At the beginning of last month, India’s internet retail industry encountered substantial profits. This put it in the top three web-using region, boasting 74 million users. This is an increase of 31 percent since 2012.
This has led to an increase in India of online shopping, escalating the country’s e-commerce market by 66 percent last year, with a value of $16bn. Not only is this figure huge, but compared to the rate of the rest of the world – which stood at 18.3 percent – it is even more impressive. As well, within the next decade, it is expected to be valued at a staggering $56bn.
In addition, according to Snapdeal (an Indian e-commerce site), is planning to sell properties online. The idea is to offer affordable housing, in conjunction with the Tataconglomerate. This is the first such endeavor that India has encountered. When the project starts, around a thousand units will be offered in cities including: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune.
Moving on to Singapore investments, a recent US-based report valued a gaming company at $1bn – higher than other US tech companies. This is indicative of Singapore’s local tech industry advancing with additional venture capitalist investments and acquisitions over the last few years. Singapore was ranked 27th on the list of the top Internet companies by market from the World Startup Report. Indeed, it appears that South East Asia is one of the “fastest growing regions in the world,” vis-à-vis tech market. As such, Singapore’s gaming industry has been hailed as a “milestone” for the country’s start-up ecosystem, by CEO of the National Research Foundation, Professor Low Teck Seng.
Singapore has what to learn from India in the fiscal realm. According to Prime Minister Lee, India has been proving how social media technology can be used to enhance the quality of government, in particular through the MyGov platform. For more information on this endeavor, click here.