When President Trump expressed the new punitive intentions aimed at TikTok, most experts propose that it is not the end of it. The tech war between China and the US has officially steps on the fiercest period in this decade. In which, the global technology industry would suffer the threat of depression.

In August, the US released a new rule that the regulated sector is not allowed to purchase any products from companies, which use telecommunication services of five Chinese technology firms, including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hangzhou and Zhejiang.

Along with a previous series of restriction regulations attacking Chinese technology, it not only broke the relationship between China and the US but adversely affect the global internet sector.

Obviously, both US and China are suffering from detrimental consequences coming from the decline of competitive advantage among leading enterprises. From the China government response, several American companies had lost the market share in this largest market.

Fortunately, there are still some sectors benefiting from this war, indicating an optimistic corner against this dark period on Earth.

US government make it difficult for Huawei, TikTok, and Tencent

The fact is China is the largest internet market, which covers the most advanced mobile network globally. Besides, most US IT enterprises consider China as the target and potential market due to the enormous population and tremendous purchasing power in this country.

On the other hand, the powerful accession of Chinese tech giants to the US also threatens local companies. The dominant advantages of those Chinese firms relate to competitive prices and short product life cycles. Evidently, Huawei, a leading smart devices producer, offer 5G devices at 30 per cent lower in price than both Ericson and Nokia, which is one of the victims in the war of America and China.

Also Read: How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?

Obviously, citing the reason that Chinese companies steal users’ data, the US regulators release restriction policy for those companies with the aim to protect local firms and domestic production. Recently, TikTok and WeChat became a target, suffering a ban on national security grounds.

Parent companies owning those apps, ByteDance and Tencent, have been totally restricted from every deal with America.

That ordinance will take effect this September, which seemingly benefits several US IT firms, especially Microsoft. Significantly, Microsoft will be a potential candidate to take control of all TikTok activities in the US, of which market capitalisation value reached roundly US$50 billion.

In terms of Tencent, it is claimed to be the centre of the Chinese digital economy, which is a dominant technology corporation, serving roundly 1.2 million users globally. Generally, attacking Tencent bring more advantage and challenges compared to ByteDance.

In fact, the total market valuation of Tencent is approximately US$680 billion, making it the second-largest corporation, just under Alibaba. Stopping the growth of Tencent could reduce the spread of Chinese technologies.

According to CNN, due to the restrictions, Tencent would lose its game business to American firms since most game revenue of Tencent came from the US market. Additionally, The White House’s decision might adversely affect the global technology industry. It is due to Tencent is one of the largest investors in this sector, leading to unpredictable disturbance.

China may no longer be the world’s largest factory

Not only Chinese firms suffered losses during the US and China tech war, but Apple and other US companies with factories in China might also be struggling this time. Notably, Apple has spent tons of effort and money to expand its business to China that the tech war could blow away around US$44 billion of its growing motivation.

Once the restriction rule on WeChat takes effect, Apple might need to kick WeChat out of its app store, which means iPhones and iPads could become less attractive to Chinese users.

Also Read: How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?

To prepare for the future, one of the biggest producers of Apple, Foxconn, has started moving its factories out of China, which decided to open new factories in India and Vietnam. Besides, in April 2020, Japan Government invested US$2.2 billion to supports companies moving their factories out of China.

Additionally, many other companies have implemented policies to help their companies not to rely on Chinese productions. As a result, roundly 75 per cent of American firms and 85 per cent of North Asia firms have been shifted out of China.

Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam are the real winners

Related to the flop of Huawei in the US and the EU, Japanese tech companies could replace the position of Huawei in those markets. According to Nikkei Review, two Japanese brands, NEC and Fujitsu, are allowed to develop their 5G infrastructure in the UK, after the British government ban Huawei in this country.

Until now, the Japanese government committed to investing more US$654 million to 5G companies such as NEC, which expectedly boost the competitive advantages of the Japanese firm in the global tech race.

According to UNCTAD, Taiwan could be the biggest winner of the tech war between America and China. Recently, there are only three companies in the world could produce advanced chips, including TSMC from Taiwan, Intel from America, and Samsung from Korea.

Since the US seemingly treats Taiwan as a strategic partner, Intel and TSMC are planning to collaborate that the stock price of TSMC has sharply increased. At that time, TSMC plays a central position that both America and China need it to win in the tech race. Many experts believe that TSMC could bring a powerful advantage to Taiwan this year.

