The marketplace is going digital. From being a “nice-to-have” to graduating to a “solid addition”, online avenues have now become mainstream. This is especially true in the Asia Pacific where, as per Statista, approximately 2.15 billion people used e-commerce in 2020, and by 2025, this number is estimated to increase to 3.13 billion people. In Singapore alone, on just one single app Shopee, during the very recent 9.9 sale people purchased 45 million items within the first 99 minutes! 

Customers rule this digital marketplace. A McKinsey report says “Technology has handed customers unprecedented power to dictate the rules in purchasing goods and services.” This means that winning over the modern customer takes experiences that are unforgettable, convenient, and digital. 

In fact, some of the world’s most popular brands, including Byju’s, PhonePe, 7eleven, Zalora, and Booktopia credit their success to the digital reinvention of CX. Recently, CX leaders from these brands came together at RE:SOLVE by Freshworks– one of Asia’s biggest summits on digital-first CX to reveal how they drive customer loyalty and business growth with technology solutions like AI and more.

Freshworks, the company behind this summit, is a leading provider of modern SaaS solutions that empower businesses to delight customers.

Bringing world leaders together to create a learning opportunity on digital-first CX

RE:SOLVE by Freshworks offered an unmissable opportunity for CX leaders, founders, marketers and innovators to learn the art of delighting the modern customer with digital CX from some of the most popular and successful brands in the world. get in-depth insights directly from leading brands into unlocking business growth by leveraging the power of CX. The summit brought together leaders from different industries, including e-Commerce, edtech, retail, ride-hailing, food delivery and more to help both digital disruptors and novices learn the art of delighting the modern customer with digital CX by getting inspiration from some of the most popular and successful brands in the world.

Also read: How to foster mental wellness in the workplace and boost performance

Participating brands spanned a wide range of industries including e-commerce, edtech, retail, ride-hailing, food delivery and more. They included 7-Eleven- an international convenience store chain, online fashion platform Zalora, the world’s most valuable edtech company Byju’s, PhonePe- Asia’s fastest-growing fintech firm, Australia’s leading online bookstore Booktopia and Africa’s leading entertainment company Multichoice. 

As the go-to event for everything digital-first CX, RE:SOLVE also featured curated masterclasses to help attendees get started with actionable takeaways on building a bot decision tree, calculating the ROI of customer service and getting started with WhatsApp business API.

Key takeaways and lessons shared during RE:SOLVE 2021

Today, customers expect real-time responses to their enquiries. A recent survey of 2,760 professionals across nine markets in APAC, including China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines revealed that social media platforms are emerging as the preferred channel for customer support, as consumers perceive them to be faster and more convenient.

At RESOLVE, Balaji Muthukrishnan, Sr Manager Partnerships at Freshworks reinforced that messaging is crucial for better customer engagement and retention. 

He shared that proprietary research showed that customers expect instant services and immediate replies. Research also found that around 77 per cent of customers keep their notifications on for messaging apps with 90 per cent of texts being read within 3 seconds of receipt.

“In fact, speed is one of the key metrics based on which customers make purchasing decisions. They not only expect complete but quick responses- as early as within 8 seconds,” he added.

During a fireside chat on the topic of “Modern CX for the modern shopper” Mustehsan Siddiqui- Manager of Digital Operations CX at Landmark Group emphasised the importance of customer-centricity. Landmark has a solid presence across a diverse market, including the Gulf countries as well as the APAC region, and they have managed to set a benchmark for consistent customer-centric CX across all markets.

“We ensure that we are engaging our customers not only with sales and services but also serving them based on changing behaviour and trends. We keep customers at the centre of everything and take feedback very seriously,” said Mustehsan. Landmark has an O2O2O model- online to offline to online and hence, it becomes key to maintain consistent experiences. “Omnichannel used to be a buzzword, but today it is a mandate all over the world. The pandemic has elevated customer expectations,” he added. Today, every customer is a VIP and brands need to leverage digitalization to treat them that way.

It takes only one bad experience to lose around 68 per cent of customers- expectations are high not only for purchases but for resolving issues as well, Mustehsan explained.

