Southeast Asia (SEA) is a diverse region that includes 10 countries and is home to over 630 million people. With more than 330 million of the total population being internet users, which is more than the internet users in the USA, SEA is witnessing a mobile and digital revolution.

A report by Google forecasted that between 2015 and 2020, 3.8 million users will get online every month. This would make Southeast Asia the fastest-growing region of internet users in the world. The internet economy is estimated to be worth US$200 billion by 2025.

As compared to other regions whose internet infrastructure is far more developed, in SEA, people rely on the internet on their smartphones to access information, consume entertainment, and upload and share content on social media. More than 90 per cent of Southeast Asians who use smartphones spend 3.6 hours on mobile internet, surpassing everyone else on the planet.

The SEA region, with the fastest-growing disposable income, smartphone ownership, and access to the internet, this region presents an exponential opportunity for global brands to expand their customer base.

Simultaneously, SEA brings along unique challenges for global companies looking to expand their business locally. Although the economic patterns are similar, the people in this region speak different languages, have cultural diversity and diverse consumer preferences. Many users are in the process of getting familiar with online payments and mobile shopping, with internet speeds slower than the global average.

Also Read: 6 tried-and-tested branding tips for your startup

Here are the four things to remember while localising multinational marketing in SEA, for brands wanting to penetrate in this market.

Localise your content

Localising into the regional languages is critical to building a presence in the SEA market. In markets including Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam; English is not the first language, nor widely used. Translating the content into the native languages helps you empathise with your audience, which gives you a competitive advantage over the other players in the market.

Consider localising the content as per the cultural norms of the region. There are cultural differences between SEA and other regions. Each country has a unique set of etiquettes and social habits. Hence, think about localising your website, logo, and visuals making them culturally relevant to that audience.

The popular fast-food brand KFC localises its website, the layout, visuals, and media in every country. The cost of entering a market, with the branding and marketing going wrong is a lot more than not entering it at all. Conduct ample research about the buyers, their cultural and social diversity before launching there.

Localised pricing

As compared to developed markets, the disposable income in SEA is comparatively lower. This means when you localise the pricing in different languages and as per their purchasing power, it helps you connect with your customers. Prospects buy from brands they feel connected to, and hence, you need to package and market your proposition based on the varying needs of each region.

Also Read: 6 simple tips for branding your website

Decode, how much your customer is willing to pay for the service as well as the native currency. Evernote, a productivity app has localised its pricing for every country.

 

Along with pricing the offerings based on the user’s ability to pay, consider the payment gateways commonly used in the regions. For example, in Vietnam, people prefer paying through Moblamo and VTC Pay while transacting online. In Singapore, the most tech-savvy SEA region, the preferred mode of payment is through Mastercard and Visa. Indonesia, with the highest number of internet users in SEA (260 million) prefers paying through Doku Wallet, along with Mastercard and Visa.

The currency type displayed on your website or app affects the customer’s perception of your brand. It is beneficial to charge in local currency instead of in dollars.

Optimise your offerings for the growing markets

Let’s take the example of one of the most successful globally localised fast-food chain McDonald’s. Their offers differ vastly based on local tastes. They iterate their menu to accommodate regional cuisines.

Also Read: Branding basics: 6 steps to an effective e-commerce branding strategy

In a country such as India, where the population is largely vegetarian, they offer vegetarian options such as McRoyale Paneer. In Korea, their menu includes Shrimp Burger Deluxe. The spice levels are also different in every geography. They do not serve beef burgers in India, while in Indonesia their menu does not include pork, thereby respecting the local sentiments.

Every nation has a unique palette, authentic flavours, and culinary preferences that are based on their traditions. What is considered a delicacy in one culture would be inedible in another part of the world.

The downside of ignoring or not understanding cultural connotations leads to offending local consumers. Don’t fall prey to that.

Localising social media

As per a report by Hootsuite, 63 per cent of internet users in Southeast Asia are active on social media. Staggering indeed!

Facebook is so popular in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan that they are among the world’s top ten advertising audiences. While Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and WhatsApp are extensively used, SEA has its local networks. Also consider WeChat, Seina Weibo, Naver, Line and Qzone to digitally market your brand in SEA and to provide customer support on the local social media platforms.