On the other hand, if the tensions between two leader countries escalated unexpectedly, Vietnam could have a chance to sharply raise the export value to the US, especially with sectors of electronic assembly, chip production, and semiconductors.

Also Read: Avoid ugly language of nationalism when talking trade war

In which, Vietnam could take the market share of Chinese firms and attract more FDI in both hardware and software development sectors. For smartphone production, in particular, Vietnam is recently the largest factory of Samsung with a producing volume of over 240 million units annually.

Furthermore, Foxconn also considers opening its factories in Vietnam in the near future to avoid sanctions to China from the American government.

Final words: Tech war between America and China is predicted to continues this year and beyond. Generally, it harms the global technology industry, which inhibits the development of IT advancements.

Fortunately, there might be some areas that could revive from difficulties, which add some colourful light to a murky picture of the technology sector worldwide.

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Beyond the process of product development itself, the success of a product is often determined by how it is marketed towards its target audience.

We have written extensively about the COVID-19 outbreak when there are several noticeable changes in user behaviour. In this situation, startups might find themselves scrambling to adjust their marketing strategy to changes in the market.

In this second edition of our deep-dive series, e27 speaks to Tiger Wang, Head of Marketing at Shopee Singapore, to understand the best practices in building a marketing strategy as implemented in the company.

He explains how Shopee is building its marketing strategy — and how it adapts to the challenges of the time.

Topics covered in this article:

• Marketing Strategy 101: Principles and process
• Marketing Strategy 101: Testing a campaign
• Marketing in time of a pandemic

Marketing Strategy 101

In this part, Wang explains the main principles and process behind a marketing strategy

At Shopee, we pride ourselves in our highly localised marketing approach. We have seven different apps live across our markets, and each market differs significantly in terms of culture, user behaviour and shopping preferences.

When building a marketing strategy, it is important to understand the local consumers’ needs, expectations and nuances to ensure that it is customised for that particular market.

In all our markets, including Singapore, we recruit and support local talent so that we possess in-market expertise to better reach out to our users, helping create meaningful engagements with our consumers.

Additionally, our data science team works closely with the local marketing teams to build shopper models based on various behavioural and demographic data that is available to us.

Some examples include gender, age, brand preferences and preferred shopping features.

We then leverage data-driven insights using our strong data capabilities and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict user preferences based on their past purchases. By identifying relationships and patterns in users’ shopping and browsing behaviour, we can curate a more personalised shopping journey for them.

We continuously refine our recommendation engines to offer more customised and relevant shopping suggestions, promotions and push notifications made to fit their needs. Personalisation is critical in the e-commerce of today.

Also Read: Report: Shopee, Lazada compete for top spots in Southeast Asian e-commerce scene

The use of tech is a key factor that businesses need to consider when building their marketing strategy — particularly how to leverage their available resources and data to keep up-to-date on consumer trends and to adapt their strategies accordingly.

In a world of options and distractions, consumers are broadening their horizons and spending less time shopping in only one place. The need to create new ways of engaging consumers and capturing their attention is more important now than ever before.

AI has become an important element in the future of retail, enabling brands to optimise efficiencies and create personalised experiences. It is crucial at a time when brands need to provide more than just transactional experiences for shoppers.

Beauty brands such as L’Oréal use AI-powered digital innovation tools to offer instant, personalised and professional acne analyses without the customer having to visit a physical store, which is essential as more people remain confined at home.

It’s not just big players that should be using technology to implement an effective marketing strategy; SMEs can also leverage online platforms to create unique, memorable, and enjoyable experiences for their customers. This goes a long way towards building consumer loyalty.

Secondly, the need for engagement, entertainment and social interaction in a marketing strategy has never been more compelling as consumers increasingly value shareable experiences.

Therefore, companies need to elevate the customer journey by integrating these elements into marketing in order to cater to an increasingly demanding consumer base.

Tried and tested

Once we understand the principles of building a marketing strategy, it is time to get it tested. How do we know we have done it right? What to do when it fails to reach expectations?

The digital economy is constantly evolving. In order to succeed, we need to continue to keep our ear to the ground and adapt our strategy accordingly.

Nimble marketing is the recipe for success, and it’s crucial for marketing teams to collaborate and adapt campaigns as needed once they are live.

We monitor the performance of each of our marketing campaigns closely and gather relevant insights along the way. This allows us to make necessary adjustments when needed, following changes in local trends and current events.