Reducing purchase friction and increasing conversion rates

Purchase friction or simply ‘friction’ is a term used to describe anything inhibiting a seamless sales and purchase lifecycle in the business world. According to a 2019 study, ‘friction’ could be costing APAC businesses $325 billion per year. So, this is arguably one of the biggest challenges faced by small and big companies in the region. Mili Semlani and Anand Venkatraman (VP and GM) from Freshworks explored this further with Zalora’s  Kanan Rajaratnam.

Kanan shared that amidst the pandemic a lot of new customers have embarked on the journey of online shopping. One of the key expectations from this new set of customers is a seamless and smooth experience.

“Merchants around the world have big shoes to fill. At Zalora, we believe that communication is key. With every second or minute of delay in responding to a customer, businesses are losing trust,” said Kanan. “We monitor every single customer interaction and look at every raised ticket very minutely. We flag delays, analyse why they happened and make sure the gaps are eliminated,” he added.

Also read: Finding product-market fit with the power of product analytics

Freshworks works with a wide range of eCommerce players from all over the world. Anand from Freshworks added that these days people are constantly online on multiple channels and that the journey to purchase isn’t predictable.

“They are interacting with brands 24X7 and expect the brands to be available all the time. Around 61 per cent of our customers start from one channel and end up making the purchase at another channel,” he said. Another important thing Anand added is that today customers expect brands to recognise them across channels- they expect personalization to an extent that they don’t want to repeat information on all channels.

An Accenture study revealed that more than nine of 10 consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are personally relevant to them. This is seconded by Freshworks findings too. “48 per cent of our customers have left brands where they felt personalization was lacking,” Anand said.

In another fireside chat during RE:SOLVE, Mohnish Jaiswal, VP of Operations at Byju’s spoke on re-inventing CX from sales to support and elaborated on how Byju’s support ensures user retention and engagement at all levels. He said no business can work in silos within a digital ecosystem. “All user touchpoints need to have an exceptionally seamless experience- from sales to supply chains and operations to student or customer support. Collaboration is key for friction-free seamless CX.” He added that given the current climate where teams are split across remote and in-office, fostering a more collaborative ecosystem that is not location-dependent but digital-first has become an inevitable need.

Inspiring emerging innovators and entrepreneurs

In addition to game-changing chats with CX leaders, RESOLVE also aimed to deliver holistic inspiration, in the form of keynote sessions with cricket icon Adam Gilchrist and technologist-activist Shiza Shahid. 

Speaking with Freshworks Co-Founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham, Adam Gilchrist said, “Winning is the byproduct of the desire to learn, evolve and disrupt. Just knowing that you really have the hunger and the winning mentality is important.” 

Technologist-activist Shiza Shahid said empathising with customers is important. “Ownership and connection on both sides are crucial. If one of our customer’s orders is delayed, I see my customer representatives caring deeply about the issue. They want to drive across the state and deliver the product. And, this is what separates us. When it stops being about the numbers and becomes more about being empathetic- that’s when it really starts to matter.”

Also read: Connect with these X-PITCH 2021 startups through e27 Pro

Overall, it can be said that offering seamless digital CX will be key not only for surviving the new normal where online is mainstream but will also help businesses become future-proof. Mapping customer journeys, riding the mobile-first wave, creating seamless messaging bots and understanding the importance of customer-centric business models will be some of the most vital trends for businesses in APAC.

You can watch RE:SOLVE on-demand here and to find out more about Freshworks, visit https://www.freshworks.com.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Freshworks

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SoftBank Ventures Asia today announced that it has led a US$30 million (IDR443.2 billion) Series A funding round for fintech startup Oy! Indonesia.

Other investors such as MDI, Pavilion Capital, AC Venture, CCV, Wavemaker, PT SAT, Saison Capital Pte. Ltd., and Orion Advisors also participated in this funding round.

In a press statement, Oy! Indonesia said that it plans to enter a “next phase of growth” and expand its business in the Indonesian market.

e27 has reached out to the company’s representative to find out more details about their plan following the funding round.

Jesayas Ferdinandus, CEO of OY! Indonesia, also stated that the company has reached a “centaur” status with its more than US$100 million (IDR1.4 trillion) valuation.

