PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING COUNTRIES
The digital revolution E-commerce and digital payments in Portuguese-speaking countries and Macao are booming right now as a result of the pandemic. But what does this mean for the future economic development of these nations and for Macao’s place at the heart of the Lusophone world? Text Fei Pou Lo
T
here’s no denying it – 2020 was a boom year for e-commerce across the globe. With billions of people worldwide unable to do their shopping at the local store due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic, buying products online became the new norm for countless households. Some countries have reported more than a 30 per cent rise in e-commerce from 2019 to last year and other commentators say that online shopping globally rose by more than 15 per cent. In mainland China, for instance, revenue in the e-commerce market has been projected by consumer data company Statista to reach US$1.26 trillion (MOP 10 trillion) by the end of this year before rising to US$1.64 trillion (MOP 13 trillion) in 2025, growing at an annual average of 6.7 per cent over the next five years.
The world’s Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) were no different last year, with data showing that consumers spent more time – and money – shopping online. Brazil, for instance, should be home to 115 million online shoppers by the end of this year – nearly 10 per cent more than last year – according to Statista. The data company also projects a 4.4 per cent growth in Portugal’s e-shoppers this year, up to 5.3 million people, which is more than half of the 10 millionplus population. The data all indicates that last year’s pandemicled e-commerce boom was just the beginning of this digital revolution. As for Macao, according to online data portal DataReportal’s ‘Digital:2020 Macau’ report just under a year ago, there were 540,400 internet users in the city last January
out of a population of almost 650,000 – a 2.2 percent rise from the previous year. Internet penetration in the SAR stood at 84 per cent in the same month, claimed the report. Even before the sharp rise in the global digital economy, Macao was already positioning itself to become a link between all the PSCs when it comes to e-commerce.
Alibaba in Brazil Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba, which specialises in e-commerce and technology, is one of the biggest players in the world. In Brazil – South America’s largest economy – online retail service Aliexpress, a business-toconsumer subsidiary of Alibaba, is expecting to profit from the country’s recent e-commerce boom. Yan Di,
75
