MP Tin Pei Ling urges optimism despite 'painful times of deep crisis' in tech field

share on

twitter /
facebook /
linkedin /
- email
- telegram
- whatsapp
- wechat
- pinterest
- line
- snapchat
- reddit

Layoffs have taken the tech industry by storm, with companies including Meta, Snap, Amazon, Twitter, and Netflix laying off workers. Big tech firms have also faced headwinds on the advertising front, attributing that to economic challenges and advertisers being cautious on spending. According to Tin Pei Ling (pictured), CEO of Business China and member of parliament in Singapore, the upheavals in the tech scene can be somewhat unsettling.

Tin said during MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Digital Marketing Asia 2022 conference that one cannot be too sure about which platform you should bet on", she said, as you strategise your social commerce or eCommerce plan ahead of time.

Despite the headwinds, Tin is still optimistic. She said that although the world is experiencing "very painful times of deep crisis at this moment", there is always hope and tech industries and firms should take heart.

Business China, the non-profit organisation that Tin leads, harnesses the support of public sector and private enterprises to cultivate Singapore-China-savvy talents, strengthen Singapore-China networks, and grow Singapore's global connectivity.

ECommerce is one of the ways that businesses in Singapore can leverage to grow their connectivity.

According to a recent report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, Singapore's digital economy is expected to grow by 22% to reach US$18 billion this year, with the potential of reaching about US$30 billion in 2025. This gross merchandise value growth will be driven by eCommerce, the largest digital sector that is predicted to hit US$11 billion by 2025.

This growth also presents an opportunity for social commerce too. A separate Accenture study found that the US$492 billion global social commerce industry is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional eCommerce to US$1.2 trillion by 2025. Growth is predicted to be driven primarily by Gen Z and Millennial social media users, accounting for 62% of global social commerce spend by 2025.

Aside from the common knowledge that social media has become popular among consumers today, Tin said price will become less elastic when there is a relationship and loyalty built through social media networks. Consumers are willing to give big established brands a pass and use smaller or new brands that they trust. This corroborates with a study by Bain & Company and Facebook in 2020 which said that 40% of Southeast Asia’s consumers have tried a different brand since COVID-19, significantly higher than consumers in US and China.

"Those who remain vigilant to see the future trends clearly and make the right choices will thrive in this environment," Tin said. She explained that brands need to choose the right platforms and tools for their eCommerce and social commerce strategy as well.

Nonetheless, while she is optimistic about the growth of social commerce and the positive impact on smaller brands and the entire ecosystem, Tin acknowledged that there could still be some challenges ahead that brands need to consider. According to her, one of the critical success factors of social commerce is to effectively understand and precisely engage the target customers.

"In today's context, social media and eCommerce platforms rely heavily on large amounts of data and analytics generated. However, data protection regulations and the possible mainstreaming of Web3 could significantly affect these platforms' ability to collect and analyse customer data intelligently," she said.

Tin explained that transactions on Web3 can be conducted anonymously or under a pseudonym. Also, the decentralised nature of Web3 also means that users have full ownership and real control over their own data, which essentially also means that they can choose not to provide brands with their data. "Without data, businesses and platforms will find it hard to understand customers to scale and train their algorithms. I do not have immediate solutions to these issues. But perhaps these are food for thought and new business opportunities," she added.