Also Read: Accenture selects 3 SEA startups for its 2021 FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific

“We believe that this growth must be guided by the commitment to realise the vision of OY! Indonesia as the best and the most comprehensive money movement aggregator infrastructure provider in Indonesia,” he said.

Previously, in July, DailySocial reported that Oy! Indonesia has secured a US$45 million funding led by Softbank Ventures Asia and MDI Ventures with the participation of investors such as Pavilion Capital, AC Ventures, Alfamart, Central Capital Ventura, and Wavemaker Partners.

The company’s seed funding round was closed in 2017-2020. It included the participation of investors such as MDI Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Pavilion Capital, and Central Capital Ventura.

The report also observed that the open finance sector seems to have “such a great potential” for local ecosystem players who are able to offer ease of transaction through their tech solutions.

Starting its operations in 2018, Oy! Indonesia is a platform that enables individuals and businesses of all scales to send and receive money both digitally (cashless) and offline (cash). Its users include various commercial banks, digital banks, P2P Lending, e-money, and other fintech companies.

To date, Oy! Indonesia said that it already has one million active users who were recorded based on the use of mobile applications.

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Image Credit: Oy! Indonesia

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Our crusade to democratise the process of making video started in an Italian restaurant in Bali when I received a phone call from a client. I was on leave, but after years of being an account manager, I understood that there were clients who preferred to touch base with me directly.

Still, I had thoughts about automating my duties, rendering the marketing process one that was far more convenient for both the client and my team. 

At that time, my team had also suffered a rejection with regards to a potential mascot design for some videos we were creating for a client. After a year of ideation and planning, we were crushed that our ideas were not followed through.

On that same Bali trip at a beachside bar, I began having ideas to create a fuss-free, automated process for businesses to design their own mascot. That would save time, effort, and potential creative heartbreaks too.

Not long later, we had a company retreat where I brought up this idea to my colleagues, including Tio, my co-founder, who thought, “Why not?” The team got excited about this idea and started plotting how we could make this automation a reality.

At first, we were all caught in the idea of creating a digital process for mascot design. However, the team and I soon realised that the extension of one mascot to many potential businesses was not at all feasible, and we had to broaden what we could offer to the market.

Recognising the gaps in the market

As creative marketers with years of experience in the industry, an issue that Tio and I often came across was the lack of accessibility for many SMEs in Singapore when it comes to video marketing. Not all businesses have the resources needed to make professional-grade videos.

Big corporations can simply hire a team to film and put together a video for their campaigns, yet this might not work for growing businesses with tighter financial and creative resources, and time limitations.

Also Read: iVS rakes in US$3.2M led by Tin Men Capital to expand its video ad platform beyond SEA

Many times, the conventional brief-centred approach to engage a video production team can be painfully inefficient. Arduous creative tugs-of-war between the business owners and the designers, hidden costs, and delayed deadlines often end with broken spirits on both sides.

At the end of the partnership, the results might not even reflect what the SME owners have paid for. This is also why some businesses prefer working with in-house teams to create their video assets.

Through many of our partnerships with clients of all fields, we have also realised that videos have been an essential medium for businesses of all sizes to build brand awareness and foster relationships with their online audiences.

Even the data from studies like Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing (2021) has shown that 93 per cent of marketers have shared that videos have become an essential component of their marketing strategy. 

With the multiple lockdowns and social restrictions over the last year, the video landscape across social media platforms has been growing even more dynamically, as algorithms change and dictate the way viewers engage with videos.

Here, targeted allocation of ad dollars needs to be spent carefully to ensure that the content reaches the right audience. Simply put, it is no longer wise to rely solely on organic traffic. 

This is where SMEs and growing businesses might be left between the gaps. Big, affluent brands have the resources to splurge on both the video making and advertising fronts. Yet, many small and new businesses with tighter marketing budgets we have come across don’t have that luxury.

Broadening what we could offer beyond mascot design, it was clear to us then that we could create a platform where videos could be easily created by growing businesses without any fuss or worries about budget. 

Creating a video-making platform does not necessarily make us special, and we knew that. In fact, there are many video template providers in the market, allowing businesses to create their own videos. However, many of them provide generic templates that don’t impress in illustrations and transitions.

