Southeast Asia Leads on Social Media - What Can the Rest of the World Learn?

Southeast Asia has a young, mobile-first population, especially in markets like Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. With a median age of under 30, people are spending hours a day on social platforms. So it’s no surprise that the region is leading in social media and influencer marketing, as the Digital 2025 July Snapshot reveals.

Social media is deeply embedded in daily life not just for entertainment but for discovery, news and commerce. That level of engagement also creates a natural runway for influencer-driven campaigns to thrive. Micro and nano influencers are incredibly powerful here with consumers more likely to follow and engage with influencers who reflect their local culture, language, and lifestyle.

Through influencer content, platforms like TikTok, Shopee, and Lazada are enabling direct purchases, creating measurable ROI for brands. From a strategic standpoint, that’s a game-changer and it allows brands to build full-funnel influencer campaigns that not only raise awareness but also drive sales.

As consumers in SEA navigate multiple platforms to research and engage with brands, omnichannel presence is no longer optional. Brands need to show up consistently across the platforms their audiences are on, but not with the same content copy-pasted everywhere. Each platform has its own culture, tone, and user behaviour, so content has to be adapted accordingly.

Secondly, measurement and attribution is becoming more complex. People might discover a product on TikTok, read reviews on YouTube, message a seller on WhatsApp or Telegram, and finally buy it on Shopee. That consumer journey isn’t linear, so brands need integrated strategies and the ability to track and co-relate engagement and performance metrics across touchpoints.

To stay ahead requires tighter and more strategic alignment between content, performance, and commerce, so that brands are not just creating awareness, but also guiding consumers seamlessly through the funnel wherever they are.

The key lesson here is to move fast, stay culturally relevant, and experiment with trends, formats and influencers partnerships to test what works. Most importantly, brands must start adopting social media as a commerce engine and not just as a marketing tool.

Platforms are collapsing the path to purchase but we still see a lot of legacy thinking which undermines what social media has become: a full-funnel ecosystem.

Social now is about inspiration, influence and conversion. If brands aren’t building for that shift in behaviour, they’re not just missing out on culture, they’re missing out on revenue.