Day: January 28, 2020

 

Messaging app LINE has announced a partnership with Indonesia-based online grocery platform HappyFresh, called LINEMAN to provide users with a grocery delivery service on its messaging platform in Thailand today, according to a press statement. 

Being one of the most popular apps for communication in Thailand, this integration will allow users to have their grocery needs fulfilled within an app which is already installed and frequently used in the region. 

Guillem Segarra, CEO of HappyFresh, stated that the partnership is strategic and a win-win situation for both companies. He believes that HappyFresh can widen its user base via the app and LINEMAN mart; in turn, can provide a solution to assist users with their daily needs.

“This is a strategic partnership between LINE and HappyFresh where we leverage the marketing giant LINE to expand our user base in Thailand while they can launch a complex, operational heavy vertical by integrating our solution into their LINE MAN app,” he said. 

Also Read: Mobile marketing analytics startup AppsFlyer secures US$210M from General Atlantic, opens office in Indonesia

In order to use this feature in the app, users can simply pick out what the products that they want in the app and the HappyFresh will handle both the item-picking and delivery. 

“Our conviction for this partnership is that in bringing LINE MAN’s user-base and hyperlocal marketing approach together with our passion for user experience, we are able to further accelerate grocery penetration and get one step closer to achieving HappyFresh’s long-term vision – to serve every household in Southeast Asia,” Segarra continues.

Happy Fresh itself had recently raised US$20 million in a Series C round led by Mirae Asset Management and Naver, with participation from Line Ventures, Singha Ventures and Grab Ventures. The service is one of the surviving e-grocery services in Indonesia, after the recent crisis faced by Honestbee in its various operations in the region. 

Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek also provides a similar service in its app.

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Image Credit: nrd

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Recently, there was a controversy sparked by Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing when he made a parliament speech on how Singapore’s economic growth and job creation has benefitted citizens more than foreigners.

Unsurprisingly, this resulted in a robust online discussion which developed along the lines of “Us” versus “Them”, “Foreigners” versus “Locals” and “Singaporeans” versus “Permanent Residents”. 

I currently work as the Marketing Manager of TeamSpirit Singapore, a SaaS solution company headquartered in Japan, which serves more than 235,000 users and 1,300 companies.

At TeamSpirit Singapore, our workforce is pretty diverse—we have seven nationalities in our Singapore office of 19 people. And I love the diversity, not just in thought and competence. In particular, I appreciated how kindness, humanity, and culture are expressed when I am working with a bunch of good-hearted people.

This provides the context as to why I am writing this post today, on the three ways diversity in the workforce can improve your startup culture.

Also Read: Malaysia’s boardrooms lack diversity in gender and age representation, finds study

Benefit #1: Diverse teams help generate greater innovation

In 2018, research from Boston Consulting Group strongly suggested that companies with more diverse leadership teams reported higher levels of innovation and innovation revenues, up to 19 percentage points. This was extensive research that involved a sample size of 1,700 different companies across eight different countries, involving a range of industries and company sizes.  

This is hardly surprising because whenever we bring together talented and competent individuals from all walks of life, backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, they will each have their special way to improve the company’s products and services. This leads to possible blind spots being addressed, and also introduces new ideas and perspectives to different ways of doing things. 

Benefit #2: Diverse teams work symbiotically

It is clear that a diverse team feeds on good work culture, and contributes to it. Coupled with good management, there are significant results to this symbiosis: Higher employee engagement, more efficient talent recruitment and lower turnover rates. 

When we have a diverse workforce in terms of culture and ethnicity, employees are naturally engaged with each other when they have opportunities to interact with each other. 

Also Read: Diversity is just the start: Startups need to encourage inclusion

For example, at TeamSpirit, we have a snack corner which is filled with food from all over the world whenever someone returns from holiday from their home countries, or from work trips.

And because we have seven nationalities in our office, that is at least seven distinctive types of snacks to be enjoyed periodically– and what better way to bond than to enjoy food together on our sunny island!

Also, when colleagues find it safe to share their interpretations of life with each other over lunch, trust is built within the organisation. People become more open as they start to see and appreciate the beauty of being human. 

Various research has also suggested that job seekers are often attracted to and wish to stay in companies with progressive work values that celebrate diversity because it is indicative that such companies do not engage in employment discrimination.