Others that might offer beautiful designs are instead complex in their use. While they provide a myriad of choices and customisation controls that work great for seasoned video editors, users such as new business owners and solopreneurs with no design background might be overwhelmed. They might be looking for a quick and easy solution to create a nice and professional video for their business.

Also Read: Video content: Next wave in marketing businesses; Brightcove shows how

Months of research and development have made it even clearer for our team that we wanted to create a platform that bridged all three gaps– price, design, and ease of use. We wanted to bring to users professional, beautiful designs through an easy-to-use method, which are also affordable. This will help businesses dedicate more of the marketing budget to paid advertising while also placing them in a better position to compete with the bigger players on social media.

With this, Tio and I decided to set our hearts on creating this very platform that democratises the entire process of video creation for small and growing businesses. Hence, Oneshot was born.

It’s all about making video marketing accessible

We have streamlined the process for Oneshot users with minimal editing or design knowledge so they can personalise our templates quickly. This means getting rid of bloated stock media libraries and scene-by-scene editing and keeping everything to a point-and-click interface.

This efficient method is one way we empower businesses to create pro-grade videos quickly. In fact, we could be considered the world’s simplest video maker.

Moreover, every Oneshot template is essentially a video that is already 90 per cent complete, with most of the work done by professional designers and animators on the team, including Tio, who has accumulated seven years of experience on top of his training in design.

All that’s left for users to do is to personalise the video to their brand with our online editor in three simple steps: replace the placeholder images and copy with their own, pick their background music from a curated list, and render the video. With this simplicity, a tutorial might not even be needed. 

On top of this, all of the videos can be rendered at a very affordable price that small businesses are able to fork out, leaving most of their marketing budget for targeted advertising or other purposes. This approach we have adopted with Oneshot has helped to solve some of the budgeting issues that some clients have reflected on us over the years. 

To date, our templates have worked successfully for many partners across various industries, from retail to F&B and automotive. As creative visual communicators, we are also always working with our partners to improve their experience and our services. 

Also Read: How FilmDoo pivoted to online learning by leveraging the power of films and video in the pandemic

At Oneshot, we make it our mission to lower the barrier to entry for video advertising, and help small and growing businesses take flight. Our hundreds of templates provide businesses from all industries with endless possibilities to present their messages in a visually captivating and succinct manner.

Whether it is increasing the range of professional templates for corporate campaigns or 2D animation models, our team at Oneshot is always challenging and chasing exciting, never-seen-before ideas to help every business create the beautiful videos they deserve.

In this dynamic online marketing industry, we hope that more people will begin to realise that their growing businesses deserve a presence online with innovative, eye-catching video content.

So here we are, to help and work alongside these businesses. Having an online presence interacts and engages with the customers, who are the very foundation of any business. When done effectively, the results will surely begin to show.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

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Indonesia-based e-grocery platform Dropezy today announced that it has raised a US$2.5 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Forge Ventures.

The funding round also included the participation of Tekton Ventures, Next Billion Ventures, Nordstar as well as a group of angel investors including the founders of Kopi Kenangan and Bukukas.

Dropezy plans to use the funding to support the expansion of its network of “dark stores” or micro-fulfilment hubs to enable 20-minute grocery deliveries in Greater Jakarta Area.

Founded by Chandni Chainani and Nitesh Chellaram in 2019, the company was started with the vision to be “the most convenient way” to shop for groceries.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has provided Dropezy with a unique opportunity as 80 per cent of Indonesians stated that they would prefer to shop online, according to research.

But the issue that the company found is that existing grocery delivery services are optimised around existing offline supply chains or cost minimization; this ends up sacrificing user experience. So it builds a platform that enables greater speed and convenience for customers by allowing small purchases with low delivery rates.

Also Read: Go-Ventures leads US$16M Series A in grocery social commerce startup Segari

Dropezy said that it started in a small space in the basement of an apartment in Central Jakarta but now has close to 100 employees. It is launching dark stores across the city to shorten the last-mile distance and ensure that customers get their orders within 20 minutes.

CEO Chandni Chainani credited this growth to the learnings and insights that the company gained from their customers.

