The 10 countries with the highest number of smartphone users. (Source: Statista)

According to market researcher Statista, annual smartphone sales tripled from 2009 to 2015. After that, the market began to stabilize around 1.5 million units per year.

In 2020, about 1.38 billion smartphones were sold worldwide. The number will continue to increase in 2021 with a predicted number of over 1.53 million units.

According to the survey by Statista, as of May 2021, China was the leading country in terms of smartphone users with nearly 912 million people.

Although the number is less than half of China’s, India ranked second with over 439 million units. These two countries will continue to top the rankings because of their huge populations and strong growth potential, given the relatively low smartphone use rates, according to Statista.

Among Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia and Vietnam are the two markets with the highest number of users. Indonesia had up to 160.2 million smartphone users and ranked fourth in the list. Vietnam had 61.3 million users, and was among the top 10 countries with the largest number of smartphone users in the world.

The Philippines and Thailand had a lower number of users, with 41.3 and 37.8 million users, respectively.

The smartphone penetration rate can be used as an indicator to measure how advanced a country's economy is. The number of smartphone users and the penetration rate of smartphones are considered one of the foundations for the development of the digital economy.

In 2020, the smartphone penetration rate in Vietnam ranked 9th with 63.1%, higher than Indonesia (58.6%) and the Philippines (37.7%).

Vietnam is considered a high-growth digital economy market in Southeast Asia.

According to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, Southeast Asia's digital economy in 2020 saw growth of e-commerce, food delivery and online media amid the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, digital payments reached $620 billion in 2020 and are expected to reach $1.2 trillion in 2025.

Online media also posted 22% growth, reaching $17 billion in 2020. This was driven by explosive growth of video streaming service providers, with a growth rate of 12 times in Vietnam and 18 times in Thailand.

Vietnam and Indonesia are two countries that have recorded double-digit growth for the digital economy. Vietnam's digital economy has a total value of about $14 billion and is expected to reach $52 billion by 2025, with an average growth rate of 29% from now to 2025. Amid the pandemic, the Internet-based economy in Vietnam recorded growth in transportation, food, e-commerce and fintech.

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