One other technology company that does diverse team retention very well is Muvee– The average employees typically stay for at least four to five years, a significant length of time in the fast-moving IT industry.

Benefit #3: Diverse startups have higher investments and profits

Evidence is overwhelming that diverse startups enjoy higher investments and profits. A 2015 report by McKinsey involving 366 public companies posits that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 per cent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.

Also Read: South Korea’s thriving startup ecosystem: How “aggressive” VC investment, gender diversity play a role in it

In addition, according to the World Economic Forum, diverse startups have yields better ROI for investors. In 2018, BCG did another five-year study which indicated that for every dollar of venture capital invested, female-led or female co-founded startups generated 78 cents of revenue, while male-led startups only generated 31 cents. 

It is clear that there is a strong positive correlation between diverse startups and profits/ ROIs. There are many possible reasons for this phenomenon: For one, a diverse workforce can reach out to their respective diverse subgroups of customers, bringing in more new streams of revenue for the company. Another reason could be that diverse startups showcase more resilience and stronger problem-solving skills as compared to non-diverse startups.  

All about leadership and safe spaces 

Ultimately perhaps, the discourse on diversity is built on the premise of good leadership and safe spaces. How can a leadership team create a safe space where good and competent people of any and all backgrounds can thrive? Truly, a company’s values, culture, and its safe space have to be guarded as first priority no matter what happens, because these decide the essence and spirit of all other activities.

And perhaps, nationality is not entirely correlated to how engaged or identified an employee feels with the values of a company. 

It is my ardent wish as a Singaporean to shift the current discourse from “foreigners” vs “locals” to “how a company can implement healthy boundaries, of who to let in and who to keep out”.

Also Read: Malaysia’s boardrooms lack diversity in gender and age representation, finds study

The polarity and fear-mongering narrative of “us” vs “them” reduces foreigners to one-dimensional caricatures who are necessarily feared, a notion that does not serve our nation’s interests at all, for xenophobia is the last thing we want to encourage in Singapore.

At the end of the day, it is shared values that bind us all– not the colours of our flag or skin.

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Technology has disrupted every industry and advertising is still adapting each day to the digital transitions. From Adwords to demographic targetting on social media, adtech is growing in 2020. Here are five predictions on where the industry is headed.

Number of players in adtech will be at its highest level ever

This can be a good thing for the industry.

In recent years, programmatic advertising has reached an unprecedented level of adoption as the industry responds to changing marketplace dynamics.

This has resulted in the formation of multiple third-party platforms and tools that enable advertisers to expand the efficiency and effectiveness of advertising campaigns. These platforms and tools have also continued to evolve as the programmatic value chain becomes more complex – resulting in the birth of even more features that provide advertisers with the ability to keep up with the ever-changing landscape.

The increasing number of vendors in the industry means an increase in the level of competition between the different players. Brands can therefore afford to be more picky when choosing partners to work with.

Also read: Is AI the key to adtech’s data-driven future?

To succeed, players in the ad tech industry need to ensure that their capabilities are driven by a customer-centric approach that is grounded in brand experience, privacy, and powerful analytics. The high level of competition will correspondingly ensure higher levels of quality in the services offered by most players in the market, in turn bolstering the growth of the ad tech landscape for the coming year.

Out with the CMO, and in with the CGO (Chief Growth Officer)

Today, producing content is a must for every brand. But that also means that brands are not only going against other brands but other content creators; which essentially means other social media content users – comprising of both individual consumers and other brands alike.

As brands now have to fight harder to vie for consumers’ attention, they also have to be smarter about where budgets are allocated. Return on Investment (ROI) is becoming more important, and brands are naturally becoming more cautious about their ad spend.

To make things more complicated, the current vast availability of data means that the metrics used to quantify and qualify success are becoming more complicated, and will need the expertise of someone who understands not only marketing, but also the other aspects of the company’s offerings that drive growth – such as sales, product, tech, and consumer advocates.

Enter the Chief Growth Officer (CGO) – an individual whose role is fundamentally cross-functional, overseeing multiple divisions. Because of their visibility of various other functions, and the centrality of their role in the company’s performance, CGOs find themselves having influence and accountability across various departments when it comes to board meetings. In the coming year, we foresee the emergence of CGOs becoming more prevalent.

