Projected ad spending in the Influencer Advertising sector in Southeast Asia is expected to reach 693.70 million US$ in 2024. The Creator Economy sector is forecasted to grow at an annual rate of 11.39% from 2024 to 2028, leading to an estimated market size of 1,068 billion US$ by 2028.

TL;DR;
  • Influencer Advertising sector in Southeast Asia is expected to reach 693.70 million US$ in 2024
  • Instagram is still the most prominent social media in Southeast Asia
  • Nano-influencers are gaining a pivotal position among other tiers in Southeast Asia
  • Southeast Asia’s brands will rely on Nano-influencer for their influencer marketing campaign
  • Southeast Asian online consumers use Instagram as the main source before buying a product

Through this article, you’ll find the most important insights, statistics and key trends of influencer marketing in the Southeast Asia region in 2024.

In 2024, more than 75% of global brands allocate their marketing budget to influencer marketing.

And do you know what’s more interesting?

The same pattern of rising phenomenon also happens in Southeast Asia.

In fact, it grows so much stronger than we expected.

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More and more brands in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and everywhere else in Southeast Asia are looking forward to working with influencers.

Southeast Asia’s influencer marketing industry was worth $638 million in 2019 and is expected to grow very significantly.

So, here are the top insights of influencer marketing in Southeast Asia in 2024 you need to know if you want to enter the market.

Trust me. This study is MEATY and it will be worth your time 😉

Let’s go!

Influencer Marketing insights in South East Asia

Southeast Asia has 527.23 million Social Media users in 2024

With more and more benefits influencer marketing could bring, many trusts the channel to become their fundamental marketing strategy.

It is both budget-friendly and has measurable impacts, making it the marketing funnel to gain the most ROI.

It can boost 11x higher ROI from banner ads.

No wonder, Southeast Asia also sniffs this potential channel for brands.

East Asia leads in social media usage with:

Nearly 1.25 billion users, accounting for 15.4% of the global population, largely due to China’s vast population.

Following are:

  • South Asia with 961.81 million users.
  • Southeast Asia with 527.23 million users.
  • North America with 447.82 million users.
  • South America with 316.78 million users.

What are the 11 countries in Southeast Asia?

If you don’t know yet. Southeast Asia, also known as SEA is one of Asia’s regions in south-eastern Asia.

It consists of countries in the south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of Australia.

There is a total of 11 countries:

According to Worldometers, the total population of Southeast Asia is 690 million people as of February 2024.

Here is the complete list of the total population of Southeast Asia in 2024:

South East Asian CountriesSouth East Asia Population in 2024
Indonesia279,134,505
Philippines112,508,994
Vietnam98,953,541
Thailand70,078,203
Myanmar55,227,143
Malaysia33,181,072
Cambodia17,168,639
Laos7,481,023
Singapore5,943,546
Timor-Leste1,369,429
Brunei Darussalam445,431
Source: World Population Review

Among those, 482 million people, or more than 70% of the total population are on social media.

And 87% of Southeast Asians spend more than 2 hours on social media.

Do you see the potential?

Meanwhile, social media penetration is rising in Brunei Darussalam with a 116.5% rate.

Social media penetration in Southeast Asia as of February 2024

Southeast Asian CountriesSocial Media Penetration in %
Brunei Darussalam116.5%
Malaysia91.7%
Singapore89.5%
Philippines82.4%
Thailand81.2%
Vietnam78.1%
Cambodia73.9%
Indonesia68.9%
Laos51.1%
Myanmar37.7%
Timor-Leste31.7%
Source: Statista

Many name Southeast Asia as a fertile ground for influencers.

First, the market is there where users are very active on social media.

Second, as I stated before, influencers are rapidly growing in Southeast Asia.

The last, the internet economy of Southeast Asia is thriving, predicted to hit $1 trillion in 2030.

For brands, this is a great opportunity to grow their businesses.

Let’s focus on some countries that have interesting growth in their influencer marketing:

Let’s see, Indonesia and Singapore later in this article.

What is a Southeast Asian influencer?

Southeast Asian influencer is social media users in Southeast Asia who have a certain range of audience and can persuade others to follow their recommendations.

To start, they share their knowledge about some specific topic in a form of content to build a reputation on social media.

There are various niche of influencers, such as fashion, beauty, food, sport, photography, etc.

