The US has the largest information technology market in the world. With a vibrant culture of technological innovation and entrepreneurship, it is home to many leading hardware, software, and tech service providers.
It is also the world leader in startup ecosystems, with Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and Silicon Valley consistently ranked in the world's top 10. These ecosystems have deep resources: top universities, leading tech companies, innovative multi-national companies, and active venture capital firms.
Major technology companies based in Silicon Valley include Apple, Cisco, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Intel, Salesforce, and Twitter.
Want to innovate and transform your business? Then consider working with US technology companies. You can explore acquiring or licensing US technologies, developing new business models or building new products on key US technology platforms.
If you run a technology company, you can also work with US technology companies to help you scale regionally and globally. For example, you can co-create or integrate your products with US technology platforms to market and distribute globally, or utilise mentorship, accelerator programmes, and funding to grow more quickly.
The US is the world’s largest consumer market, with a highly skilled workforce in the consumer product arena. In 2019, the US consumer goods market was the largest in the world, estimated at US$635 billion (S$857 billion). Household spending in the US is also the highest in the world, accounting for more than a quarter of global household consumption.
The typical US consumer is receptive to both domestic and imported brands, given the open and broad nature of the US market. This enables you to tap the rising consumer confidence and spending to introduce your brand to the US market.
Coupled with the established reputation of the Singapore brand, your company has a good chance of being welcomed and well-regarded in the US market. This success can be your company’s launchpad to becoming a global brand, following the footsteps of Singapore consumer product companies such as Paradise Group, Castlery and Cocoba. Paradise Group made its first entry into the US market by opening two wholly owned outlets in 2021, with more outlets in the US to follow. Rated as one of the best online furniture stores by the New York Post, Castlery entered the US e-commerce space in 2019, fulfilling orders to six cities. Today, it is now fulfilling orders across all major cities. Cocoba, manufacturer and retailer of the popular IRVINS salted egg snack brand, kicked off their US market entry in 2020 and received positive feedback from major US publications and personalities.
The US is also seeing a groundswell of interest for more conscious and sustainable products and solutions across all consumer sectors. A global leader in agrifood technology, the US has the highest global funding share and is a key reference market for Singapore agrifood companies. In 2021, TurtleTree, a Singapore biotech company pioneering the technology to produce human milk, announced its new R&D headquarters in Davis, California. It attributed the move to the recognition of North America as the largest global market in alternative proteins and a global leader in bovine and human milk research. You can read more about the growing conscious consumer trend and how it is reshaping the food industry here.
There are a few ways to ease your company’s entry into the US market. One of them is through partnerships that Enterprise Singapore forms with US e-commerce companies such as Amazon, eBay, and Newegg. Alternatively, you may partner and learn from US brands as they expand into Asia.
If you are interested in the US market, don't miss the Consumer Electronics Show, the world's leading trade show for consumer technologies.
The US is home to different manufacturing sectors, with the largest manufacturing industries being petroleum, steel, automobiles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber and mining.
With US President Joe Biden’s pledge to invest in the US domestic manufacturing capabilities and move the nation away from its reliance on China for critical inputs, consider venturing into the US market to tap its interest in diversification of supply chains and “friend-shoring”, particularly in these categories that have been identified as critical products:
For more than 50 years, the US semiconductor industry has been at the forefront of worldwide technological development. The US offers an advanced network of semiconductor clusters, connecting education, research, and manufacturing. These clusters create synergies for the semiconductor ecosystem, from silicon technology to industrial applications.
The rising global shortage for semiconductor manufacturing capacities has led to the US looking into reshoring and investments in the US’ semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. Singapore companies can take on the role of a trusted trade partner to work with US semiconductor companies, to address and mitigate gaps in its semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. Top semiconductor companies in the US include Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA Corporation.
The US medical device market is the largest in the world and is expected to grow to US$208 billion (S$284 billion) by 2023. US medical device companies are highly regarded globally for their innovative and high technology products. Since innovation fuels the medial device sector’s ongoing quest for better ways to treat and diagnose medical conditions, the medical device sector should continue growing at a positive rate in the coming years.
Top global medical device corporations that are headquartered in the US include Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health, Stryker, as well as Beckton, Dickinson and Company (BD). There is potential for Singapore companies to ride on the wider interest in sourcing for alternative suppliers, to offer services ranging from product design, prototyping, contract manufacturing, to product distribution across Asia.
The US market share of plug-in electric vehicle (EV) sales stands at one-third of the Chinese EV market. The Biden administration seeks to position the US to dominate the future of transportation and manufacturing, with once-in-a-generation investments that will strengthen their ability to create good-paying jobs and re-establish their leadership in EVs and batteries.
The administration has plans to accelerate the US EV industry by driving demand for advanced cars and trucks, reinvigorating the automotive sector and battery manufacturing. The plan is to deploy a national network of chargers and advance their innovation capacity for the next generation of technology.
Singapore companies can target opportunities in EV charging infrastructure investments and explore the provision of zero-emission solutions. This will support the demand driven by US federal agencies in transiting their vehicle fleets to electric and installing charging infrastructure.
How to improve infrastructure in the US is a source of continual debate. McKinsey analysts report that US$150 billion (S$205 billion) per year will be required between 2017 and 2030 to meet all of the country’s infrastructure needs. These gaps are largely in transportation (bridges, airports, rail systems, ports and waterways); water and energy (drinking water, wastewater, irrigation systems, power grids); and internet connectivity (broadband networks).
The Biden administration has made infrastructure a priority as part of President Biden’s campaign pledge to “Build Back Better”. This plan includes more than US$600 billion (S$819 billion) in funding to upgrade physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges, railways, airports, and water systems. The Biden administration is also pushing to expand the traditional definition of infrastructure, to include funding for worker training, R&D and manufacturing incentives, as well as US$400 billion (S$546 billion) for in-home medical care for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Climate change is also a major focus of Biden’s plan, with hundreds of billions of dollars set aside to modernise the US electrical grid and promote the adoption of EVs nationwide. There is potential for Singapore companies with innovative, sustainable offerings to tap the growing opportunities in the US market, as interest and funding for green infrastructure solutions rise.