In the 21st century, data is a perennial need for the sustenance of our digital industries. The internet would not have become what it is today if not for data. Hence, for our continued development in the field of technology, the need for data will never diminish. Moreover, as the world becomes more global and henceforth, borderless, data will have to be mobile, able to travel across the tangible boundaries of nation states.

The concept of a technology park first emerged in the 1950s in the United States, when such parks were first built to accommodate high technology industry occurring at the time.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the growing digital economy in Southeast Asia is the gaming industry. Sea – formerly Garena – became the first Southeast Asian tech company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017. Sea is a gaming company but has also ventured into e-commerce and e-payments recently.A trend that has also been fuelling the games market in the region is the rise of eSports. eSports is essentially a competition using video games.

Technology, since its genesis, has been changing the face of business especially in retail. There has been a shift of power from brands to consumers who now have more information and more options to work with when making a purchasing decision before buying online. By 2020, digital commerce in the ASEAN region is expected to grow exponentially to reach US$32 billion in the next 3 years, according to Accenture.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) form the sixth largest economy in the world valued at US$2.5 trillion with a population of almost 630 million – 40 percent of whom are below the age of 30. Studies have shown that those within this age bracket represent a key demography of the growing landscape of Southeast Asia’s digital economy.

Businesses providing digital services in Singapore, such as the streaming of entertainment content, will have to pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from Jan 1, 2020, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced during his Budget 2018 speech last week.Heng said he is introducing this tax on imported services to make the country’s tax system “fair and resilient” in today’s digital economy.“Today, services such as consultancy and marketing purchased from overseas suppliers are not subject to GST.

A key component of the digital revolution that has swept the region is the introduction of cloud computing. Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage and process data instead of using a local server. Cloud computing has become popular among smaller, growing businesses because usually, using a cloud service is cheaper than installing a local server. The boom of cloud computing in the world is parallel to the demand for data.

With a growing internet user base and a digital economy that is said to be worth US$50 billion last year alone by Temasek and Google, it is no wonder digital wallets or e-wallets are taking off in the region. Digital wallets allow users to keep their credit cards and bank accounts electronically safe. An e-wallets allows you to make payments on e-commerce websites and also in real-life through QR codes or near field communication (NFC).

Southeast Asia is home to more than 630 million people and is the world’s third largest region. As it is the fastest growing internet population in the world - with more than 3.8 million new users every month – the internet economy here is expected to reach US$200 billion with a total of US$1 trillion added to its GDP by 2025, according to A.T.

The 2016 We Are Social’s special report on digital opportunities in Southeast Asia revealed that over half of Southeast Asia’s population is on the internet. This number is significant because it indicates that half the population have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the digital economy and participate in buying and selling things online, using digital wallets and so on.