We're six months into 2026. The predictions have had time to land — or fall flat. This post skips the speculation and looks at what the data actually shows for brands in Singapore and Malaysia, and what you should be doing differently in H2.

The region's opportunity is real. Malaysia's digital economy hit USD 31 billion in GMV in 2024, up 16% year on year. Singapore's digital ad spend reached USD 2.14 billion, growing 10.3%. Southeast Asia's e-commerce market is on track for USD 144 billion by year-end. The money and the audience are here. The question is whether your strategy is built for how people in this region actually discover and buy.

AI Raises Output — But Erodes Differentiation If You're Not Careful

75% of marketers now use some form of AI, and Singapore ranks among the highest per-capita ChatGPT user markets in Southeast Asia. The efficiency gains are real: campaigns launch 75% faster, and companies using AI in marketing report 22% higher ROI on average.

The risk is just as real. 86% of marketers say they've already seen AI outputs that look like a competitor's content. In Singapore and Malaysia — where brand trust and community relationships carry significant weight — generic content doesn't just underperform, it damages credibility.

Use AI for scale: copy variations, personalised messaging, reporting. Keep strategy, cultural nuance, and creative voice human.

Video Is Where Discovery Happens in This Region

Southeast Asia is TikTok's largest advertising audience in the world, with 460 million monthly active users across the region. Influencer campaigns on TikTok grew from 28% of regional influencer activity in 2023 to over 50% by 2025. In Malaysia and Singapore, short-form video is the primary channel through which consumers find new brands — and for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, it's increasingly where they buy too.

For brands targeting Mandarin-speaking communities, Xiaohongshu has become a serious complement to TikTok and Instagram — particularly for higher-consideration purchases where review-style content drives trust.

Map your video to the funnel: TikTok and Reels for discovery, YouTube for consideration, live commerce for conversion.

Social Commerce Is the Biggest Structural Shift Here

Global marketing playbooks treat social commerce as an experiment. In Southeast Asia, it's already a primary channel. TikTok Shop grew from USD 4.4 billion to USD 45.6 billion in regional GMV between 2022 and 2025 — a 10x increase in three years. Malaysia alone crossed USD 5 billion in TikTok Shop GMV, growing 132% year on year. Shopee remains dominant at USD 66.8 billion, but TikTok Shop's 40–55% annual growth rate means the gap is narrowing fast.

Both platforms now offer end-to-end attribution from content to checkout. If you're still driving social traffic to your website instead of selling natively, you're working against how consumers in this market actually buy.

WhatsApp Is a Marketing Channel Most Brands Underuse

84% of Malaysian internet users are on WhatsApp — making it the most-used platform in the country, ahead of TikTok and Instagram. Singapore follows at 76% penetration, with 95% of users opening the app daily. Around 51% of Malaysian SMEs and 43% of Singapore businesses now use WhatsApp Business for customer interactions.

The engagement rates are unlike anything conventional digital channels deliver. Some sectors report response rates above 70%. At a time when organic reach is declining and paid costs are rising, an owned channel with that kind of direct access to your customers is genuinely valuable — if you treat it as a relationship channel, not a broadcast one.

Conclusion

The first half of 2026 has made one thing clear: Singapore and Malaysia are not slower versions of Western markets. They're a distinct ecosystem shaped by mobile-first behaviour, multi-platform purchase journeys, and social commerce adoption that is years ahead of most of the world. The brands pulling ahead are those that have built for this reality — video-first discovery, native commerce, WhatsApp as a conversion channel, and measurement that connects content to revenue. At YEA Business, this is the work we do every day with brands across the region — helping them stop retrofitting global playbooks and start building strategies that actually fit where they operate.