Today at Google Marketing Live Southeast Asia in Singapore, one of the biggest gatherings of brands and advertisers in the region, Google put a spotlight on how the fast adoption of its AI-powered Search and YouTube’s trusted creator ecosystem is unlocking a massive opportunity for businesses to connect with shoppers and grow.
With AI Overviews and/or AI Mode users in Southeast Asia saying they are able to make decisions faster (82%) and more confidently (80%) because of Search’s AI features, Search usage in is at an all-time high. This is especially true for Gen Zs with 86% noting that it helps them manage decision fatigue. To connect brands with this highly engaged, high-intent audience, Google today unveiled new solutions that bridge the power of Search with YouTube’s unmatched reach. By tapping into YouTube’s trusted creator network, marketers can now leverage the era of video commerce to drive seamless, direct product checkouts.
Sapna Chadha, Google Vice President for Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier, said, “As people realize just how much more Search can do for them, AI is transforming how they explore and shop across our region. We are doubling down on this shift in Search while turbocharging the power of YouTube creators to partner with businesses and build better shopping experiences. No other platform can connect shopper intent and trusted video commerce like Google. Whether a brand wants to build deep creator connections or drive direct checkouts, our ecosystem delivers on every business goal. Ultimately, our next-generation, AI-backed measurement solutions ensure advertisers have total clarity on their ROI, keeping them ahead in this new era of commerce.”
Boosting video commerce and the creator economy in Southeast Asia
With its video-first and creator-led digital economy, Southeast Asia has rapidly become a global epicenter of video commerce. Video commerce surged 5x from 2022 to 2025, commanding 25% of the region’s total e-commerce Gross Merchandise Value (GMV).
This shift is scaling at an unprecedented rate on YouTube through the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program. This empowers creators to tag products directly within their videos, Shorts, and live streams, allowing viewers to shop seamlessly while watching. Since launching two years ago, more than 6 million videos in the region now feature shoppable product tags. With over 50% of eligible creators enrolled, total creator payouts have skyrocketed by more than 105% year-over-year.
At the center of this shift is unmatched viewers’ trust in YouTube creators. Shoppers consult creator reviews and recommendations before making a purchase and Southeast Asia’s most trusted voices are on YouTube. Independent surveys conducted across markets show that viewers trust YouTube creators more than they trust creators on any other platform including TikTok and Meta.
To help brands capitalize on this video commerce momentum with YouTube’s trusted creator ecosystem, Google introduced highly efficient advertiser tools to bridge the gap between shopping discovery and final checkout:
- Commerce Media Suite. The journey from discovering a product to actually buying it is often full of friction, leading to abandoned shopping carts. Commerce Media Suite closes this gap by allowing brands with marketplace storefronts to route high-intent shoppers directly from a YouTube ad to a seamless checkout page. By leveraging real-time shopping insights—like what users are searching for or adding to their carts—marketplaces and brands can serve highly relevant ads to viewers while they watch YouTube. Google is currently piloting this solution with Shopee, and early tests are already delivering strong results. For example, Maybelline achieved a 7.4% incremental lift in revenue alongside a strong return on ad spend.
- Creator Partnerships Boost (formerly known as Partnership Ads). While a creator’s organic content is highly engaging, its reach is inherently limited to their existing followers. Creator Partnerships Boost solves this by allowing brands to promote a YouTube creator’s videos directly as an ad within their own campaigns. By running natively from the creator’s own handle, these ads blend into user feeds, enabling brands to scale their message far beyond organic reach while driving significantly higher engagement for creators.
- Affiliate Partnerships Boost. Every day, more and more creators tag products on YouTube as part of the Affiliate program. To help scale this, Google is piloting the Affiliate Partnerships Boost allowing marketplaces and retailers to expand the reach of high-performing affiliate videos as paid ads. The impact is twofold as marketplaces and retailers get their products in front of a much larger audience, while creators gain a new stream of commission revenue when an ad converts into a sale. Southeast Asia is one of the first regions globally to pilot this solution alongside Shopee.
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