Streets and smartphones
Though you may not remember, there was a learning curve to using a smartphone. You had to learn how to click and double-click. You had to learn how to navigate from the home screen to your desired app. You had to learn how to use the basic functionalities that they offer, such as the alarm clock or calculator.
For most of you, this process took a few minutes or a day at most. This learning curve is considerably longer for people who have never interacted with a digitally-enabled device before, which is the case for many first-time smartphone owners in Southeast Asia, made possible through the wide availability of cheap devices as well as financing plans and other incentives and schemes.
This milestone is too often overlooked. People now have the greatest tool – the smartphone – to take even greater agency over their own social and economic mobility. Southeast Asia is touted as home to the fastest-growing economies in the world, and smartphones in the hands of its people can enable them to tap into this hyper-growth for their own well-being. But which goods do you direct them to?
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This sounds like a philosophical question: What digital services would you provide an upwardly mobile demographic who now has access to and knowledge of a smartphone for the first time? Unfortunately, many tech businesses take this question lightly. There is a veritable gold rush of tech companies lining up to offer this demographic their products and services, but these are not always in their best interest.
There are apps and sites for everything including digital personal finance and plenty of e-commerce that has come mainstream only in the last couple of years.
What is the digital good
While this demographic does need the convenience afforded by digital goods, what they arguably need most is digital good. The former – while momentarily satisfying – generally serves a single need. The latter, in contrast, helps them grow across many multiple needs, chief of which is economic prosperity. The difference between the two may sound vague until you look at examples of the latter.
In Singapore, for example, fin-tech StashAway democratizes wealth management through an app. StashAway allows users in Singapore and Malaysia to automate their investing, all depending on their individual investment goals. People now have access to wealth management that only a few years ago was limited to high net worth individuals who would be attractive to a brokerage.
StashAway is an example of a digital good. As the minimum balance is US$0, the company provides a digital service that can potentially uplift people’s stature in life bringing them closer to financial freedom. Looking at the company in the abstract, StashAway compounds the value of smartphone ownership into actual dollars and cents.
StashAway, of course, is not explicitly marketed toward the upwardly mobile Malaysians and Singaporeans who may have just gained access to these devices. But the value is greatest for them.
The delta between going from not investing in being able to invest is much wider than going from currently investing in being able to more conveniently invest. The newly connected, in short, have much more to gain.
The same can be seen in the insurance space. InsureShop, which was recently re-launched by leading Philippine insurance firm, Pioneer creates a powerful digital good. On InsureShop, Filipinos can avail of three main types of insurance, each catering to dramatically different needs.
MediCash provides medical insurance to people stricken with Dengue or Leptospirosis; SafeTrip provides travel insurance for travellers based on destination, distance, and other variables; and SafeTrip provides motorcycle insurance that can be customized to meet people’s desired coverage given the various possible circumstances.
Like StashAway, InsureShop is quite literally a digital good: It creates impact and protects value for the people who need it most, including everyone from motorcycle drivers and travellers to health-conscious Filipinos.
The insure shop platform itself is one that appeals to a new generation now used to shopping and transacting online for their many needs. It sure helps in educating us about the practicality and wisdom indeed of obtaining insurance.
Also Read: Digital literacy for the masses: How Apple is investing in tech education across Singapore
Other large businesses ought to borrow a page from the digital good playbook. With smartphone penetration increasing rapidly in Southeast Asia, thanks to affordable price points and financing plans, enterprises ought to think about how they can best serve the newly connected.
Providing them with valuable products and services often makes more business sense than just selling them items: You not only create social impact by uplifting them, but you also contribute to the growth of upwardly mobile people now likely loyal to the brand. Your company, after all, was one of the first wave of brands to empower them.
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Image Credit: Gilles Lambert
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