Digital technology lets people exchange information, coordinate work and provide some services across borders without travelling.
An animation team can send a draft to an overseas client, receive comments and revise it without posting a physical copy. A shared workspace lets both sides work with the same files from different countries.
Digital technology uses electronic systems to create, store, process and exchange data. Faster internet connections, smartphones, video calls and online platforms can reduce communication time and cost. They help people find overseas customers, exchange ideas, make payments and coordinate work across locations. Sharing a forecast of future orders can help a production plant (factory) plan how much to make. A forecast is an estimate, not a record of completed sales.
Some services, such as an online language lesson, can be delivered digitally. Physical products still need materials, production and transport. Digital links also depend on devices, electricity, networks, skills and systems that can work together; access is not equal everywhere.
Worked example: Revising an animation from another country
All ten employees of an animation studio work in Singapore. A client in Canada reviews their drafts in a shared online workspace. The team can read the client's comments when work starts the next morning.
- The workspace carries the animation and comments across borders. No courier or overseas visit is needed for this review.
- Reducing the time and cost of exchanging drafts makes repeated cooperation with the distant client easier.
- The studio supplies a service overseas while its employees remain in Singapore. Overseas customers alone do not establish that it operates offices or studios abroad.
Watch out for this
Digital technology removes the need for physical transport and infrastructure.
Information and some services can move digitally. Goods still need physical delivery, and digital communication itself relies on equipment, networks and power.
Check your understanding
A shop sees its overseas supplier's stock instantly through an online system, but a replacement machine still takes two weeks to arrive by sea. What has the digital system changed?
- The time needed to move the physical machine has disappeared.
- Information moves faster, helping the shop plan while physical delivery is still required.
- Nothing relevant to globalisation, because shipping still takes time.