Also Read: Lazada, Shopee and Zalora are most visited e-commerce sites in Philippines

The definition of success varies with each campaign depending on the objectives involved. We place great emphasis on powering the next wave of e-commerce, and one key pillar is quality consumer engagement; we consistently work to integrate a personalised, engaging, and social element in our shopping experience.

Certain campaigns are aimed at deepening engagement, such as those focused on games and live-streams.

For example, during our recent National Day Sale, we launched a host of localised games, including Shopee Flappy – Siam the ERP edition, Shopee Candy – Mama Shop edition, and Shopee Shake – Satay @ Lau Pat Sat edition..

All of our campaigns are formulated with data-led insights, which ensure they do not undergo trial and error — instead, they cater directly to shopping behaviour patterns.

It is important for marketers to understand that each campaign is a vital learning lesson and is an opportunity to continue fine-tuning the ongoing marketing strategies — don’t define campaigns by fails and successes, but rather use it as a stepping stone to perfecting marketing strategy.

Our signature 9.9 Super Shopping Day has been very successful over a number of years. It was introduced in 2016 to cater to the rapid growth of the e-commerce industry in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

As an annual shopping event tailored for the region with the largest collection of deals across all product categories, it is now a key date in the year’s online shopping calendar.

Each year, our campaign and hyper-localised approach for each market means we successfully outperform previous year’s 9.9 performance, proving that we continue to bring value to our users, sellers, brands and partners, through a personalised, engaging and social shopping experience.

In 2019, we celebrated our biggest-ever 9.9 Super Shopping Day, with three times the number of orders compared to 2018, and over 113 million deals offered on September 9. At its peak, 187,606 items were sold in a minute.

The success of 9.9 shows that our consumers’ appetite for deals and promotions is strong, especially in Singapore.

Also Read: Report: Shopee, Lazada compete for top spots in Southeast Asian e-commerce scene

Marketing in time of a pandemic

Since the start of the COVID-19, Shopee says that users in Singapore have spent 40 per cent more time in-app per week and the number of Shopee Live streams from brands and sellers have increased 40x. In Singapore, its in-app games were played over 60 million times and 1.6 million plays from February 1 to April 24. 

So how does their marketing strategy differ in times of crisis?

Regardless of external factors, the fast-moving e-commerce landscape regularly conditions us to be flexible and adaptive in our marketing strategies.

This means that during times of crisis, we are well-prepared to shift our strategies to meet users’ needs quickly and efficiently.

There are no one-size-fits-all blueprints or hard-and-fast rules when it comes to marketing during a time of crisis.

Rather, we believe the most important thing is to consider the most pertinent needs and concerns of our audience.

Needless to say, their priorities and habits will change during moments of crises. Brands thus need to be able to see things from their perspective in order to be able to market to them successfully.

For example, as people continue to adhere to social distancing measures, more users are shopping online for a growing number of different product categories.

There is a greater demand for health and personal hygiene products, as well as essential household items. In order to address this increased demand, we have implemented additional support measures wherever necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees, partners, sellers and users.

In all of our markets, we rolled out ‘Shopee from Home’ campaigns, which made it easy for users to search for and purchase the products they want on our platform.

In Singapore, we took additional steps to limit the over-purchasing of essential health items such as masks, thus ensuring sufficient supply for all our users.

We also worked to support our sellers and made sure they are able to cope with the increased online demand through enhanced logistics infrastructure, to further drive seamless shopping experiences during this period.

We are determined to use the Shopee platform to aid the evolving needs of all our users to help them to adapt to the new normal. The pandemic has definitely led us to shift our focus and priorities to address certain key trends and issues.

In Singapore, our recently-concluded Great Shopee Sale campaign focused on empowering local businesses — a huge topic of concern amongst Singaporeans.

As part of the campaign, we featured one seller a day on our ‘#SGUnited Shopee Support Local’ campaign microsite and social media platforms to drive more visibility to their online stores.

Also Read: How Shopee is using data science to take their platform to the next level

We have improved our social features to provide entertainment and engagement during this time of evolving needs:

• Shopee Feed: We have upgraded our in-app social feed to cater to the increased time spent and levels of social interaction on Shopee. Users can share content on what they are listing, buying, and selling with the community without having to leave the Shopee app. Users can follow and receive the latest real-time updates from their friends, as well as sellers and brands more quickly and efficiently than before. Shopee Feed is a key component that addresses the exploratory and social nature of online shopping today.