Short videos will reign supreme

The surge of digital growth has necessitated the need for brands to deliver high-quality digital customer experiences (CX). CX is now a fundamental component of digital strategies, and advertisers are constantly having to explore new ways to capture customers’ attention.

2020 will see a greater shift towards more creative-focused solutions that enhance consumer engagement. Video has been the king of content for many years now; however, TikTok’s 15-second video format has revolutionised the way in which stories can be told, the limited time necessitating users to think creatively in sharing their story.

Couple this with today’s mobile-first consumer – bombarded with content competing for their attention – brands and advertisers will need to reinvent the way they engage with their target market. As a result, we expect to see more brands and social platforms embracing short video formats in the year to come.

Rise of influencer partnerships in SE Asia, as platforms become increasingly automated

Influencer marketing has really erupted in the last five years. While there currently exist conflicting views on whether influencer marketing is a fad or the future, there is no doubt that influencers have since disrupted traditional marketing strategies.

As networks like Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok continue to rise in popularity, especially among younger audiences, it is not surprising to project that influencer marketing will be here to stay – at least in the near future.

Like any marketing strategies, conceptualising an influencer program requires careful planning and deliberate targeting. Influencer marketing is also very different across different networks, so an understanding of each network, as well as the user behaviours of each network, is imperative.

Additionally, given that influencer marketing is relatively nascent in the region, collaborating with influencers on campaigns can be very time-consuming.

With many different categories of influencers, brands have to approach these influencers and negotiate on terms and rates individually – a potentially frustrating process that can take up a much longer time than it needs to be.

Also read: The reality of influencer marketing in the age of digital content

Taking a leaf out of our Western counterparts’ book, it will only be a matter of time before the establishment of an automated platform for influencer management. This will not only help to simplify the process of managing influencers for campaigns, but also allow for a more standardised method of reporting and analysing results – enabling a more accurate snapshot of the performance of the collaboration.

These automated platforms may take a while to be established, but I believe that we will see a movement towards that eventuality in the coming year – perhaps starting with the rise of consolidated platforms that will help ease the process of influencer marketing.

Southeast Asia will be the global leader of online gaming and ecommerce

Ecommerce has played an important role in driving the internet economy in 2019. In 2020, ecommerce will play an even more central role in driving the internet economy.

The surge in e-commerce in the region is actually part of a broader transformation – beyond enabling consumers to transact online, e-commerce has also helped to increase the efficiency of cross-border logistics network, enabled offline retailers to reach new consumers, and create a secure medium for digital payments. These have all contributed to building trust in the region’s internet economy.

As it continues to build in momentum, we expect e-commerce to be the main driving force of this growth – creating more opportunities for even more exciting innovations in the upcoming year.

The global spotlight is also on another industry that has grown significantly as a direct result of the growing digital economy: online gaming. Recent research has predicted that the number of PC and mobile gamers in Southeast Asia will rise to a staggering 400 million, accumulating a combined revenue of US$4.4 billion USD by 2021.

A group of nations known as the ‘Big 6’ – namely Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam – are taking the lead as the biggest growth markets. Given the mobile-first nature of the Big 6 nations, we expect to see the growth of mobile-centric gaming and startups in 2020.

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In a tradition dating back centuries, Chinese elders make gifts of money to children and unmarried relatives during the Lunar New Year, wishing wealth and prosperity for them in the coming year.

This gift-giving began during the days of Imperial China, where children would wake up on the first day of the new year to find gold coins threaded with red string under their pillows.

Later on, with the advent of paper money, the practice morphed into the current convention of giving gold coins or notes slipped into red packets, known colloquially throughout Asia as hong bao, lai see, or ang bao.

Now, traditions rooted in the past are adapting to the times, and the practice of giving and receiving red packets is changing to fit the highly digitised lifestyles of modern society.

Electronic red packets have been rising steadily in popularity over the last few years in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau after being introduced by the Chinese internet company, Tencent, a few years back in 2014.

In 2019 alone, more than half of China’s population—around 823 million people—used Tencent’s messaging platform WeChat to send virtual hong bao to relatives and friends during Chinese New Year, and those same numbers or more are expected during the upcoming celebrations for the Year of the Rat. 

The leap from physical to virtual gifting seems a logical step for consumers in Asia, as they hold some of the highest digital payment adoption rates in the world.

