Grab also plans to support the government’s key national policy priorities in three main areas

First announced during an exclusive interview with Reuters, Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab today revealed more details of its investment plan in Vietnam, one of its top market.

The company said that it will invest US$500 million into Vietnam over a period of five years to tap opportunities in fintech, new mobility solutions, and logistics. It will launch new services and expand existing transport, food, and payments network in the country.

Grab also announced its “Tech For Good” development roadmap which the company described as being aligned to the Vietnam government’s key national policy priorities under Vietnam’s “Socio-Economic Development Plan 2020”.

It will work in three main areas: Poverty alleviation (by partnering with financial institutions to provide financial services to micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses), skilled workforce building (by growing the company’s R&D headcounts in the country), and environmental sustainability (by complementing existing public transportation facility in the country).

Also Read: Grab launches green e-scooter GrabWheels in Indonesia’s top university

“Grab is one of the largest tech investors in Vietnam. By the end of 2019, we will have invested more than US$200 million into the country to better the livelihoods of users and partners of our ride-hailing, food delivery, logistics and cashless payments services,” said Jerry Lim, Country Head of Grab Vietnam.

“Today’s investment of US$500 million will accelerate our efforts to elevate the quality of life for millions of Vietnamese people beyond the end-users of our super app ecosystem. By aligning our business with the government’s socio-economic development plan, we want to make a significant and meaningful contribution to Vietnam’s long-term socio-economic growth, and support the country’s Industry 4.0 ambitions,” he continued.

Grab had previously announced a similar plan for Indonesia, also one of its top market. Through the company, Grab’s investor SoftBank plans to invest US$2 billion to help build the country’s digital infrastructure.

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Image Credit: Peter Nguyen on Unsplash

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She will help the startup manage and optimise the process of scaling the team, business operations and deliver innovative solutions and products

Leading proptech company iMyanmarHouse.com has announced the appointment of Grace Ei Thwe Aung as its General Manager, effective this month.

Aung brings with her over 20 years of leadership and management experience in online travel and hospitality industries. Prior to joining iMyanmarHouse, she was COO at Aquamarine Ecotourism Development in Myanmar. Before that, she was COO of Flymya.com, a leading online travel marketplace. At Flymya, she led and managed a team of 162 while also being responsible for all strategy, operations, sales, marketing and product development in Myanmar, Cambodia, Singapore, and China.

Also Read: ShweProperty raises US$3M in fresh funding as 500 Startups makes an entry into Myanmar

“Property and the online marketplaces are one of the two highest growth and most dynamic industries to be involved within Myanmar,” said Aung. “With the portal’s (iMyanmarHouse) strong leadership and focus on delivering quality and exceptional services to consumers, partners and customers, it is undeniable that we are at the forefront in the market. I look forward to leading and broadening our reach as well as deepening our relationships with our consumers, partners, and customers,” she added.

Nay Min Thu, Managing Director of iMyanmarHouse.com, said: “She (Aung) will play an integral role in the continual success of the company. We look forward to the operational experience she will bring to the team of over 100 staff across both offices in Yangon and Mandalay. As iMyanmarHouse.com grows and expands into new markets in Myanmar, Grace will help us to manage and optimise the process of scaling the team, our business operations and continue to deliver innovative solutions and products to meet the needs of our customers, partners, and consumers.”

Also Read: Myanmar’s travel booking portal FlyMya acquires smaller rival Go-Myanmar.com

Founded in 2013, iMyanmarHouse.com claims to be serving more than 400,000 property buyers, investors, and renters who send over 60,000 leads every month to its customers. It has over 900,000 visitors and 2400 agents. As of July 2019, the company has helped property developers sell over US$390 million worth of properties.

Recently, iMyanmarHouse’s rival ShweProperty.com secured US$3 million in its Series B round of funding. led by Singapore-based private equity fund Emerging Markets Investment Advisers.

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Improve your social media marketing strategy to establish a distinguishable and beautiful brand voice

We’re entering the age of technological revolutions and massive diffusion of technologies connecting people around the globe.

The constant development of mobile devices gave birth to new forms of communication and 24/7 connectivity in social networks. They play a significant role in changing human consciousness and shaping new customer behaviour patterns. 

