Analysis by Péter Goreczky
Due to the unique opportunities provided by its digital economy, Southeast Asia is a major arena of market expansion for US-based and Chinese tech juggernauts today. For now, the presence and strategy of the two nation’s companies in the ASEAN region has been driven by market considerations. At the same time, social media platforms and mobile operation systems can serve as sources of soft power, which means that Big Tech and ASEAN start-ups could drift into the US-China conflict in the future. In the Southeast Asian market, US tech giants do not have to worry about being crowded out by their Chinese counterparts in the short run; at the same time, China’s growing economic influence in the region undoubtedly boosts the technology investments of its companies. It is a core interest of ASEAN nations to avoid taking a side in the US-China tech rivalry and thereby escape the role of being a mere data source for some global digital platforms or US-based and Chinese tech companies.
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