Singapore’s digital economy – from e-commerce to social media – nearly doubled in five years

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s digital economy contributed to greater than 17% of its gross home product in 2022 — greater than the 13% logged in 2017, in accordance to a report by the nation’s Infocomm Media Development Authority.

The examine, revealed Friday, revealed that the financial contribution of the digital economy to Singapore’s GDP nearly doubled to 106 billion Singapore {dollars} ($77.5 billion) in 2022, up from SG$58 billion in 2017, in accordance to CNBC’s calculations.

The digital economy is split into two elements: the data and communications sector; and digitalization in the remainder of the economy.

One-third of the digital economy was pushed by the data and communications sector and two-thirds by digitalization in the remainder of the economy.

The I&C sector drove digitalization offering companies similar to telecommunications, pc programming & IT consultancy, cloud computing and software program growth.

Digitalization in the remainder of the economy measures the worth generated from investments and spending in digital capital throughout all sectors excluding these from the I&C sector. They embody financial outcomes because of corporations investing in digital applied sciences that construct worth similar to attain clients higher, optimize enterprise processes in addition to innovate services.

“The enlargement of the digital economy has come on the again of accelerating adoption of digital applied sciences by enterprises, which in flip contributed to the sturdy progress of tech manpower,” IMDA stated in the report.

Based on the most recent accessible information, the digital economies of Estonia, Sweden and the United Kingdom accounted for 16.6%, 15% and 16.1% of their respective GDPs in 2020. Comparatively, Singapore’s digital economy carried out higher, contributing to 16.7% of its GDP in 2020.

The key sub-sectors driving double-digit progress in the data and communications sector — at a charge of as excessive as 70% — had been video games, on-line companies, and e-commerce, in accordance to IMDA. They had been pushed by elevated adoption throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The value-add from digitalization in the remainder of the economy elevated from SG$38.6 billion in 2017 to SG$72.8 billion in 2022, pushed primarily by sectors in finance and insurance coverage, wholesale commerce, and manufacturing.

As a end result, the value-add from digitalization as a share of the economy rose steadily from 8.7% in 2017 to 11.9% in 2022, the report stated.

This is equal to an annual compound progress charge of 13.5%, which is quicker than the three.8% progress of Singapore’s GDP in 2022. CAGR is a measure of funding returns, which takes into consideration what an funding yields at an annual charge over a specified interval.

The know-how adoption charge of companies grew from 74% in 2018 to 94% in 2022, in accordance to IMDA’s annual survey.

As a end result, extra tech professionals had been deployed throughout all sectors, with the variety of tech jobs rising from about 155,500 in 2017 to 201,100 in 2022.

“Despite the current tech sector lay-offs, the demand for tech jobs is probably going to stay resilient, because the digitalization of the economy deepens,” stated IMDA.

“Overall, Singapore’s digital economy has been rising strongly and its longer-term outlook stays optimistic. The Singapore authorities continues to be dedicated to rising a aggressive digital economy and fostering a technology-skilled workforce,” stated IMDA.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong stated in his budget proposal for 2022 that the federal government will make investments SG$200 million over the following few years into tasks that construct digital capabilities in companies and staff.