Data is the Key to Observing Consumer Behavior in the Future

Southeast Asia is and will be a promising market for digital economy players. Data management and artificial intelligence are considered to be powerful ways to track consumer behavior in the future.

Traveloka, Iflix, and ViSenze share their views on observing market conditions in Southeast Asia from a perspective consumer behavior at the Tech in Asia Conference 2019. The three of them are compact in using their data to follow consumer trends.

Traveloka Head of Data Analytics Group Doan Lingga told how his company has grown from just selling hotel and flight ticket booking services to what it is today -- offering many options for travel experiences. This can not be separated from data collection which they then process to meet consumer needs.

In order to find out changes in consumer behavior in the market, according to Doan, the presence of data is the key to understanding it.

"Gather all the data first. You don't know what the use of the data is until the time comes. That's why collect it first, track everything. Moreover storage it's cheap so don't hesitate to collect it first," said Doan.

However, Doan added that service providers must be open to consumers about the data they collect and maintain the confidentiality of that data. According to him, transparency should be done in order to develop products according to market needs.

The PayLater feature is one example Doan refers to. As is known, nowadays more and more technology companies are providing pay-later features such as Gojek up to Ovo.

In the future, Doan predicts that there will be more involvement of artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence/AI) in products thrown into society in the future. This is agreed by the Co-founder and CEO of ViSenze, Oliver Tan. ViSenze itself is an AI solution engaged in the retail industry from Singapore.

Oliver admitted that it is still difficult to predict with certainty the trend of consumer behavior in the last 2-3 years. But like Doan, he believes that more services will use AI technology.

"My answer to that is cognitive AI. An AI that might even know a person's needs better than the person himself," he said.

As in the report Google & Temasek 2019, Southeast Asia is still a sexy area for digital economy players. In the latest report, the internet-driven economy in Southeast Asia reached US$100 billion and that figure is predicted to continue to skyrocket to US$300 billion by 2025.

Vietnam and Indonesia are the main axis of this growth with growth rates reaching 40 percent per year.