Is Southeast Asia ready to embrace DeepSeek? Costs, security among concerns

Chinese start-up DeepSeek’s multilingual capabilities and open-source nature serve as an attractive alternative for users in Southeast Asia, but its true potential can only be realised if security and legal concerns are addressed, according to analysts. Platforms such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are prominent among Southeast Asian users, with multilingual capabilities and partnerships with local tech companies. But this did not necessarily translate into widespread adoption across the region, said Benjamin Ho, China programme assistant professor at RSIS. “China is a ready-made alternative, and for countries in Southeast Asia, having alternatives is always a good thing. In the same way, I don’t think Southeast Asians will rush to buy everything Chinese because it is cheaper, they have also got their calculations,” he said, adding that the focus ultimately hinged on which offered a better “deal”. Southeast Asia has long acknowledged China as a “technological powerhouse” prior to DeepSeek, according to Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at NTU’s public policy and global affairs division. “Many countries are already dependent on China mainly for hardware technological solutions but also for software,” he pointed out.

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