Some influencers don’t need to build their reputation from scratch as they have been famous even before stepping on social media. They are like musicians, celebrities, politicians, etc.

Why are brands reaching out to them?

They have a valuable social bond with their followers.

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Brands assume that they are powerful enough to encourage their audience to do as said, later create trends, and their followers end up buying the product.

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87% of Southeast Asians spend more than 2 hours on social media per day

Not bad, isn’t it? Internet has become a big part of our daily lives.

in February 2024 a total of 5.35 billion people worldwide with internet access. This translates to about 66.2% of the global population being online.

400 million to 450 million of South East Asian are online:

Regional Data are:

  • Indonesia: 224 million users
  • Philippines: 88.6 million users
  • Vietnam: 74.2 million users
  • Thailand: 55.6 million users
  • Malaysia: 33.5 million users
  • Singapore: 5.8 million users

And 99% of people around the world access social media via mobile.

Social Media use around the world in 2021
Gentle reminder. The world is now connected.

With that significant growth, Southeast Asia also contributes a high internet & social media usage.

Reuters even named the region of 11 nations as one of the world’s fastest-growing internet markets.

It’s all thanks to the young Southeast Asians that have impressive social media habits, rapid smartphone usage and urbanization, and a growing middle class.

A whopping 482.73 million South Asians are active social media users in 2020. 

In fact, Southeast Asians access the internet 10 hours per day, more than the global average.

Here are the SouthEast Asian countries with the highest daily time spent on any device:

  • 🇵🇭 Filipinos spend almost 11 hours
  • 🇲🇾 Malaysians spend more than 9 hours
  • 🇮🇩 Indonesians spend almost 9 hours
  • 🇹🇭 Thais spend 8 hours 44 minutes
  • 🇸🇬 Singaporeans spend more than 8 hours
  • 🇻🇳 Vietnamese spend 6 hours 47 minutes

Meanwhile, 87% of Southeast Asians spend more than 2 hours on social media per day.

  • 46.5% spend more than 5 hours scrolling on social media
  • 41.1% spend 2-5 hours
  • 10.7% spend only 1-2 hours
  • And 1.7% spend less than 1 hour

It is no secret that Southeast Asia is the home for online businesses.

Later in 2030, Southeast Asia’s internet economy is reported to hit $1 trillion.

With the multiplication of Social Networks, this time will increase in the future.

So, my advice will be:

Go for it! Jump on Social Media and Influencers as soon as possible.

There is attention (and money) to get for your Brand, your business.

Instagram is the most important social media channel in Southeast Asia

With almost 500 million active social media users, Southeast Asians also use various social media platforms.

The young Southeast Asians use platforms on average of 7.5 platforms per month, higher than the global average which is 6.3 across all ages.

However, Instagram is still the winner in the game.

PlatformSoutheast Asia UsersGlobal Users % of Global Users
Facebook400 million2.91 billion13.70%
YouTube380 million2.6 billion14.60%
Instagram190 million1.5 billion12.70%
TikTok100 million1.5 billion6.70%
2023 South East Asia vs World Social Media Channels

In 2021, Instagram was the most-used social media network (71.4%), followed by TikTok (15.8%), YouTube (6%), and Facebook (5.2%).

Instagram is also the best choice for influencer marketing campaigns according to brands globally.

It has the biggest escalation compared to other social media networks.

In 2020, 68% of brands agree to use Instagram for influencer marketing and it raises to 79% in 2021.

It increases by 11% in 2021.

While Facebook only gets a 7% raise in 2021, TikTok 1%, and YouTube at 8%.

Take a look at the table that shows influencer campaign channel utilization by brands in 2020 and 2021.

Channel Used by Brands20202021
Instagram68%79%
Facebook43%50%
TikTok45%46%
YouTube36%44%
Brands ❤️ Instagram all around the World

Instagram is still proven as the prima-donna in this field.

Because it’s easier to reach out to the audience via sponsored content rather than using native advertising.

In fact, in a 2021 report on digital statistics, 56.8% of Indonesians use ad-blockers.

So, reaching out to Instagram influencers is a great strategy to gain a bigger audience.

Here, I have some important steps for you to find and contact Instagram influencers.

Southeast Asian online consumers use Instagram as the main source before buying a product

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The word of mouth power is real.

