Michael Yap, Deputy CEO at the Media Development Authority of Singapore (a Singapore government agency), spoke at a recent TEDxUSC event. As Executive Director of the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office, he highlighted some of Singapore’s major digital and animation achievements, including a demonstration of a virtual 3-D city. He emphasized the rapid growth of the digital economy and talked about the “next billion” of web users who would be from Asia. Not surprisingly, the majority of these web users will most likely access the web through their mobile devices.

Yap stated that Asia’s virtual economy is five times the size of the United States’ – and it is growing quickly. This means faster evolution on the web of new business models due to fragmented and evolving consumption modes. Mr. Yap said that Singapore is focused on creating networks where they are needed, in areas such as health, transportation and employment. This will create simplicity for everyone from everywhere and digitize physical interactions. Yap described his concept of an “information shadow”, the idea that capturing physical interactions with the world could create corresponding data online, fueling the kind of information that can create new insights and industries.

Singapore is uniquely situated to capitalize on this digital revolution by orchestrating elements of social networks, design, businesses and creative works. Michael Yap says cross-discipline and cross-border collaboration is not just the future of Singapore, but also the outlook for the world.

Read more Notes from TEDxUSC.