The news: Two-thirds (66%) of consumers in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region ignore repetitive ads when they are shown on a single platform, per a report from The Trade Desk. Gen Z respondents were over twice as likely (57%) to feel irritated when exposed to repetitive ads compared with other demographics. Our take: Ads often need to be repeated to boost brand recall, putting advertisers in a tricky position of balancing brand recognition while not frustrating consumers. But there are approaches marketers can take to address the fatigue issue.

A series of major milestones are on tap for total media and digital media ad spending around the world in 2025, although growth will be uneven across countries and regions.

The boom times for ecommerce and retail have largely passed. “It’s going to be harder [for retailers] to identify pockets of growth and opportunity. But, the good news is that it’s not going to be that roller coaster of demand fluctuations that has been challenging for retailers to navigate over the last couple of years,” our analyst Blake Droesch said.

Asia-Pacific remained a global hotspot in 2023, with six of the top 10 fastest-growing retail ecommerce markets worldwide. In particular, China's online shopping market showed signs of resiliency, with growth rates in the double digits.

The popularity of livestreaming ecommerce is spreading to other parts of the world besides China. But not every market has embraced this new retail format to the same degree.

TikTok aims to quadruple the size of its global ecommerce business in 2023. But TikTok Shop’s US rollout has been complicated—and that could have implications for the company’s aggressive goal.

Growth of total media ad spend in Southeast Asia will remain elevated from its pre-pandemic levels, but digital ad spending will finally say farewell to double-digit growth this year. Meanwhile, India will top the worldwide ranking in both total media and digital ad spending growth.

Economic uncertainty and rapid technological innovation are shifting industry dynamics for players across the payments ecosystem, including acquirers and processors, networks, and issuers.

Total retail sales in Southeast Asia grew 2.5% in 2021.

Super app Grab is the food delivery leader in Southeast Asia, generating $5.9 billion in gross merchandise value from those sales in 2020.

Singles’ Day, the online shopping festival invented by Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and held on November 11, is widely known in the West. Now, a series of similar “double-digit” shopping festivals from digital powerhouses Lazada and Shopee are driving ecommerce growth in Southeast Asia.

Like many regions around the world, Southeast Asia experienced an ecommerce boom in 2020, as various pandemic-driven social lockdowns encouraged more shopping from home. According to our estimates, ecommerce grew by 35.2% collectively in the region last year, and our newest forecast projects 14.3% growth this year. However, traditional retail is still overwhelmingly dominant.

Among the $327.28 billion spent worldwide on digital advertising in 2019, 61.2% will go toward advertising on Google, Facebook and Alibaba. This report includes our latest global ad spending forecast by country, region and company.

Alibaba's Singles' Day, China's massive ecommerce festival held annually on November 11, has grown to surpass pretty much every other online shopping event in the world.

Retail ecommerce sales in India will increase 31.0% to reach $32.70 billion in 2018. Investment from Alibaba, Amazon and Walmart into the ecommerce market is fueling rapid growth.

Total media ad spending worldwide will reach $628.63 billion in 2018, a 7.4% gain over last year. Mobile advertising’s share of spend is expected to climb to 29.2% this year.

Total media, digital and mobile ad spending in 14 markets in Asia-Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.