Especially for Southeast Asia online consumers.

They primarily share their purchase experiences with followers on Instagram.

In fact, Southeast Asia consumers use Instagram as the main source before buying a product.

What is the most favorite type of content Southeast Asian consumers like to access on Instagram?

Social Media Type of content most popular in South East Asia.
If you make reviews, tutorials & unboxing. You will succeed as an influencer in SouthEast Asia
  1. Reviews: 30.2% of Southeast Asians prefer review content – Product testing by influencer
  2. Tutorials: 20%+ of Southeast Asians use Instagram to look for tutorials – How to put on daily light makeup.
  3. Unboxing: 19% of Southeast Asians search for unboxing content – Opening random products by influencers.
  4. Social Feed: 20% of Southeast Asians use Instagram to catch up with social feed – Peeping on Instagram Highlights.
  5. Entertainment: Less than 10% of Southeast Asians hop on Instagram to entertain themselves – Watching funny videos.

Most of the content types are product-preferred and other activities like staying connected or looking for entertainment take only a small portion.

On a global scale, 83% of users’ intention to access Instagram is to find something new.

And 87% of global Instagram users take a specific action after seeing posts with product information in it.

Such as following brands, visiting their stores, or even making a purchase.

93% of users need to see a product at least twice before purchasing.

This is why boosting your influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram is a very big deal.

Also, Instagram influencer fraud which was once a serious problem is now constantly decreasing with less than a 50% possibility.

This also comes with the rapid growth of influencer marketing-related services by 26% in 2021.

They often provide fraud detection when finding an influencer.

So, I think it’s better for you to use an influencer marketing platform to check the influencer’s authenticity before working with them.

If you need any recommendations, just pick the best influencer marketing platform from this list.

Nano Influencers are the most vital influencers tiers in Southeast Asia

It is already known that Southeast Asians love influencer reviews.

A product recommendation by influencers indeed impacts very well.

70% of Filippino consumers trust influencer product recommendations before purchasing a product.

While in a scale of Southeast Asia, 32.7% of consumers decide to buy a product after getting recommendations from influencers within a period of time.

Also, 25% of Southeast Asian consumers are influenced by influencers many times before doing product purchases.

Here are the details:

buying decisions southeast asia
Influencers know how to push and recommend products to their audience.

But the most interesting part is, that Southeast Asians trust recommendations from Nano-influencers more than anyone.

Look at this.

  • Nano-influencers: 46% of Southeast Asia customers prefer product recommendations by Nano-influencers
  • Celebrities: 20% of Southeast Asia customers will buy celebrities’ product recommendations
  • Macro-influencers: 17% of Southeast Asians trust product recommendations by macro-influencers
  • Micro-influencers: 15% of Southeast Asians want to buy a product based on micro-influencers recommendation

Nano-influencers are ordinary social media users who share content about their daily lives. Mostly, they share about their families, friends, daily activities, cats, memes, etc.

But, they are recognized by a pretty big audience.

They are your local social media celebs, your college popular girls, your neighbor fashionista, and many more.

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Usually, their follower sizes are between 1k-5k followers. Some also say nano-influencers have 5k-10k followers.

Even though nano-influencers have a smaller audience than other influencer tiers, their engagement rate is very high.

Nano-influencers’ engagement rate is 3.69% in 2024 globally.

The number is higher than the engagement rate of macro-influencers doubled.

SouthEast Asian
Influencer Tier
Follower sizeEngagement Rate
Nano-influencers5k-20k3.69%
Micro-influencers20-60k2.25%
Mid-tier influencers60-200k1.62%
Macro-influencers>200k1.61%
Nano influencers will help you to reach your marketing goals.

Why is their engagement rate so high?

Because nano-influencers’ audience is most likely their friends or family.

The more you are familiar with the ones you are following, the more likely you are to engage with their content.

A survey indicates that 60% of people trust reviews from their friends and family, rather than celebrities and influencers (23%). 

So, when they want to review a product, it will look more honest and genuine.

More Brands are leveraging Nano-influencers in Southeast Asia

Turns out, Southeast Asian brands have already sniffed the rise of nano-influencers.

As influencer marketing is proven to bring many benefits, brands don’t want to miss a chance.

Southeast Asia brands that previously don’t work with influencers have dropped significantly every year.