Combined with advanced infrastructure and encouraging support from governments and businesses, people in the Asia-Pacific region are leading the way in the cashless revolution, and as familiarity with mobile wallets and digital payments have increased over time, so too has the practice of sending digital gifts to become more common among its users.

Other popular gifts in Asian cultures, such as gold, now have the option of being given through virtual means. Digital gold makes it easier for mainstream consumers to purchase and give gold online without having to worry about the custodianship and safety of their gold. 

Many digital gifters cite the overall ease and convenience of sending virtual packets as the motivations for their choice—no more tedious lining up at banks or burning of perfectly usable notes to supply the demand for fresh, crisp money for the new year—or paying gold vaults to store and insure the gold received from family members.

Sending gifts of red packets and gold to friends and family members scattered around the world also becomes a matter of a few taps on a mobile screen now that virtual gifting across borders is possible.

For traditionalists though, the physical act of giving is more personal and important than the gift itself, and the majority of virtual gift users tend to be the generations born between the 1970s to the 1990s. Nevertheless, there are still ways to bridge the gap between old and new, such as the QR code e-hongbao created by DBS Bank in Singapore which preserves the mechanism of giving red packets without the hassle of handling physical cash.

The approach was well-received during its pilot phase with an estimated US$1.5 million loaded onto QR code red packets throughout the Chinese New Year period in 2019.

While conventional gift-giving may never truly be replaced by digital gifts, the practice is becoming solidified into everyday behaviour for many consumers in a region where technological disruption usually receives a warm welcome.

Throughout the last decade, Asian nations have taken great strides towards becoming truly cashless—compared to the 4.7 per cent growth in cashless payments estimated for the US in 2020, emerging Asian markets are expected to see a 30 per cent rise and around US$208.7 billion spent via mobile wallets and digital payment systems this year.

If that’s any indication for the decade to come, then the trend of digital payments and virtual gifting likely won’t end with e-ang bao and digital gold. They will be just one of many new traditions to evolve from digital disruption in 2020 and beyond.

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The Philippines-based Great Deals E-commerce Corp. has raised US$12M (P 600 million) from Navegar, the largest private equity firm in the country.

The e-commerce enabler plans to use the capital to enhance its IT, infrastructure, warehouse capabilities and technology solutions, as it aggressively expands its presence in the country.

Great Deals aims to be the Philippines’s own Alibaba and Baozun, China’s leading e-commerce enabler.

Also Read: 5 Filipino startups are giving Lazada, Shopee a run for their money, defying expectation

“We are ecstatic to continue building and implementing successful online retail, distribution and marketing strategies for our 250+ brand clients in partnership with Navegar,” said Founder and CEO Steve Sy, who is also an Alibaba eFounder fellow. “To dominate the market here in the Philippines, we will work closely with Navegar, whose vast experience in building high-growth companies will ensure the continued expansion of our business.”

Sy founded Great Deals in 2014 after spending many years as an entrepreneur in the retail and e-commerce sectors. He identified a glaring need to enable entrepreneurs like himself to succeed in the internet economy.

Great Deals offers end-to-end e-commerce services, handling everything from digital content, web design, analytics and chat support to warehousing and fulfilment.

The clientele includes multi-national companies Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, Samsonite, Reebok, Crocs, L’Oreal, Abbott and Unilever, among others.

“E-commerce is a sunrise industry in the Philippines, and there are so many opportunities looming on the horizon. Our mission, in Great Deals, is to uplift Filipino lives through the digital economy, harnessing local technology, human resources and boundless creativity to bring the best we can offer to the Philippines,” Sy added.

Navegar is a Manila-based firm that invests exclusively in companies with exposure to the Philippines. It was founded in 2012 by its Managing Partners Nori Poblador and Javier Infante. Navegar manages two pools of money, Navegar Fund I and Navegar Fund II, with total assets under management of close to US$300 million.

Also Read: How top e-commerce platforms are fuelling Philippines’ online economy

“The Philippines has a very low e-commerce penetration, at less than 2 per cent of gross domestic product, compared to China’s nearly 40 per cent and 25 per cent in the U.S (according to Forbes). There is no way to go but up for smart Philippines e-commerce,” said Navegar’s Infante.

“It is just the beginning. The best way for an investor to participate in this upswing is to partner with a successful business that has already established strong relationships with top brands in the market,” he added.

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