In other words, they are making our society more “digital”. So, it’s crucial for business success to understand the hidden influences of user’s decision-making process in the modern digital space.

The influence of Generation Z—the first generation of true digital natives—is expanding and influencing the social media trends too.

According to McKinsey, members of Gen Z are people born from 1995 to 2010 who from their earliest youth have been exposed to the internet, social networks, and mobile systems. 

There is no chance to increase ROI for your business success if you don’t spread your voice in the digital world and social networks, in particular.

Businesses should adjust their marketing strategies to the needs and requirements of Gen Z since this fast-growing society is dictating the future trends of the digital space and, therefore, new marketing trends too. 

Mistake #1. Underestimating the power of social networks

Social media penetration is ever-increasing worldwide. According to Statista, the pervasiveness of social media will increase to over 3.02 billion users worldwide by 2021.

Considering all other pieces of the marketing pie, social media marketing is a big slice today. The right content published in the right moment will help you build customer loyalty and bring plenty of other benefits to the business. You should learn how to optimise your content to the customer’s needs.

Social networks are a powerful tool of engagement able to spread the word of your brand around the globe within minutes. Social media are also helpful in user experience research.

Mistake #1 is underestimating the power of social networks and not making enough effort in producing high-quality content.

Mistake #2. Not understanding your target audience

Explore your target audience as you’d like to explore the mind of your loved one. Discover their wants and habits. 

Google Analytics can give you a good insight into your target audience peculiarities. Consequently, you’ll get a better understanding of people you’re creating social media content for. 

Also Read: The A,B, and C of startup branding

Moreover, you shouldn’t stop your customer persona research after investigating the cold data. Stats are a good old friend; however, don’t fully trust them. Sometimes, you should act like a marketer from the 19th century: check information “manually”.

Exploring your random follower’s profile “manually”, not by using any analytics tool, you will gain a new view at your customer persona.

You will get a specific kind of information, which you wouldn’t get from any automatically generated stats. It’s almost transparent, but it is still essential for effective marketing. It feels like your customer’s mood

On the fans’ profiles, you can learn about their lifestyles, tastes, habits, and even food preferences.

That will help you adjust your content to the needs and peculiarities of these people. You might be surprised, but such data can give birth to the unique marketing idea that will be understood by your target audience.

Mistake #3. Not offering real value to people

Don’t underestimate people. They understand if your content is good or not. No matter who your prospective clients are, be it, skateboarders, housewives, or entrepreneurs, individuals always feel the quality intuitively. Be interested in producing great content offering value to people.

The content bringing value doesn’t mean only tips, news, or talks about new product features. You can post user-generated content.

It shows appreciation for fans that reached out and connected with you. The “value” we’re talking about is the brand’s attention to a customer.

Also Read: These 5 growth-stage startups bucked the trend to create own brand in Malaysia

Let people feel that a company cares about how they feel using a product or service. The more you engage with your fans, the more likely they are to share new photos with you. 

User-generated content will enrich the brand’s social media page with the fresh visuals, give more engagement, and start the interaction chain between a company and its customers.

One more tip on the social media content: dear entrepreneurs, don’t try to produce visuals for the cheapest price.

Bad product images are almost equal to the brand’s fail on social networks. The better your product “looks”, the more likely your brand’s voice will be heard by others on the social channels.

Mistake #4. Not adding a pinch of novelty 

Life means dynamics. Your marketing should reflect the changes your customers are experiencing. Thus, a marketing strategy needs to be timely injected by a dose of changes. Otherwise, you will not survive in the market. If you do not accept changes, the changes will not accept you.

Experiment with the new approaches, try to constantly add a pinch of novelty into your social media content. 

To be wrong is human; all of us make mistakes. Don’t be afraid of doing them. You should take risks if you want to develop the unique and memorable ‘voice’ of your brand. 

Mistake #5. Not being aware of “malicious tags” on Instagram 

Since Instagram is the giant among other social networks, let’s pay special attention to it. We want to share with you genuinely new information on the Instagram system, which we’ve crystallised after providing marketing services for companies across different industries.

Don’t use any hashtags that contain words like “porn”, “addicted”, “sex”, “fetish”, “sexy”, or something similar.