Meanwhile, the number of brands in Southeast Asia that want to work with influencers keeps growing.

Percentage of Brands who have worked with influencers in South East Asia
Many brands are jumping on Influencer Marketing in South East Asia. It’s just the beginning.

68% of global brands say they will increase their budget for influencer marketing in 2024.

In the same year, 39% of global brands will spend 10-30% of their marketing budget on influencer marketing.

In a span of 3 years, Southeast Asia brands run influencer campaigns pretty frequently, rather than monthly or bi-monthly.

And the number keeps increasing. Take a look at this.

The rising of nano-influencers has made brands in Southeast Asia more interested in them.

There’s a prediction that brands in Southeast Asia will leverage nano-influencers.

An estimated 77% of brands in Singapore are leveraging on nano-influencers in 2024.

It is constantly rising from 62% in 2020 to 74% in 2021.

This is still the beginning for nano-influencers.

Trust me, you are gonna witness their rapid demand in the next 2 years 😉

Southeast Asian customers prefer influencer reviews rather than following Brand’s Business Accounts

As I said before, Southeast Asians trust influencer’s product recommendations.

But.. why?

Because they don’t like gimmicks and they prefer genuine experience.

72% of Singaporeans trust businesses with positive reviews and testimonials over those without.

Now, social media is full of sponsored content, endorsements, and all kinds of brand advertising.

And Southeast Asians are very well-aware of them.

They welcome those, as long as it contains real testimony, not fake reviews just for the sake of marketing.

66% of Taiwanese prefer the authenticity of content rather than the quality.

They want the truth, not a bragged content.

This is why Southeast Asians don’t like following a brand’s business account which is usually full of content marketing.

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But not with influencers.

They build the account and grow the audience organically.

As influencers create more and more content, they are building more social value. It then creates special bonds with the followers.

It indicates that influencer marketing is very helpful to tackle all the user’s problems.

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The State of Influencer Marketing in Indonesia in 2024

Have you heard of this country before?

If you want more dedicated insights.

I have written a dedicated study about Influencer Marketing in Indonesia.

And it’s frequently updated with fresh data.

Indonesia is the country where Bali is located.

Yes, the tourist paradise 🏝

It is the biggest island country in the world.

It has more than 17000 islands, including the biggest ones like Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Java.

In 2024, Indonesia has a total population of 279 million people.

A whopping 70.2% of the population, 204 million people are already internet users.

And 68.9 percent of them, or 191.4 million people use social media in February 2024 and spend an average of 3 hours and 17 minutes online.

The most popular social media networks in Indonesia
Same in Indonesia. Instagram leads the game. TikTok is just behind.

With these stats, the chance is wide open for marketers to reach the audience’s attention on social media to promote products or services.

Also, there are a massive number of influencers in Indonesia.

You can literally find anybody with various types of niches and follower sizes.

Like Indonesia’s top Instagram influencers for example.

Now, let’s take a look at how influencer marketing grows in this country.

Instagram is the most favorite social media for Indonesians in 2024

Although there has been rapid growth in TikTok users, Instagram still wins the heart of Indonesians.

Instagram is still the most popular in Indonesia (60%), followed by TikTok (27.3%), Facebook (6.9%), and YouTube (5.9%).

These are the popularity rate of social media networks in Indonesia.

Indonesian Social Media PlatformPopularity Rate
Instagram60%
TikTok27.3%
Facebook6.9%
YouTube5.9%
TikTok is growing fast in Indonesia.

In January 2024, Indonesia had 89.891 million Instagram users, representing 31.9% of the country’s total population

In 2024, Indonesia has approximately 106.52 million TikTok users

Instagram is indeed the first choice in mind to reach a bigger audience for Indonesian brands.

Social Media Spend in Indonesia in 2022
Brands spend their Influencer Marketing budget on Instagram TikTok and Youtube in Indonesia

You see, TikTok is getting trusted by brands.

Previously people see TikTok as a meh platform with cringe creators.

But as people see how powerful the TikTok algorithm is, influencers and brands are flocking to TikTok to create more creative and sponsored content.

As a result, every brand that is going through FYP will end up viral. Many brands, especially beauty products have proven the ‘TikTok’s magic’ such as Scarlett, AXIS-Y, and many more.

Trust me, in the next 2 years, TikTok will share a competitive rivalry with Instagram 😉

If you wanna bet, drop a comment. Or go on Snapchat.