• Shopee Live Chat: Conversations between sellers and buyers are a crucial part of the social experience on Shopee and we have added new functions in our popular Shopee Live Chat feature to enable more meaningful interactions, based on observed user behaviour.

Being a home-grown company, Shopee has always prided itself in doing its part to help nurture and empower local businesses and SMEs. The strategies for our campaigns and initiatives targeted at local businesses and SMEs are designed to focus on this objective.

The COVID-19 period has been particularly challenging for these groups, and we have scaled up our efforts to help sellers on our platform navigate the current economic environment. We launched the ​Shopee Seller Support Package (SSSP) and the ‘#SGUnited Shopee Support Local’ campaign microsite to increase exposure for local sellers by driving greater traffic to them.

We provide these businesses with much-needed marketing support that helps establish themselves online, further optimise sales, and construct sustainable, long-term e-commerce strategies.

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Image Credit: Shopee

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Singapore- and Australia-based medtech startup, See-Mode Technologies, announced today it has raised a US$7 million Series A funding, led by Mass Mutual Ventures Southeast Asia (MMV SEA).

Other participants in the round include existing investors Blackbird Ventures, Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, and SGInnovate, besides a group of angels.

This brings See-Mode’s total funding to date to US$8 million, which also included a US$1M seed round raised in 2018.

As per a press statement, the company plans to use the fresh funds for expansion into the American and European markets, R&D, hire people and build its sales and business development team.

Also Read: After Singapore Budget 2019, is medtech set to enjoy a hype cycle?

It is also broadening its partnerships to more research institutions around the world.

Founded in 2017 by Dr Mohammadzadeh and Dr Sadaf Monajemi, See-Mode uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help clinicians better predict the risk of stroke and vascular diseases.

Around the world, stroke remains a leading cause of death and disability. To help clinicians better predict the risk of stroke and vascular diseases, See-Mode is developing novel solutions to improve the analysis of routinely collected medical images such as ultrasound, CT and MRI scans.

See-Mode’s software applies AI and computational models on these medical images, allowing clinicians to obtain critical stroke risk factors that may not be accessible in current clinical practice.

This allows doctors to efficiently decide on the optimal treatment for patients, improving patient care and outcomes, without the need for additional tests.

Its debut product, Augmented Vascular Analysis (AVA), is a medical AI software for automated analysis and reporting of vascular ultrasound scans.

“20 per cent of stroke patients go on to have another stroke within five years. Tackling stroke is no small feat. We are lucky to be working with an outstanding group of clinicians from leading research institutions globally to further validate our products,” Mohammadzadeh said.

AVA is awaiting regulatory approval in several markets, including Europe and the US.

Also Read: Endofotonics secures US$12M in Series B funding round led by Singapore Medical Group

Additionally, the company is building two other new products — to detect vulnerable plaque using Machine Learning and to identify high-risk blood flow using computational modelling.

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Image Credit: Wren Steiner

 

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Taiwan’s enterprise AI firm iKala raises US$17M led by Wistron Digital for expansion into Indonesia, Malaysia; iKala provides AI-driven digital transformation and data-driven marketing solutions; 400+ enterprises across 12 industries and 15K+ advertisers have used iKala’s tech. e27

Singapore’s See-Mode secures US$7M Series A led by MassMutual Ventures SEA; The medtech startup uses AI to help clinicians better predict the risk of stroke and vascular diseases; The firm plans to use the fresh funds for expansion into the American and European markets, R&D, hire people. e27

How Singapore is handling the biggest WFH experiment; When it comes to switching the entire economy to the remote mode, the city-state is among the countries with the best head start; The island state’s IT industry is known for its reliance on state-of-the-art collaboration and communication tools that make remote work possible. e27

Telkom Group-backed MDI Ventures launches new US$500M fund; The fund seeks to push digitisation of Indonesia’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs); So far, the CVC has invested in 44+ startups from 12+ countries; It also has 3 high-profile exits (Whispir IPO, Naspers acquisition of RedDot Payments, 8×8 acquisition of Wavecell) to its credit. e27

HK-based alternative protein fund Lever VC makes 1st close of Fund 1 at US$23M, targets a final close at US$50M; The firm was started by early investors in Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods; Lever VC is an investor in Singapore’s cells-based milk startup TurtleTree; The alternative protein sector is projected to grow by 31% y-o-y and become a US$85-140B market over the next 10-15 yrs. e27

