You may not be familiar yet with South-East Asia, so here’s a big picture to give an understanding on why it matters when it comes to startups:
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- A market of 600 million people, a (big) third of which in one country alone: Indonesia and its 17 000 islands. The Philippines just got their 100 million Filipino.
- A fast-growing middle-class, with 24% of the Philippines population in this category as of 2013 (Business Mirror)
- The social media capital of the world. Top smartphone penetration? Singapore is 4th worldwide, with more than 70%. Top Instagramed place? Paragon Siam mall in Bangkok, Thailand. Top Twitter country with 15% of the world tweets? Indonesia. And the selfie capital of the world is in the Philippines as well according to the Times.
The best? You’re not alone to find it difficult to position these countries on a map, as they are still quite unexplored. The opportunity to launch a business in the region is huge.
