Singspore is one of the most advanced digital markets in Asia Pacific and Singporeans are so much interested in exploring new gadgets and staying abreast of the latest technologies. The country is a perfect location for local and overseas digital marketers to develop their digital marketing strategies, for both local and nearby markets. The combination of high broadband penetration, heavy online engagement and the overall tech savvy of Internet users in Singapore make it an ideal market for the adoption of valuable existing and emerging digital technologies, including search, social media and online video. The growing opportunities in digital market, especially in social media, are clearly shown in recent findings about new media consumption of comapies and citizens on this island
Business Consumption
Last fall, the government invited proposals to shape new media landscape by encouraging established industry players to collaborate, and tap the burgeoning sectors of online publishing and virtual worlds. Companies in Singapore are also gearing up fo the future of media in a rapidly-transforming media landscape to exploit the opportunities in initiatives that seed the development and delivery of next-generation consumer applications, services and experiences. In order to move into markets faster than the competition, companies are embracing new technologies for innovation and growth, rather than to reap cost savings, to help people do their job more positive, efficient and productive.
Last fall, the government invited proposals to shape new media landscape by encouraging established industry players to collaborate, and tap the burgeoning sectors of online publishing and virtual worlds. Companies in Singapore are also gearing up fo the future of media in a rapidly-transforming media landscape to exploit the opportunities in initiatives that seed the development and delivery of next-generation consumer applications, services and experiences. In order to move into markets faster than the competition, companies are embracing new technologies for innovation and growth, rather than to reap cost savings, to help people do their job more positive, efficient and productive.
According to a recent finding by Avanade, it was found that Singapore companies are in high demand of digital marketing solutions, especially in social media, illustrated by:
- Singapore businesses turned to social networks over three times more than their global counterparts as a source of general business news and information.
- One in five Singapore companies already have in place a fully implemented strategy for integrating social media technologies in the workplace, almost three times higher than the world average proportion
- More than half of organisations, which haven’t had a social media strategy, expressed an interest to explore its use to enhance business outcomes.
- Three in five Singapore firm see embracing social networking as a crucial factor in attracting top talent.
Individual Consumption
According to ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, more than 2.5 million people in Singapore age 15 and older accessed the Internet from home and work locations. Online communication, entertainment, and social networking are topping the list of how users were most likely to spend their time. Sinapore netizens spends more than half of their online time for Social and Entertainment Sites, in which:
- 24 percent online time for instant messaging, capturing the largest
- 14 percent for entertainment sites (e.g.: Youtube, MediaCorp)
- 8 percent for social networking
- 6 percent for Web-based email
According to Alexa.com, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Facebook and YouTube are the most visited sites in Singpore. Search engines are still in top listings. However, social networking sites, aside from YouTube and Facebook, also made an impressive appearance in the ranking with Blogger, Twitter, Wordpress listed in the top ten. Online video is an integral part of consumers with more than 80 percenr of Singapore’s Internet population viewed video online, displaying the strongest online video engagement among young people.
The Internet filtering in Singapore is found to be minimal in comparison with nearby countries like Vietnam or China. However, Singapore netizens are generally critical in nature. Netizens might welcome business marketing or communication efforts via social media, especially for early adopters. The increase of celebrity bloggers and specialised bloggers offer opportunities for business to use celebs as representatives or to focus on niche target audience.
From all the findings, it is found that a large percentage of Singapore online users are heavy consumers of social media, even those above 30 or older are trying to catch up with young people on social platforms. Therefore, social media is surely a recommended investing area in companies' marketing strategy in order to enhance online performance and reach more audience effectively. If you are not engaging in this area now, you may lose the advantage to your competitors soon.
From all the considered aspects, it is undeniable that the digital market in general, and social media in particular, is growing at a rapid pace in Singapore and Singapore companies can leverage the opportunity in this emerging sub-sector to be part of the value chain. The digital “pie” is currently so delicous and everyone want to get the share, thus, the competition between not only companies but digital solution providers becomes harder than ever. It requires organizations to have a smarter strategy, focusing more on the “depth” and the “inside” of the online/digital media nature itself to fit the organization’s objective than only chasing to the glamorous “outside” or simply following common pratices.
(Sources: ComScore, Avanade, Alexa, MDA)
