Market Opportunity
Slightly more than 3.5 times the size of Washington DC, Online Stock Trading Singapore has a population of 4,657,542 (CIA WorldFactbook). With a highly developed and successful market, it has a per capita GDP equal to that of many leading countries in Europe. In the past few years, Singapore has become
one of the world's most prosperous countries.
The Singapore Department of Statistics (SDS) figures show that the median monthly household income increased by 12% in 2008 to $3,469. In addition, the number of households in the higher income brackets increased, and those households earned at least $4800 per month.
In line with the world economic crisis, Singapore's economy shrank by 19.7% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the previous three months (BBC News). The Trade and Industry Ministry predicted that the country's GDP would decrease by 7% to 9% this year.
Despite the horrible turnout in the first quarter, Singapore's economy grew 20% in the second quarter, indicating that Asia may be emerging from the economic slump (USA Today). With an increase in the gross domestic product, the Trade and Industry Ministry now has a more optimistic outlook for the remainder of this year, changing the prediction of the contraction to between 4% and 6%.
Furthermore, the new BMI Singapore Retail report predicts that total retail sales will grow to more than $31 billion by 2013.
Best Industry Segment
obtaining a 12.5% share of Singapore's imports. The best industry segments for U.S. exporters include machinery and equipment, mineral fuels, chemicals, food, and consumer goods.
Tariff and Regulation Landscape
On January 1, 2004, the United States and Singapore entered a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), of which was signed on May 6, 2003. Since the implementation of the FTA, exports from the United States increased more than 73 percent, especially in exports of medical devices, machinery, and construction equipment (Office of the United States Representative). Furthermore, the U.S. and Singapore meet annually to review the FTA and resolve trade issues.
Online Market Opportunity
The Best SGX Live Signals For Profit is one of the most advanced online markets in the Asia-Pacific area. There is a large number of tech savvy online users, which makes Singapore an ideal online market.
Singapore's online penetration rate is at a 67.4%, with 3,104,900 Internet users (Internet World Stats). This number was up by 158.7% since 2000. In addition, online shopping is becoming more and more popular among the Singapore Internet users.
Online Language Preference
Singapore is very diversified in its languages. Main languages used in Singapore include English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. English and Mandarin are used by over two-thirds of the population.
Although many people in Singapore use English and can understand American websites. Businesses who seek to reach out to more potential consumers should optimise websites into other languages used in Singapore.
Search Engine Profile
According to comScore, 221 million searched were conducted in Singapore in February. As usual, Google dominates with a market share of 66%. Yahoo! follows with a share of 17.4%. Then comes Baidu with 3.8%, Microsoft sites with 2.5% and other search engines comprising of the remaining 10.8%.
Summary
With a strong and technologically advanced economy, Singapore provides excellent opportunities for U.S. exporters. Although Singapore's country size is much smaller than that of many other countries with comparable economies, it is a key destination for trade; Singapore re-exports many products throughout the world, mainly in Asia and Africa. Thus, Global marketers ranks Singapore as Tier II for global online marketing opportunities.