Even if your post is not related to any of these topics, but it has the hashtags like “#foodporn”, “#heelfashionfetish”, “#addicted-to-food”, “#sexy_dress”, etc., your profile may get to a blacklist generated by Instagram bots. 

There are different scenarios of what may happen further. The worst scenario: your profile will be banned entirely.

The better scenario: you’ll be able to post on Instagram, but you’ll not be able not to add new hashtags for some period ranging from 1-2 weeks to 3-4 months. You will not be able also to edit the recently published posts anymore.

Consequently, you may lose the chance to get new followers that could come through new hashtags. Moreover, Instagram may start sending less traffic to your profile, because it’s blacklisted. 

Also Read: Vietnam payment startups Vimo and mPOS merge, rebranded as NextPay

What to do? The only thing is to wait until the Instagram system will update a ‘blacklist’ after some period of time and give the blacklisted profiles another chance to function as previously. 

If you’ve faced such a situation, we recommend not to stop your activity on Instagram, just be careful using the hashtags.

Conclusion

As we’ve mentioned before, err is human. But, to make mistakes and learn from them is the privilege of a smart human.

We hope our experience gained from making these mistakes will help you improve your social media marketing strategy and establish the distinguishable and beautiful voice of your brand.

The voice that will give pleasure to the target audience interacting with your content. 

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Insurance will be offered for electronics and for transportation of goods

Indonesia e-commerce giant Bukalapak has entered into a partnership with Singapore-based insurtech startup Axinan to offer digital insurance solutions to its customers.

Merchants on Bukalapak can opt to insure against the risk of total loss or damage during transit through igloo – Axinan’s consumer brand. Bukalapak’s consumer customers who purchase gadgets and electronics can buy protection against
accidental damages.

Sompo Insurance Indonesia (Sompo Indonesia) is Axinan’s underwriter for Indonesia.

What makes Axinan well-positioned for Bukalapak’s platform is that its enterprise solutions are specifically designed for e-commerce companies, which typically move high volumes of goods over multiple regions or countries daily.

Axinan’s risk assessment engine is powered by big data, real-time risk management and digitised claims management – issuing pricing in line with the calculated risks of each transaction.

“With the booming e-commerce scene in Indonesia, there is an increasing gap we see arising due to the inherent risks associated with the eCommerce market – damage and loss during transit,” said Wei Zhu, Founder and CEO, Axinan, in an official press statement.

“We are actively seeking to address these risks by providing products in collaboration with our insurance partners. The objective is to make these products easy, accessible and available to those who need it the most. With this collaboration with Bukalapak, we are able to leverage their extensive local network of customers and thereby provide our solutions to a wider audience,” he added.

In February this year, Axinan partnered with FWD Singapore to offer Phone Screen Protection (PSP) plans, which insure customers against broken mobile phone screens.

Axinan is backed by Linear Ventures and Opensace Ventures, and is headquartered in Singapore, with operations in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and development offices in China and Taiwan.

The company also has partnerships with other e-commerce platforms including Bhinneka, Lazada, Shopee, and T-mall.

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It is expected that over time, fintech customers will build up some credit history and gain financial discipline

The phenomena of economic growth and investment attractiveness often coincide. In this respect, Southeast Asia provides a good example.

Today, the world economy is growing at an average rate of 3 per cent per year. Meantime, the dynamic of SEA countries has been almost twice ahead in the world.

In particular, tourism with rich natural and human resources have facilitated it. However, one of the most significant reasons looks even more ordinary.

Local countries have only recently overcome the agricultural past, so previous underdevelopment of many economic sectors explains the rapid dynamic of GDP.

Although underdevelopment doesn’t seem attractive, it still indicates opportunities for a leap forward. Quickly entering people’s lives, fintech has confirmed this pattern.

Online services, including lending ones, are drawing higher interest among the population. The same refers to investors looking for profit, and there are some points to their advantage.

Rapid economic growth and low penetration of lending services

Even the most optimistic estimates state that no more than 50 per cent of the population in Southeast Asia have a bank account. About 450 million people don’t have access to lending services. Besides, high poverty, uneven urbanisation and cultural peculiarities some regions are holding back the penetration of banks and development of lending.

Then, many people still shy away from formal lending and address relatives and friends to borrow some funds.

