SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 11, 2025--
The latest InfoBrief by market intelligence firm IDC, commissioned by global payments platform 2C2P and Antom, revealed Southeast Asia’s (SEA’s) ecommerce market is projected to reach US$325 billion by 2028, fuelled by the rapid adoption of digital payments and regional interoperability, unlocking more opportunities in cross-border commerce for businesses.
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This year’s research paper, “How Southeast Asia Buys and Pays 2025”, marks the fourth edition of the IDC InfoBrief since 2021. IDC surveyed 600 respondents across six Southeast Asia (SEA) markets – Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, examining the evolving digital payments landscape as a whole and in each market. 1 As the fifth largest economy in the world, SEA’s exceptional growth trajectory is largely driven by its rapidly expanding e-commerce sector, underpinned by increasing digital payment adoption.
The research explores the region’s evolving digital payments landscape and provides a market-specific analysis of the payment trends in each market. It also sheds light on how these trends are reshaping business strategies and laying the foundation for future growth opportunities in the region.
Key highlights from the IDC InfoBrief:
It is critical to have a comprehensive understanding of SEA’s digital payment landscape to fully tap into this US$325b economy. To maximise reach within local markets, it is essential to offer customers their preferred payment methods to enhance the overall customer experience and drive higher conversion rates.
There are also significant opportunities across SEA in intra-SEA cross border commerce.
Agnes Chua, Managing Director of Business and Product Development of 2C2P, stated, “Southeast Asia’s e-commerce landscape is evolving at a breathtaking pace. Merchants recognise the immense opportunities this growth brings them in driving e-commerce revenue, but also acknowledge the increasing complexity it brings to their operations. This includes common challenges such as customer support and issue resolution, payment gateway integration and technology issues. At 2C2P, we empower businesses to navigate these challenges with confidence by delivering payment solutions that simplify operations, enhance cross-border capabilities, and drive growth in the region’s rapidly expanding digital economy so merchants can quickly unlock new opportunities and thrive in this dynamic environment."
Gary Liu, General Manager of Antom, Ant International, said, “Southeast Asia is rapidly emerging as a global hub for digital commerce and innovation. As businesses expand across borders, seamless and efficient transactions are essential for maintaining competitiveness. At Antom, we see payments not just as infrastructure but as a catalyst for business growth. By working with 2C2P and other businesses within Ant International's ecosystem, we empower merchants with unified payment and digitisation solutions covering the full payment lifecycle while also exploring opportunities in global account services, financing, and treasury management to further support their expansion. Through close collaboration with local regulators and industry partners, we aim to unlock new opportunities for businesses of all sizes, helping them thrive in Southeast Asia's evolving digital economy."
About 2C2P
2C2P is a full-suite payments platform that empowers the world's leading enterprises to securely accept and make payments through one point of integration. Its extensive network spans across online, mobile and offline channels including over 600,000 alternative payment locations, enabling enterprises to reach their customers or recipients anywhere. 2C2P also provides value-added services such as issuing, 3D Secure, bill payments and digital goods to meet every business need.
Headquartered in Singapore with operations across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, 2C2P is the preferred payments partner for airlines, online marketplaces, retailers and other enterprises. To learn more, please visit https://2c2p.com/.
About Antom
Ant International's Antom is the leading payment and digitisation services provider for merchants around the world. It offers unified, vertical-specific digital payment solutions to serve businesses of all sizes. Antom supports merchants in over 50 countries and regions, enabling them to connect with consumers in more than 200 markets, with the flexibility to accept payments in more than 100 currencies. Beyond payments, it provides digital marketing solutions and merchant digitisation services to help merchant streamline operations and enhance customer engagement. To learn more, please visit https://www.antom.com/.
1 IDC InfoBrief, commissioned by 2C2P, How Southeast Asia Buys and Pays 2025, Doc #AP242491IB, February 2025
Uncover trends and opportunities in Southeast Asia's digital economy (Graphic: Business Wire)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military forged his reputation as a daring and determined fighter in the early days of the country's battle against Russia, then spent a decade in combat assignments while steadily rising through the ranks.
Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi was named to the post Tuesday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi following days of mass protests in Kyiv and other cities. Demonstrators demanded his removal and the reinstatement of former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who was seen as a driver of military modernization. Protesters said Syrskyi embodied the army’s old, Soviet-style command culture.
In a Facebook post, Drapatyi thanked Syrskyi for his work strengthening the military.
“I grew up in it,” he said, referring to the army. “I will work responsibly, with focus and with respect for the people defending our state today.”
Drapatyi, 43, represents a new generation of Ukrainian generals forged in the crucible of the country’s fight against Russia. He has spent nearly his entire career in combat postings, including leading Ukraine’s Joint Forces, which direct day-to-day combat operations across branches of the army.
He is known as intensely disciplined and highly effective in combat, and he is often sent to stabilize the most critical sectors of the front. He has rarely appeared in public but has nonetheless gained wide respect and popularity within the military and beyond for his past victories.
His reputation was forged in 2014, early in Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine. That May, as a major commanding a battalion of the 72nd Brigade, he led an armored column into central Mariupol to rescue police officers and territorial defense officials besieged by pro-Russian militants who had threatened to burn them alive.
When the column’s path was blocked by a barricade more than a meter (yard) high, Drapatyi, riding in the lead vehicle, ordered the driver to accelerate, and the vehicle bounced over the barrier as if off a ramp. The moment, which was captured on video that circulated widely, is considered one of the most remarkable episodes in the early resistance.
It was a bold move for the Ukrainian army at the time, when decisive and independent moves by field officers were rare. The army was still poorly equipped, largely untested and wary of any action that might escalate tensions with Russia.
Months later, Drapatyi's battalion spent weeks encircled by Russian-backed forces near the Russian border. Rather than disarm and walk out, Drapatyi chose to fight his way free, leading 260 soldiers and more than 30 vehicles out of the pocket at night.
He rose through field commands over the following decade, leading brigades in eastern Ukraine, then serving as deputy Joint Forces commander when Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
In 2024, he took command of forces that halted Russia’s advance on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih and helped push Russian troops back from parts of the Kherson region, then organized the defense that blunted a renewed Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region in 2024.
Zelenskyy named him ground forces commander later that year.
But he soon resigned from that post after a Russian strike killed numerous Ukrainian soldiers at a ground forces training center, the second such attack on the facility in months. He took personal responsibility, saying he had been unable to ensure his orders were carried out. He wrote in his resignation report that he had been blocked from reforming the branch by officials protecting one another from accountability.
Shortly after that, Zelenskyy named him commander of the Joint Forces.
Drapatyi’s uncompromising streak became public on Thursday, when Fedorov, the former defense minister, said Ukraine’s military leadership had resisted reform and pressured commanders who pushed for it, including Drapatyi, who he said had received three reprimands from Syrskyi.
Drapatyi responded with a social media post backing the Defense Ministry’s leadership that was eventually dismissed. He agreed that many changes had been pushed through “despite the system, rather than thanks to how it worked.” A commander’s silence, he wrote, “has never been a form of responsibility.”
He was born in 1982 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, in western Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region, to a family of teachers. He trained as a tank officer at the Kharkiv Institute of Tank Troops, graduated in 2004 and was assigned to the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade in Bila Tserkva, which was then commanded by Syrskyi.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, shakes hands with new commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 20, 2026. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, new commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapatyi looks on during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 20, 2026. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