One of Asia’s largest ride-hailing company Grab uses separate Twitter accounts for the Philippines and Indonesia. The Indonesian account uses Bahasa Indonesia to communicate with the users. While on the Philippines account you can see tweets in both Filipino and English.

Also Read: How Sorabel was able to push for growth after rebranding

Research about the social networks commonly used in the location you are targeting. You could start building your brand’s presence on the top two of the most popular networks and then expand to the remaining social media. Afterall social proof skyrockets the trust and credibility of the brand.

To support your multicultural marketing campaign, hire native customer support agents, allowing the website visitors to communicate in their native language, through live chat, chatbots, emails, phone calls and social media. You could research the available cloud resources and service providers using GetVoIP. The reviews and ratings on thousands of vendors will help to make the right choice about the business communication solution to opt for.

As economies in Southeast Asia continue to grow, international brands are presented with tremendous opportunities to find new users and boost their revenues in this market. For global brands to nail localized marketing, tailor your offerings, content, pricing and customer support to the geography you want to enter.

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With various businesses operating in a volatile economic environment, technology giants such as Google and Facebook, all the way to smaller local enterprises and multi-generational family businesses are future-proofing themselves in this time of unprecedented turbulence.

Prevailing market pressures have forced legacy companies to relook and evolve their internal business operating systems – the assumptions and protocols underlying how management motivates and applies their human resources – as they seek to build resilience.

With COVID-19 causing tremendous economic loss — JPMorgan estimates lost output at US$5.5 trillion — the cost to developed economies will be similar to past recessions of 2008-2009 and 1974-1975. But there are ways for businesses to survive and even thrive in the aftermath of the current recession; Amazon survived the 2000 dotcom bust and 2008/2009 financial collapse.

Companies that survived these recessions prepared contingencies and reacted defensively. Through navigating reforms in debt, decision making, workforce management, and digital transformation, as well as a healthy cash pile, companies that were sufficiently flexible endured.

How will businesses adapt

To survive this, businesses across sectors are pivoting and innovating, forcing companies to adopt new solutions in the face of market shifts. Young technology enterprises are pivoting and operating with agility, but legacy firms face different challenges.

Legacy companies need to invest in and implement new technologies, given how the younger generation will take over. With industries evolving and the emergence of bionic companies — organisations that meld the capabilities of humans and machines to drive efficiencies and improvements — it comes down to how legacy firms adapt to technological shifts.

Also Read: Why SEA startups should not go back to office post-COVID-19

With companies able to access data that grants unique insights into how their customers interact, granting them the tools to build competitive advantages.

The question is, how do these companies future proof themselves? Key factors include identifying and managing risks; developing and reinforcing brand identity through unique identifiers to be distinct in a large market; adopting new technologies to stay relevant and current; as well as identifying key customer needs.

Fundamentally, legacy companies must adapt to keep up with consumers’ changing behaviour. Agility is an essential trait, not a choice.

Companies that decline to adapt have no insurance they will survive, especially if they refuse to be open to external perspectives nor invest in the new tools required for their business context. Gradually, these firms will be overtaken by more adaptable enterprises.

Venture intelligence platform CB Insights reports that in the manufacturing space, consumer technology brands heavily reliant on Chinese manufacturing, players such as Apple, HP and Microsoft, are anticipating production delays and revenue declines.

For instance, on February 17, Apple warned investors that it did not expect to meet quarterly revenue guidance, partially rooted in reduced Chinese manufacturing output.

Also Read: Lessons from a travel tech startup founder on navigating the pandemic-stricken business landscape

Meanwhile, many luxury brands have experienced reduced first-quarter sales, as Chinese shoppers account for a major percentage of worldwide luxury sales; they account for an estimated 40 per cent of global spending on luxury items, according to Jefferies and the Financial Times.

To adapt, these luxury brands need to explore how to augment and automate their online shopping and delivery experience. These will permit them to remain accessible to their customers.

Organisational responses

Companies are redesigning their products and services, as well as creating new items. This is in response to new market demands as various jurisdictions undergo quarantine periods meant to break infection cycles.