“When we launched, Chandni and I packed and delivered every order ourselves to really understand what urban customers wanted out of a grocery delivery service and how we could deliver the very best experience. With 60 per cent of first-time customers still purchasing from us after six months, our customers already love the consistency and freshness of our product selection and our fair prices. This is only possible because we control both our inventory and logistics with a committed fleet of riders who allocate at least six hours a day for small package deliveries,” said Nitesh Chellaram, Co-founder and COO of Dropezy.

“But our customers kept on asking for us to deliver faster and now, we will. If you make some coffee and realize you are out of milk, Dropezy will get it to you before your coffee is cold. We are excited to be partnering with investors who share our vision and customer obsession,” he continued.

Prior to starting Dropezy, the co-founders have had experience working in leading tech companies such as Zomato, MatahariMall, and Zilingo as well as the grocery and FMCG sectors.

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Image Credit: Dropezy

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Advance Intelligence Group, a Singapore-based AI-driven technology company possessing an ecosystem of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), digital lending, and omnichannel e-commerce products and services, announced today it has secured more than US$400 million in a Series D funding round co-led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Warburg Pincus.

Existing investors including Vision Plus Capital, Gaorong Capital, EDBI, and new investor Northstar, also participated in this round.

The new investment will be utilised to expand the Group’s BNPL platform and digital lending presence across Asia. Besides, the company aims to deepen its AI and big data analytics capabilities and enterprise client coverage, and to grow its global talent pool.

“The new financing will also accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises and merchants, big and small, while enabling more equitable access to credit and financial inclusion for both underbanked and underserved consumers and businesses,” said Jefferson Chen, co-founder, group chairman and CEO of Advance Intelligence Group.

Also read: Kredivo scores US$100M more in debt funding to further grow its BNPL platform

Launched in 2016, Advance Intelligence Group is an AI and big data company helping businesses with digital transformation, fraud prevention, and process automation. It builds an ecosystem of  AI-powered, credit-enabled products and services for consumers, businesses, and merchants by using innovative technology and partnerships across Asia.

The company’s ecosystem includes BNPL platform Atome, SaaS big data analytics and enterprise solution provider ADVANCE.AI, Indonesian digital lending platform Kredit Pintar, and omnichannel e-commerce merchant services platform Ginee.

The company has a team of 1,500 staff spreading across 12 regions in South and Southeast Asia, China, and Latin America. It claims to have served over 800 commercial clients, 100,000 retailers, and 20 million consumers through its enterprise and consumer businesses.

As stated by Saurabh Agarwal, managing director of Warburg Pincus, Asia represents one of the world’s largest and fastest expanding digital marketplaces with a highly connected middle-class population that is increasingly seeking reliable and flexible solutions to meet their unmet credit demands.

According to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, there will be 3.5 billion Asians in the middle class, accounting for two-thirds of the global middle-class population. International Monetary Fund’s 2018 report also underlined that Asia is leading the charge in terms of digitalisation on nearly all fronts.

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Image credit: Advance Intelligence Group

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“Never carry a knife to a gunfight.” – The Untouchables (1987).

We are already in an age where even the guns are getting better every day (and fired by autonomous intelligent drones).  This may not be an excellent analogy, yet true all the same when it comes to business. Technological advances have increased the pace in every field, and business is not insulated from it.

Instead, technology offers scope for that rare parity in agility, effectiveness, and efficiency, which no other means of production can provide to an enterprise. And SMEs can leverage it as effectively as any of their much larger peers.

Regardless of the size of your organisation, or if you are a service company or a discrete process manufacturing SME, you need to bring on the big guns to find your place at the table. And that means going digital.

Digital transformation is in vogue these days and is touted as an answer to questions of future growth or a solution to everything that ails an enterprise.

It is considered a one-stop panacea to every business challenge. And it is imperative in today’s world to go digital, just that it makes the utmost sense when driven with a sense of purpose and with a “method to the madness”.

Enterprises, especially SMEs, need to consider it part of an overall strategy if they want to stop being a fringe player and integrate with the mainstream business.

And SMEs are neither insulated from these dynamic changes in the environment nor is the digital transformation the purview or concern of only large enterprises.

