leaks. By acquiring global standards such as ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 for information protection and personal information management systems and PCI-DSS v4.0 for global payment data security certification, it has established an information security system that meets global standards and has also strengthened the safety of non-face-to-face overseas remittances.
Sentbe is standing out in the global market with its reasonable price, convenience, and safety, and is especially popular in Southeast Asia among Korean residents and expatriates who frequently remit money to Korea.
◆ NH Investment & Securities provides new stock investment experience through cooperation with local Vietnamese companies
NH Investment & Securities Vietnam, the Vietnamese subsidiary of NH Investment & Securities, has joined the stock trading app ‘Paave’ service of local fintech company DPSoft for Vietnamese investors with high interest in financial technology, and has set out to provide a new stock investment experience in a digital environment. This is to share the stock trading service know-how accumulated in Korea by linking with the ‘NHSV Pro Trading’ app owned by NH Investment & Securities Vietnam and solidify its position in the Vietnamese stock investment market.
Fab, which NH Investment & Securities Vietnam joined, is equipped with functions similar to an investment social network, such as discussions on stock investment, real-time rankings of top investors on the virtual stock exchange, and real-time monitoring information on influential investors. It is expected to attract active investment from young investors under the age of 35, which accounts for 70% of the Vietnamese population of 100 million.
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