Indonesian consumers prefer content from Influencers to brands’ business accounts

Same with the regional trends, Indonesian consumers prefer following influencers rather than brands‘ business accounts.

Why?

Many reasons.

Why Indonesians prefer to follow an Influencer Account
Good content is king in Indonesia

This is the complete list of the reason why Indonesian prefer influencer accounts:

  • More relatable content: 30% of Indonesian follow influencer accounts to get relatable content.
  • Honest reviews: 23% of Indonesian prefer influencer accounts because they can obtain honest reviews from a product.
  • More information: 0.6% of Indonesian follow influencers on social media to get more information.
  • Others: 25% of Indonesian prefer influencers over brands’ business accounts for other reasons.

Because they feel like they can get relatable content (30%) and honest reviews (23%).

But, it’s not as easy as it looks to promote products via influencers. 

Indonesian need to see a product more than one time.

Take a look at the table of what impacts Indonesian buying decisions.

What impacts Indonesian buying decisions% of consumers
A product recommendation by many influencers within a period of time40%
A product recommendation by one influencer, many times33%
A product recommendation by friends/family, many times18%
A product recommendation by friends/family, within a period of time8%

40% of Indonesians will buy a product after being recommended by many influencers within a period of time.

And for one influencer, 33% need to hear the product recommendation many times.

Indonesians need constant exposure to the product before buying it from influencers

It means, Indonesian brands can not run campaigns only once.

They need to do multiple campaigns with as many influencers as possible.

Brands also need to make sure that consumers are familiar with the product.

Buying decisions impact on Indonesian Consumer from Influencers and content creators
Reminder: Influencers who will work with your Brand need to push your products not only once.

How Indonesian brands can leverage Nano-influencers?

As you can see in the previous graphic, there is an opportunity for nano-influencers to advance.

18% of Indonesian consumers need to be recommended by their friends or family many times before making a purchase.

And 8% need to be reminded within a period of time. That is a total of 26% of friends or family influence to buy a product.

Remember that most nano-influencers’ audiences are friends or family? Exactly.

Nano-influencers can sneak through this slice.

Plus, brands need to run multiple campaigns with many influencers.

Working with nano-influencers can be very effective and affordable as they cost only $5–$25 per post.

91% of Indonesian brands already predict they will increase their influencer marketing budget in 2024.

Indonesian Brands who already works with Nano Influencers
Do you feel the Nano Influencer hype in Indonesia?

While 78% of Indonesian brands are willing to work with nano-influencers for at least a month in 2024.

In fact, the trend of brands that do not work with nano-influencers is dropping every year.

Meaning, more and more brands want to leverage nano-ambassadors for their influencer marketing campaigns.

Let’s see what’s going on in a smaller but also lucrative market like Singapore.

🇸🇬 The State of Influencer Marketing in Singapore in 2024

Another Southeast Asia country with thriving influencer marketing in Singapore.

It has gained much international recognition despite being a tiny and young country.

It is also known as one of the cleanest and safest countries in the world.

In 2024, the population of Singapore is estimated to be around 6,037,132 to 6,119,203 based on various projections​.

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Singapore’s internet penetration rate is projected to grow to more than 94 percent by 2026​.

While this projection extends beyond 2024, it indicates a continuing upward trend in internet usage within the country.

As of January 2023, Singapore has approximately 5.08 million active social media users.

As more people come online, it brings more opportunities for influencers to shine.

Here’s how influencer marketing becomes an optimistic market in the future.

Instagram is the most-loved social media for Singapore citizens in 2024

Southeast Asia people love Instagram so much, including Singapore.

Instagram is the most popular social media network in Singapore
Instagram is also the most popular Social Network for users and influencers

78% of Singapore citizens prefer using Instagram to other social media apps like TikTok (11%), Facebook (6%), and YouTube (4%).

Social Media Platform in SingaporePopularity Rate
Instagram78.1%
TikTok11.5%
Facebook6.1%
YouTube4.3%
Instagram leads in SIngapore like everywhere else in Southeast Asia

In December 2023, Singapore had approximately 3.278 million Instagram users, accounting for 51.3% of its total population​

Instagram indeed has the biggest growth of 5% per quarter compared to Snapchat or Facebook at only 2-3%.