For instance, in the shipment visibility domain, France-based Shippeo provides real-time global shipment visibility to retailers and consumer goods brands. This helps businesses to enhance their accuracy in efficiently managing their inventory amid unexpected delays.

Meanwhile, in the autonomous delivery space, Chinese e-commerce major JD.com has employed autonomous delivery vehicles and drones to distribute goods and supplies while minimising human-to-human contact.

And in the manufacturing sector, the current pandemic is driving automation in warehousing and manufacturing technology. Goods production will be less dependent on physical labour, with technological improvements enhancing robotic dexterity, computer vision.

Also Read: COVID-19 is taking a toll on mental wellness, but this startup wants to provide a Safe Space

The potential for human interaction has also strengthened the robotics business case. Collaborative robots (cobots), which interact with humans in workspaces are seeing increased adoption. Large industrial robot makers like ABB and Kawasaki Industries have released cobots for industrial use, with greater robotification of the production process.

The solutions needed now should not involve removing people from the business equation – human capital is critical to business continuity – but means enterprises must build better systems for people to work remotely, on a part-time basis, or when quarantined. Such systems should be intuitive and simple for workers to use.

Organisations also should not have to spend more capital to invent new systems, as they are already out there.

Those organisations which have not made progress decoupling from legacy systems and rely on them for data and information are also unlikely to survive. Elements of the Singapore governments’ response offers a model for legacy enterprises – it has engaged in testing, travel restrictions and the use of mobile technology to track potential infectees – and managing to minimise it relative to worldwide figures and population density.

Moreover, Singapore’s public sector has established mechanisms for doctors to share information; logistics updates for the private sector and public relations; and tried to restrict social media misinformation.

COVID-19 endgame

Adaptation is a necessity for organisations in this uncertainty. Companies will continue to innovate in a post-COVID world; the economic shock and its losses will force companies to cope with new and complex global realities. COVID-19 is arguably the largest digital disruptor for legacy enterprises.

Those businesses which have centralised business functions or require in-situ staff will face challenges surviving. Mature companies cope through maintaining their large market share and leveraging their bigger investment capabilities, though this entails greater risk. Legacy enterprises often aim to be leaders in adapting to changes, but advances in practices and technology may not propagate management or the businesses’ continuum.

Also Read: StarFab’s TAIRA accelerator joins forces with Taiwan’s biomedical firms to develop screening platform for COVID-19

Work from home (WFH) arrangements require a different management style versus co-located groups, with workplace flexibility and trust in employees vital to new work models. A lack of this means companies will not be successful.

In a period where many staff must WFH – a move that may become integral to businesses in the future – technologies that permit digitalisation and automation of procurement will serve to minimise time-consuming activities in supply chains. Online e-commerce is one automation procurement solution that highlights this.

According to McKinsey, the broad implications for businesses are shifts in the future of work and consumption. New technologies such as e-commerce and remote-working are gaining traction, with new working and shopping practices likely to become a ‘new normal’.

At RS Components, we have been preparing and innovating for a long time, as the majority of the companies that we work with have been online globally for more than 10 years. The solutions we provide to businesses operate in a way that does not compromise their compliance but complements their requirements, meaning we have been improving our platforms regularly to encourage and propel such behaviours.

With the pandemic exposing how dependence on vulnerable nodes in global supply chains is a vulnerability, massive restructuring in production and sourcing will see shifts to be closer to end-users, as well as greater localisations or regionalisation of supply chains.

But for RS Components with its corporate history, which has developed resilience and future-proofed its practices, it’s simply another challenge in a different age.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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Indonesia-based venture capital firm MDI Ventures has appointed Donald Wihardja as its new CEO. He most recently served as the VC Partner at AC Ventures and has played a crucial role as the chief information officer (CIO) in leading companies such as 2C2P, Indomog, and Quvat Management.

MDI Ventures had been operating without a CEO for nine months ever since former founder and CEO Nicko Widjaja stepped down from his position last year to join BRI Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesia’s state-owned bank, Bank BRI.

Managing partner Kenneth Li, Vice President of Investments Aldi Adrian Hartanto, and Alvin Evander will continue to stay. Under their leadership, the company has headed towards three profitable exits and the closing of three new associated funds.

The multi-stage VC firm backed by Telkom Indonesia conducts operations both in Singapore and Silicon Valley.