However, impressive rates of economic growth have promised to change the situation in near time.

Thus, only Brunei and Singapore will have rates lower than the global average, while other countries in the region easily outpace the forecasted 5 per cent.

Economic growth has an effect both on commercial entities and the population of Southeast Asia. Improved welfare promotes an increase in consumption.

The share of people whose income allows to meet only basic needs is expected to fall from 50 per cent in 2010 to 30 per cent in 2025.

Also Read: UiPath partners ASEAN varsities in educating workforce automation

The middle class will almost double. Apart from a direct increase in domestic spending on goods and services distinct from basic, the culture of consumption also corresponds with the formation of lending institutions and loans perceived as a normal part of the expenses structure.

Low competition with banks and banking products

Most banks in Southeast Asian countries have developed with an eye on the Western counterparts focused on solvent private clients, large enterprises and government institutions.

Although these services are in demand, it prevents them from tapping to a broader audience often lacking credit history and bearing higher risks.

At the same time, to open additional branches in remote areas means higher transaction costs and a complicated collection. That is why there is a gap between a bank and a client.

Large banks are not interested in working with small loans because of significant transaction costs. At the same time, an average loan amount in Asia is rarely above US$300. Meanwhile, own statistics of Robocash Group shows that advances of even less size (about US$100) are in higher demand.

Focus on online activities helps microfinance companies working in this segment to reduce transaction expenses. There is a shining example of the Philippines, where an electronic transaction takes 1 per cent of the amount that would be needed if to serve it at an offline branch (US$3).

Regulation and government support

There is a distinct interest from regional authorities in the development of alternative lending in Southeast Asia. In addition to providing convenient access to finance for end-users, this segment helps to solve socio-economic issues and improve the welfare of people.

There are regulatory sandboxes in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Moreover, Southeast Asia has no countries that are not elaborating legal requirements to non-bank lending and digital data security.

Also Read: How to get smart capital in Southeast Asia

Most of them have already formed a minimum set of regulatory conditions facilitating the provision of alternative lending both online and offline.

Raising mobile and internet penetration

Remarkably, most countries with the adoption of fintech above 60 per cent belong to the group of developing countries. In contrast, Japan and the United States have lower figures.

So there is a clear correlation between a rapid increase in the use of mobile and Internet technologies and the dynamic growth of fintech and alternative lending.

The reason is in the age of people in these countries. With 50 per cent of the population under 30 years old, Southeast Asia turns out to be more open to technological innovations. Meanwhile, the average age in developed countries is much higher and thus assumes more conservatism among people.

At the same time, it is essential to mention the heterogeneous nature of the fintech market. Digital lending is not the most rapidly growing segment in Southeast Asia.

It takes only 8 per cent of the total number of all fintech companies, while payments services comprise almost 40 per cent. It gives an idea that the lending sector remains undervalued that only strengthens its investment attractiveness.

Also, with an expanding digital footprint of customers, lending companies may consider more information when assessing potential solvency. In turn, it allows managing risks at an appropriate level.

Bright prospects

Apart from factors explaining why the industry is growing, there is a real statistics on digital lending. According to BBVA, it is developing countries where this market will actively expand. Meanwhile, the digital segment is the most promising one that is also confirmed by the current statistics of Robocash Group on the prevalence of online channels over offline ones.

Undoubtedly, investing has always been associated with risks, and digital lending also has them. The main points are related to competition primarily caused by a broad expansion of Chinese fintechs to Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Discover the latest trends in the ASEAN and China tech ecosystems at TechNode’s ORIGIN

Although competition is necessary, market oversaturation may slow down the growth of some companies and the overall industry that investors wouldn’t welcome. Moreover, there are significant local banks with an eye on the segment as a potential asset in the future.

Banks will have to step on the digital path already explored by fintech companies before. Most likely, banks will need at least several years to tap the opportunity in full. Meanwhile, fintech players will only increase their potential.

Sure, long-term prospects add some elements of risk and uncertainty into investment attractiveness of the alternative lending and fintech in Southeast Asia.

Nevertheless, if there is a question on a specific investment in fintech on the agenda today, then premises in its favour certainly outweigh any doubts.

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Jonas Leupe

 

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