Also Read: Dinner date with data: How F&B retailers can use retail data to drive sales in a post-pandemic world

The future is information-driven, and its heart is data

In a widely complex multi-variable business environment, gut-based decision-making has limitations (though it is still essential). The challenge is not a lack of data and resulting information but rather its overload to the point of analysis paralysis.

Then there is a challenge of “some” data available and data available in silos – leading to decision making in most cases being a little affair driven by a dominant variable (because that data is most visible) rather than by a complete picture.

So how does an SME go about traversing an optimum path to an information-driven enterprise? SMEs do not have the luxury of deep pockets like a large enterprise, and therefore need to narrow their focus and start small, making the best of their smaller teams and limited skill sets.

With overwhelming costs often delaying adoption, SMEs will be comforted to know that they can leverage legacy systems rather than replacing them outright and chart out a course that eventually transforms them over some time. All the while keeping in mind the dynamic nature of the environment our businesses operate in.

Some key questions that need to be answered in the process include:

• What are the business goals that drive me to look at digital transformation?
• Where do I begin my digital transformation journey?
• What areas do I need to prioritise for the best results?
• What technology and skillsets will best serve my end goals?

Part two of this four-part article series will explore the digital transformation cycle, identifying where your company stands and the steps to move towards your end goals.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Mark Zuckerberg made the headlines when he said in June that Facebook would become a “metaverse company“, or strive to build a “maximalist”, interconnected set of experiences straight out of sci-fi.

Gamers also seem to be excited about metaverse, with NFT-driven games like Axie Infinity or CryptoKitties gaining popularity. It indicates the play-to-earn economy is becoming a global phenomenon.

As for metaverse, you can imagine it as a single, persistent and connected virtual environment shared by everyone (in the form of a “digital avatar”). Non-fungible tokens (NFT)-based games are the pioneering version of this metaverse.

“Virtual identity has become an extension of our physical identity as we spend so much time on the Internet for shopping, socialising, etc.,” said TJ Kawamura, partner at Republic Realm. “I think the metaverse is a natural evolution to that.”

Based out of the US, Republic Realm is a digital real estate investor in the metaverse. 

This evolution of the metaverse goes along with the bubble-associated NFTs, or programmable blockchain-based records that uniquely represent digital arts such as videos, music, or goods.

The Google Trends data shows that NFTs are gaining steam, with global interest jumping 426 per cent in August 2021. Experts consider this a stepping stone for the not-too-distant metaverse, where digital assets can secure their scarcity and values through verifiable randomness.

Also read: The art of blockchain: What is the NFT craze all about?

Realising this future, investors are betting big on this with hundreds of millions of dollars. For instance, Republic Realm recently bought virtual land in the Decentraland metaverse for a record US$913,000 in June. 

So far, Republic Realm has acquired more than 1,700 parcels across eight metaverses, including Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space.

Earlier in April, Epic Games, the owner of the famous battle royale video game Fortnite, raised US$1 billion from a slew of investors to pursue its metaverse ambition.

It is not unrealistic to anticipate an alternative universe that simulates a new reality amplified from the existing one. Ready Player One sci-fi novel’s OASIS — a virtual universe where people stay to escape the real problematic world in 2045 — is the nearest example of this concept.

“It is still early days for the metaverse,” Janine Yorio, managing director at Republic Realm, told e27. “However, we believe a convergence of fundamental shifts in technology, society, socialisation, gaming, and retail provide significant tailwinds for mass metaverse adoption and development”.

People are working to achieve this goal step by step. Developers still need more time to break down the technical hurdles to set up the immersive system with augmented reality and virtual reality (VR/AR) applications and troves of hardware production.

But can you afford to miss this dream-come-true opportunity? 

Here are some of the roles that you could take when jumping on the bandwagon.

A player in a digital in-game world

Gaming has always paved the way for adopting various revolutionary technologies, from Pokémon Go with AR to Farmville with social media (Facebook) or simple digital card games that get you accustomed to PC.

Axie Infinity, Animoca Brands, or Fortnite are some prominent players bridging the gap between millions of people and the immersive digital experience of a future metaverse.

