Singapore is an advanced economy, with GDP per capita in 2018 of S$ 87,000 (about US $64,000). Singapore GDP per capita is similar to that of the US, higher than Germany and many other G7 countries.
Across many other data points (like life expectancy, infant mortality rate, literacy rate, crime rate, etc.), Singapore is on par or much better than G7 countries.
Now that you have a general overview of Singapore let’s deep dive into its media landscape. We will start first with key data points about consumers.
This is the 2020 updated version of this topic Singapore media landscape.
1. Internet and smartphone penetration is high as expected in Singapore
Both internet and smartphone penetrations are at around 80% in Singapore and have been around that number for quite some time now. The penetration won’t go further given the percentage of the population who is either too young or too old to care about a smartphone or the internet.
I am a bit surprised that smartphone penetration in the rest of the G7 countries is lower
2. E-commerce in Singapore is lagging behind China and other G7 countries by a wide margin
Singapore e-commerce growth rate is estimated at 9.5% in 2019, much lower than China and other G7 countries.
3. Singapore mobile proximity payment penetration is ahead of all G7 countries
4. Legal subscription OTT penetration in Singapore is surprisingly lower than many other countries in APAC
Data from Asia Video Industry Association.
5. Total media ad spending in Singapore is expected to grow marginally over the next 5 years
The advertising growth rate is well below the expected GDP growth rate in Singapore of between 1.5% – 2.5%.
6. Media ad spending per person in Singapore is well below other G7 countries
7. Digital ad spending penetration in Singapore is lagging far behind other advanced economies and China
8. While digital ad spending is expected to grow faster than the overall advertising growth, it is still at low single digits.
9. Digital advertising means mobile advertising in Singapore since mobile has more than 80% of the share
That’s all from me for today.
Cheers,
Chandler