The Vietnamese digital economy will see a growth rate of 31 per cent this year over the same period last year, reaching $21 billion.

This is stated in the e-Conomy SEA 2021 Report published by Temasek, Google and management consulting firm Bain & Company this week.

Accordingly, the Vietnamese internet economy could reach US$220 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) by 2030, ranking second after Indonesia.

This is welcoming in the context of the shrinking online travel market. If this growth is maintained, Viet Nam's GMV is expected to reach $57 billion by 2025.

The report also noted that since COVID-19 reappeared in the first half of this year, the country has added 8 million digital consumers, of which more than half come from non-metro areas.

Notably, 99 per cent of these new consumers expressed their intention to continue using online services post-pandemic, showing a very high level of adoption of digital services and products of users in our country.

Thirty per cent of digital merchants believe that they would not have survived the pandemic if not for digital platforms.

Digital financial services are also becoming critical enablers, with 99 per cent of digital merchants now accepting digital payments and 72 per cent having adopted digital lending solutions. Many are also embracing digital tools to engage with their customers, with 72 per cent expecting to increase usage of digital marketing tools in the next five years.

The report also assesses that Viet Nam remains an attractive innovation hub as global capital continues to pour in.

Investments and deals soared in the first half of 2021 to a record high of $1.37 billion, surpassing full-year investments in recent years, fuelled by investment interest in digital start-ups in the fields of e-commerce, fintech, healthtech and edtech.

As for Southeast Asia, the report highlights that the region is on track to become a GMV worth US$1 trillion digital economy by 2030.

The main driver of this is more than 440 million internet users, including 350 million of the region's digital consumers.

Since the start of the pandemic, Southeast Asia has added 60 million new digital consumers, of which 20 million joined in the first half of this year.

Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian digital consumers have spent more on online services.

As a result, Southeast Asia's GMV is estimated to reach $174 billion by the end of the year, expected to surpass $360 billion by 2025, higher than the previous forecast at $300 billion. — VNS