However, Singapore brands spend more budget on Facebook (62%) than on Instagram (52%) in 2024 with a 10% gap.

But, the third biggest spending is on influencers (40%).

This is a good sign as more than 67% of Singapore brands expect an increase in their influencer marketing budget.

Social Media budget spend by brands in Singapore
Hey Facebook 👋🏼 Long time no see

How Singapore brands can leverage Nano-influencers?

Almost everyone in Singapore uses social media.

Most of them like using social media to stay up to date with current trends and connected with friends and family.

Some of them like to get informed and create content.

Here, check out the 2 top reasons why Singaporean use social media:

  • Stay connected: 79.9% of Singaporeans use social media to stay connected with friends and family – Scrolling through friends’ Instagram feed or Stories.
  • Getting information: 71.8% of Singaporeans use social media to get the latest news – Watching the local news.

But some of them also use social media to create content, and some to document their life.

Well, maybe this is why influencers in Singapore are many MANY.

Now pay attention to the 40% of people who like to watch reviews.

It means brands could collaborate with influencers to take advantage of this condition.

The Southeast Asia trend says people trust influencers more than brands’ business accounts.

72% of Singapore consumers trust businesses with positive reviews and testimonials more than those without.

But, 44% of consumers will more likely to buy a product from a friend or family recommendation.

So, it is crucial for brands to collaborate with influencers that create honest content and share valuable connections with their followers.

That can be said, leveraging on nano-influencers is the best strategy to grab this kind of audience.

Percentage of Brands Working with Influencers in Singapore
Yes. A lot of Brands works with super small influencers in Singapore.

They are infamously known to create authentic content and genuine engagement.

Besides, 82% of Singapore brands are looking forward to working with nano-influencers in the future.

It’s huge.

Why Influencer Marketing is a (very) promising market in Southeast Asia?

There are many reasons to build a whole argument with this one.

Let me explain it to you with these points:

482 million people in South East Asia are on social media

Not bad. What did you expect?

And the fact that 87% of people spend more than 2 hours on social media makes it even more reassuring.

Southeast Asia consumers view influencers as trustworthy sources of a product

Remember the power of the word-mouth I mentioned earlier?

Yes, that can be said that South Asian customers rely so much on influencer reviews.

In fact, 70% of Filipinos buy a product based on influencer recommendations.

Even 46% of customers decide to buy a product by the recommendation of Nano-influencers.

They prefer recommendations from someone they trust.

The growth of Southeast Asia influencers is Huge and Fantastic

Not only are the potential market, but influencers also flock to social media to seek fortune.

And it grows incredibly.

As Instagram still holds the crown of the most popular social media in Southeast Asia, let’s talk about Instagram influencers.

South East Asian Creators tier% Growth
Nano-influencer (5k-10k followers)33%
Micro-influencer (10k-50k followers)18%
Mid-tier influencer (50k-100k followers)40%
Macro-influencer (100k-250k followers)40%
Mega-influencer (250k-1m followers)34%
Celebrity (>1m followers)31%
Macro & Mid are growing in South Asia. But be careful, the fraud usually starts at these levels of Influence

In 2020 only, mid-tier influencers (50k-100k) and macro-influencers (100k-250k) keep rising on Instagram at 40%.

Turns out, Mega-influencers’ growth places second.

Nano Instagram influencers also get a pretty high growth rate of 33%,

making them the next potential influencer for brands to get a more niche audience.

Now, let’s take a look at influencers’ spread in Southeast Asian countries in 2020.

Number of Instagram Influencers by countries in South East Asia
Influencers and content creators are growing fast in South East Asia

Indonesia becomes the country with the most Instagram influencers with 60.3k influencers, almost doubling the second-country gap.

While Thailand comes second with 34.6k influencers and Malaysia is not far behind with 30.3k influencers.

Here is the ultimate list of the best Southeast Asian influencers brands can look into for their influencer campaigns.

Influencer marketing in Indonesia is indeed thriving.

Note: If you need more data and insights about the Indonesian Influencer Marketing landscape.

In Southeast Asia, Instagram nano-influencers have the number-one engagement rate

The growth of Nano-influencers is accompanied by a very high engagement rate (ER) among other influencer tiers.

It is because their audience is mostly family or friends.

Basically, those who have a close relationship with the influencer.

