Before breakfast in Surabaya, a home-based seller begins a livestream. In Bangkok, customers message shops through LINE, while cafés in Ho Chi Minh City announce new menus on Zalo. Across Southeast Asia, social media has become a storefront, newsroom, workplace and public square—all held in the palm of a hand.
Context: A Region Built Around the Mobile Screen
Southeast Asia is among the world’s most connected and socially active regions. DataReportal’s Digital 2026 country reports estimate that Indonesia has 180 million social-media user identities, followed by Vietnam with 79 million and Thailand with 56.6 million. These figures represent platform identities rather than necessarily unique individuals, since one person may operate several accounts.
Participation is especially high in Singapore, where social-media identities equal approximately 90.6 percent of the population, and Malaysia, at 85 percent. The regional experience is far from uniform, however. Myanmar records about 21 million social-media identities—38.2 percent of its population—while an estimated 15.1 million people remain offline.
These differences reveal a region moving at several digital speeds. Urban users may shift effortlessly among livestreams, digital wallets and messaging groups, while rural communities continue to face unreliable connections, expensive data and limited digital skills.
Connection: Global Platforms, Local Conversations
Southeast Asians have adapted global technology to distinctly local habits. WhatsApp supports family life and small businesses in Indonesia and Malaysia. Zalo is embedded in daily communication in Vietnam, while LINE remains an important link between Thai consumers, companies and public services.
Facebook continues to connect neighbourhood groups, migrant families and community sellers, particularly in the Philippines and Myanmar. Instagram provides a visual storefront for fashion, food and travel, while TikTok has transformed short-form entertainment into a tool for product discovery, cultural storytelling and public discussion.
Local identity remains visible within these global spaces. Indonesian creators reinterpret batik for younger audiences, Filipino cooks document regional recipes, and Vietnamese craftspeople introduce traditional skills through short videos. Micro-influencers often succeed because they speak in familiar languages and understand the humour, prices and concerns of their communities.
Commerce: Entertainment Becomes Economic Infrastructure
The commercial impact is substantial. Google, Temasek and Bain estimated that Southeast Asia’s digital economy exceeded US$300 billion in gross merchandise value in 2025. Video commerce expanded fivefold in three years and was expected to represent approximately one-quarter of regional e-commerce activity.
Indonesia illustrates the speed of that transition. Video-commerce transactions reportedly reached 2.6 billion in 2025, while the number of participating sellers and online shops rose to around 800,000. Livestreaming now allows a producer in Bandung, Makassar or Yogyakarta to demonstrate products, answer questions and receive orders without operating a conventional store.
“The convergence between content and commerce is now inevitable,” said Veronica Utami, Country Director of Google Indonesia.
The opportunity is significant, but so is dependence on platform algorithms. A change in recommendation systems, advertising costs or commission policies can suddenly reduce a small seller’s reach and income.
Concern: Trust Under Pressure
The same speed that helps information travel also enables false claims, impersonation, investment fraud and manipulated content to spread. During elections, disasters and communal tensions, emotionally charged posts can move more quickly than verified reporting.
Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa captured the central challenge: “Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust.”
Artificial intelligence is making deception more convincing through cloned voices, fabricated images and fraudulent advertisements featuring public figures. Young creators also face pressure to remain constantly visible, follow changing trends and turn personal life into marketable content. Burnout, online harassment and unclear boundaries between genuine recommendations and paid promotions are becoming part of the region’s digital conversation.
Choice: Building a Healthier Digital Public Square
Southeast Asia’s next task is not to reduce digital creativity but to make participation safer and more inclusive. The Scam Ready ASEAN programme, launched in 2026, aims to equip three million people across all 11 ASEAN member states with skills to recognize online scams and emerging AI-enabled threats.
Stronger protections will also require transparent advertising, clearer labelling of sponsored and AI-generated content, accessible reporting systems and greater accountability from platforms. Schools can teach verification alongside technical skills, while governments and civil-society organizations can expand multilingual fact-checking and affordable internet access.
Southeast Asia is helping shape the future of social media. Its success should be measured not only by views, transactions or time spent online, but by whether its digital spaces strengthen livelihoods, protect users and keep communities meaningfully connected.