BukuKas raises US$9M pre-Series A from Surge, Credit Saison, others; Total funds raised by the 8-month-old startup has reached US$12M; Since inception, BukuKas has partnered with 900K small merchants and retailers and the app is used in 700+ cities and districts across Indonesia. e27

Why the new Singapore variable capital company (VCC) is a fund structure game changer; Under the VCC Act, foreign corporate entities may also be re-domiciled to the city-state; A VCC can be set up as a standalone entity or as an umbrella entity with multiple sub-funds; Each sub-fund may have different investment objectives and strategies, investors, assets, and liabilities. e27

Why Sesamilk thinks plant-based milk is healthier than cow milk and has a bright future; Currently, Sesamilk is available in about 500 stores (online and offline) across Thailand and is exported to Japan, Macau, Hongkong, Vietnam; It has received seed funding from Lee Choo Chien of Singapore and Somchai Hirunyakorn of Thailand. e27

Joseph Phua steps down as group CEO of M17 Entertainment; Hirofumi Ono, the chief of its Japan business, has been promoted as new global CEO; Phua will assume the role of non-executive Chairman at M17; Under Ono’s leadership, M17 will aim to continue growing into a global live streaming platform. e27

The secret is out: The missing piece that will boost your corporate innovation strategy; Aside from taking into consideration factors such as innovation culture, resources and the executing team, adopting the appropriate innovation approach is key to determining the outcome of your corporate innovation efforts; This is where the concept of ‘pre-accelerator’ assumes significance. e27

Singapore’s Doyobi announces US$1M in funding from 500 Startups, Xoogler Angels; The online school offers coding courses for kids that are supported by Google, the government, as well as educators from around the world; Investment in edutech companies have grown from US$500M in 2010 to US$7B in 2019. e27

Singapore’s construction management startup Hubble raises funding from Malaysian PE, OSK Ventures; Hubble is the official partner of Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority for the development and implementation of the BuildSG-COVIDSafe platform; In June, Hubble raised US$3.7M, led by Tin Men. e27

SEA’s indexes miss equity rally because they lack tech stocks; Tech stocks have been at the forefront of the worldwide equity rally from March lows as the virus outbreak accelerated the global shift toward automation, and locked-down consumers fuelled demand for everything from video games to e-commerce. DealStreetAsia

Study: Gen Z is more likely than millennials to get into the startup game; 8 in 10 students believe college is important to achieving their career goals; 63% of those same students – all between the ages of 16 and 19 – said they want to learn about entrepreneurship in college, including how to start a business. The Next Web

E-commerce platform Aladdin Group returns as tech company; The group, which focuses on the halal sector and Muslim-friendly segment, now takes the approach of leveraging on Malaysian talents and pairing with a strategic partner in China that specialises in AI, e-commerce, social commerce. Malay Mail

In age of scarcity, Traveloka goes from ‘hunting’ to ‘harvesting’ in its marketing rethink; ‘When you’re in growth mode, you hunt for customers and once they are in your ecosystem, they become your crops and you farm them and the you harvest them’, says its CMO. WiT

How BukuWarung is changing the back alleys of Indonesia; The book-keeping app sets the foundation for merchants’ operational efficiency and enables access to financial services; it opens MSMEs up to the broader fintech ecosystem via technologies that can help these businesses scale faster, generate more income, and find more lucrative growth opportunities. e27

Hong Kong’s ‘banking alternative’ Neat adds US$4M to its US$11M Series A; Investors include MassMutual Ventures, Pacific Century Group, Linear Capital; With its offering of online company incorporation, multi-currency wallet, corporate expense cards and international remittances, Neat is primarily focussed on SMEs trading between Europe and Asia. Business Insider

Why Clik believes that Cambodia is the best place to pilot a new fintech infra; The nation has a pretty dynamic fintech sector and there’re quite a few players such as Pi Pay, a youth-targeted cashless mobile payment platform; Clik recently secured a US$3.7M seed and is set to launch its platform at end-2020. e27

Lu partners with Kasikornbank to meet rising demands for digital financial services in Thailand; Together, they will launch and operate an online wealth management platform for retail investors; Lu is the Singapore subsidiary of Chinese retail fintech Lufax. Retail News Asia

Lazada Malaysia records three-fold increase in SMEs that have digitised business; The e-commerce platform is focused on its efforts to support the gov. initiatives to aid local SMEs and the country’s economic recovery; In August, it launched online campaigns aiming to promote local sellers and products. Malay Mail

How IoT revolutionised medical care during the pandemic; From high-level healthcare devices to common household gadgets, IoT technology is getting more intelligent and connected to the internet, facilitating seamless communication between networks and devices. The Next Web

Thailand’s digital content industry poised to surpass US$960M; This is because the demand for digital content has surged, particularly in entertainment segment, due to the longer time spent online in the new normal. Bangkok Post

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Image Credit: 123rf.com

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TADA to launch multi-wet market shopping platform

The story: TADA, Southeast Asia’s blockchain-based zero-commission ride-hailing service, has launched TADA Fresh Market, an online multi-wet market shopping platform.