The more you are familiar with the account owner, then the more likely you are to engage with the content.

That is why the ER of nano-influencers is very high despite the smaller followers from others.

Look at the engagement rate of Southeast Asian influencers in 2020 below.

South East Asia Creators tierER in 2020 (%)
Nano-influencer (5k-10k followers)4.2%
Micro-influencer (10k-50k followers)3.2%
Mid-tier influencer (50k-100k followers)2.6%
Macro-influencer (100k-250k followers)2.5%
Mega-influencer (250k-1m followers)2.6%
Celebrity (>1m followers)2.5%

We can see the ER of nano-influencers in Southeast Asia is 4.2%.

While micro-influencers come in second place with 3.2%.

And the bigger influencer tiers can only manage to get 2.6% ER at the highest.

So, if your brand wants to launch an influencer marketing campaign in Southeast Asia, you should keep an eye on the rising nano-influencers in the land.

Influencer marketing is the most effective way to reach out to customers in Southeast Asia

I have mentioned before that many Southeast Asia countries use ad-blockers.

Indonesia is the number #1 country with the highest usage of ad-blockers which is 56.8% of the whole country.

Here is the ad-blockers usage of some Southeast Asian countries in 2022.

South East Asian CountryAd-blocker usage rate
Indonesia56.8%
Malaysia49%
Phillippines45.3%
Singapore41.3%
Thailand40%
Vietnam34.7%
Do you remember banners? And website advertising?

The widespread of ad-blockers usage is a big issue if you want to advertise your product or service.

One way to reach Southeast Asian customers: sponsored content by influencers.

It will not be blocked, unlike ads.

It is more reachable to the audience than placing ads.

Also, Southeast Asians trust influencer reviews.

So, that can be said that boosting influencer marketing is the most effective way to gain customers.

What are the most popular Social Networks for Southeast Asia’s influencer marketing in 2024?

Let’s recall the stats.

Instagram is voted the most popular by 71% of Southeast Asians, TikTok by 15%, YouTube by 6%, and Facebook by 5%.

However, in a recent survey, brands also plan to increase their presence on TikTok in 2024.

brands wants to increase their social media presence on TikTok, Instagram and Youtube
Instagram always. TikTok as well.

The gap for TikTok (74%) is very thin compared to Instagram (75%) which is only 1%.

Indeed, brands finally pay attention to TikTok, the rising platform.

But still, brands will not leave Instagram behind as it is proven successful with influencer marketing.

If they both could enlarge the audience and help grow the business even better, then why not use two?

Ready to Start working with Influencers in Southeast Asia?

This is it: The top insights to run your influencer marketing in Southeast Asia in 2024.

The market has grown bigger and the demand continues to rise.

Brands gain massive ROI from influencer marketing campaigns and they will not waste their time. 

The market also has shifted the demand: they want genuine reviews, not advertised content. We will witness a more creative approach from creators to pack the product endorsements.

As brands want to spare more budget on TikTok, it will also be the next promising platform for influencer marketing in Southeast Asia.

Well, I admit that it’s not easy to run influencer marketing campaigns, especially to find the right influencers for your brand. But, if you choose the best strategy, then it would be nothing.

One way to run the best influencer marketing campaign is to use an influencer marketing agency.

You can save time and money.

Also, you can drive real results for your business.

We have been partnering with a wide variety of influencers and there is no substitute for such experience.

We know better than anyone who you should work with.

So, which insight really enlightened you? Do you think the insights are helpful for your business?

Or do you have your own vision of how influencer marketing could grow in Southeast Asia? Let me know and share your thoughts!

Note: Yes. You can add complementary data or talk about a solution or even get featured! Just contact us here.

More Influencer Marketing Statistics and insights per Country

All questions and Answers about Influencer Marketing in SEA

Does influencer marketing in South East Asia still work in 2024?

Absolutely. FYI, the searches for “influencer marketing” on Google have increased by 1500% in the last 3 years. The value of the industry keeps going up and more brands consider adding more budget for their influencer marketing campaigns.

How do you become an influencer in South East Asia in 2024?

You must be persistent and proactive. Start with creating personal branding: what niche you choose, what name you will introduce to your audience, etc. Then, produce creative content diligently that works across platforms, and do not forget to engage. If you think you have gained certain followers, then start understanding your audience and see what they really need from your account.

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