It combines a unique VC model by providing companies with funding and access to operational help after making a financial investment. Disruptive and innovative companies in the online, media and mobile internet space are the ventures MDI aims to invest in.

Also Read: Google SEAs MD on why women should be confident, speak up and contribute

In conjunction with the appointment, MDI Ventures will be launching two parallel funds this year, a seed-stage fund as well as a later stage vehicle this year.

Its most recent funding is an investment in an Indonesian insurtech company called Qoala.

The company also managed to achieve five exits last year – which is more than any other Indonesian VCs to date. According to Crunchbase, MDI has made a total of 14 lead investments out of 37 investments to date.

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Image Credit: MDI Ventures

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Pandemic-hit Indonesian budget hotel aggregator Airy shuts down

Airy, a budget hotel aggregator startup in Indonesia, has said it is “terminating its agreement with its partners” due to the company’s decision to permanently stop its operation.

As reported by TechInAsia, Airy — a venture built in-house by Traveloka — shared the decision in an email to its property partners, explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic was the main reason for its decision, which has hit the tourism sectors.

Also Read: Indonesian healthcare information platform Alodokter lands US$9M from SoftBank, Golden Gate Ventures, FengHe

The company said in the email that its services will no longer be available after after May 31, 2020. “We have made our best efforts to overcome the impact of this [international] disaster. However, given a significant technical decline and a reduction in human resources that we have at the moment, we have decided to stop our business [activities] in a permanent manner,” Airy said.

BookDoc partners with China’s WeDoctor to launch the Global Consultation and Prevention Center

Malaysia-based healthtech company BookDoc has announced that it is collaborating with WeDoctor, China’s healthtech company, to introduce Global Consultation and Prevention Center (GCPC) which supports English-Chinese bilingual languages.

This brings together medical resources from home and abroad and offers 24/7 real-time online medical services to fight the lethal invisible attacker.

BookDoc and WeDoctor said they will explore partnerships in medical tourism and devise strategies to gain a competitive advantage to reach out to medical tourists from around the globe.

The two companies will also leverage their technology, know-how, and local knowledge to expand borderless healthcare.

Myanmar’s Dakota Ventures allocates US$1M to invest in local startups

Dakota Ventures, a Myanmar-focussed Southeast Asian asset management company, announced plans to invest US$1 million in local startups, targeting “synergistic and millennial-focused startups” that supports education, consumer and infrastructure projects in the region, DealStreetAsia has reported.

Dakota is the company which runs Kaplan Myanmar University College and Gohanya, a central kitchen for Japanese cuisine catering in Yangon. Besides education and food distribution, Dakota Ventures has also invested in F&B equipment and solutions as well as eSports.

Also Read: OYO raises US$250M Series D funding round, will further expand to Southeast Asia

Recently, Dakota partnered with Israeli-headquartered cybersecurity firm Cybint to establish a cyber training centre that will begin construction in June 2020 and targets to provide 500 certified cyber professionals by the end of 2022.

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Bukalapak denies reports of user data breach

Indonesia’s e-commerce platform Bukapalak has denied reports that the data of millions of its users were compromised and sold on the dark web, says a report by The Jakarta Post Report.

The denial comes days after the unicorn Tokopedia was reported to have faced an internal system breach.

The personal data of around 13 million Bukalapak users, including usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords, are being sold for an undisclosed price on data-exchange platform RaidForum.

“After an internal investigation, we found that the reports currently circulating were sourced from a data breach attempt last year. There have been no new incidents,” Bukalapak corporate communication head Intan Wibisono told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Vista Equity Partners to invest US$1.5B in India’s Jio Platforms

Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners will invest US$1.5 billion in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms, according to TechInAsia.

Vista Equity Partners will now join Facebook and Silver Lake, which have also made bets on the Indian telecom giant recently.

Reliance Jio was launched in the second half of 2016 and has since then altered India’s telecommunications industry with low rate data plans and free voice calls.

Also Read: News Roundup: Indonesia’s budget hotel aggregator startup Airy shuts down

“Like our other partners, Vista also shares with us the same vision of continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians,” said RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani.

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Image Credit:  Ishant Mishra

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