TADA Fresh Market serves as a one-stop solution for all fresh grocery needs delivered directly from popular wet markets in Singapore to the buyer’s doorstep. It offers free delivery of fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, meat, and poultry from 36 stalls across the Tekka wet market and Tiong Bahru wet market daily at affordable prices, with just a minimum spend of US$36.5.

The plans: With this launch, TADA has invested in development to repurpose its delivery technologies for transporting fresh produce, and additional equipment to uphold their freshness and quality.

The wet markets promise to the buyers a distinctively superior freshness to foods and offer more value but are not well connected to digital distribution channels. TADA Fresh Market seeks to fill the offline to the online delivery gap for the wet market vendors and consumers.

To shop, buyers must place a minimum order of S$30 to shop from the TADA Fresh Market website and for anything less than US$36.5 they need to pay a delivery fee of US$2.8.

HK’s Neat secures US$4M extended Series A funding

The story: Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech company that offers online company incorporation and multi-currency wallets to cross-border SMEs, has added US$4M to its US$11M Series A round closed in April 2020.

Also Read: That’s neat: Hong Kong-based Neat to launch banking app that tells how much you can spend today

Investors: MassMutual Ventures, Pacific Century Group, Linear Capital and Robby Hilkowitz, Vectr Fintech.

What is Neat: Neat’s mission is to enable the entrepreneur economy – starting with fully digital multi-currency accounts built for today’s international entrepreneur.

The Neat Account gives you the ability to send and receive money globally at more competitive exchange rates than you would get from a bank; access Neat corporate expense cards for online and offline spending, as well as ATM withdrawals; it also includes intuitive expense tracking and security features.

Bangladeshis edutech startup Upskill closes pre-seed funding

The story: Upskill, a Bangladeshi edutech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Seed funding, led by SBK Ventures, English Essence, and the founder of The Legal Circle law firm.

The entire fund raised consisted only of female investors.

The plans: The funding will be utilised by Upskill to support product development, strategic hiring, and further investment in scaling up the current business.

What is Upskill: Upskill is a skill-sharing platform that transforms classroom experiences with a blended learning approach to maximize learning outcomes. With online learning platforms and offline masterclasses, Upskill produces and distributes courses focusing on all kinds of skills that help people to be productive and earn through sharing their skills with those in need. The contents are designed and delivered by key industry or subject matter experts.

Grab, Unilever establish a partnership through GrabProtect

The story: Grab and Unilever today announced a partnership in Southeast Asia to protect Grab drivers and riders as well as support the livelihoods of small business owners as they weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The partnership covers Grab’s Transport, GrabFood, GrabMart and GrabExpress services. Unilever’s personal and home hygiene brands such as Lifebuoy and Cif will support Grab drivers to deliver safer and more hygienic rides under GrabProtect.

By leveraging Grab’s platform and technology, Unilever products will be available for consumers to purchase directly from Unilever’s vast network of retailers in Southeast Asia through GrabFood and GrabMart, thereby also helping small retailers and mom-and-pop shops around the region.

Also Read: [Updated] Report: Grab is raising US$200M at a US$14.3B valuation from South Korean private equity firm

The plans: With GrabProtect, Grab and Unilever seek to bring greater peace of mind to driver-partners and passengers by equipping vehicles in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines with Lifebuoy hand sanitisers and Cif disinfectant sprays, at no cost to driver-partners or passengers. It also seeks to help growing income for small and offline business owners through Unilever Ice Cream virtual stores on GrabFood and GrabMart.

On top of that, Grab’s on-demand delivery service for daily essentials available across eight countries in Southeast Asia. The partnership has kicked off in the Philippines and will expand to Indonesia, Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets by the end of the year. This will be complemented by GrabAds to help grow demand for Unilever products.
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Picture Credit: Neat

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