Within these in-game environments, people are not only attracted to the gameplay as a recreational activity, but they can also socialise with other people, create their own assets, trade them and earn real-life money.

This, however, comes with a challenge to build an appealing play-to-earn model, especially when a portion of players only go to NFT-based games for financial gains.

Tin Nguyen, the founder of blockchain game Sipher, said that there were case studies of some crypto native games which had acquired millions of users too fast but then went out of tokens after few months.

“The most important part is it has to be a game that is fun to play. It has to be a game that attracts people because of the experience you’re providing and not because of the token or some financial value that you’re giving them for just grinding game,” said Nguyen in a recent event on the future of NFT sales in the metaverse.

Sébastien Bisch, general manager of Novaquark, the developer of sci-fi massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Dual Universe, speaks of another challenge: the limited types of virtual experience in the modern games industry — a step away from a truly unified, persistent game world of a metaverse.

“Very few games have tried to propose a unified, persistent game world for all players. Even when they did, the scalability was extremely limited with a cap to the number of players able to play in the same area,” said Bisch, as cited by gamesindustry.biz.

Fortnite, for instance, has to spread users across different servers and therefore does not bring everyone to the same virtual place of an in-game event as we expect with an ideal parallel universe.

A worker in “a level playing field”

CoinDesk recently reported that a Filipino earned around 10,000 PHP (US$206) per week from playing Axie Infinity around the clock and considered earning SLP (Axie Infinity’s in-game utility token) as his full-time job. He then inspired 100 more people in his local community to play since the pandemic deprived people of their jobs.

Metaverse Filipino Worker (MFW) then becomes a new career option in the country. The metaverse turned into a workplace that people could reach with a smartphone and an internet connection.

“People are making more money than they would in their local economies,” said Kawamura of Republic Realm. “That’s creating a level-playing field when it comes to being able to make money from anywhere.”

But what’s truly disruptive is that as metaverse leverages decentralised blockchain ledger and NFTs to ensure ownership and scarcity of digital assets, the artist community can now take full credit for their works. The community can easily trade them to global audiences and move the digital product from one metaverse to another without losing their commercial copyrights.

“It’s something that our art world has struggled with — their licenses and royalties,” said Yorio. “This idea of being able to trade things with a ledger tracking their legitimacy and making sure that they’re not counterfeit makes a lot of sense.”

Virtual artist Hiroto Kai created NFT art and digital clothing and sold them to the in-game players in the metaverse of Decentraland. In July, Sony Music Entertainment teamed up with the global gaming platform Roblox to help recording artists reach and monetise new audiences from Roblox’s 199+ million monthly active players.

As metaverse economies leverage the interaction between traditional cash economies and a digital in-game economy, people can now rely on that to put food on the table.

Another topic that might transform the work of various professionals worldwide is how the omniverse employs the laws of physics to control factories, buildings, and infrastructures in the real world. 

Omniverse is a simulation and collaboration platform that constitutes the foundation of the metaverse.

Manufacturing giants BMW Group and NVIDIA are on track to set new standards of virtual factory planning with these omniverses. They will employ a range of planning data and applications and allow real-time collaboration between virtual omniverse and physical facilities with unrestricted compatibility.

A consumer in an immersive business scenario

Over the past year, brands such as Gucci, Vans, Stella McCartney, Burberry, Coca-Cola, Netflix and Warner Bros have all set their foot on the metaverse ground to create brand awareness among younger users.

“This generation grows up doing things just like we are now interacting in Zoom. They’re more accustomed to immersive experiences when they use the Internet,” said Yorio. “The companies that fail to adapt will be left behind because the next generation of consumers is going to expect to find new products and their favourite old products in these immersive environments.”

Imagine walking down a street and seeing a Burberry accessory; you buy it, and then it appears with your avatar in a metaverse game. The same applies when you purchase an item in your metaverse game. There are entirely no boundaries between the physical world and a virtual universe.

Just as how the Internet arrived 25 years ago, it is high time for any consumer product/airline/hotel company to think about what metaverse means for their businesses.

Some are worried that when big shots such as Facebook publicly announce plans to build out their version of the metaverse, they will trounce any of the various companies building their ones.

“However, crypto is all about giving the representation back to the people; that is its core ethos,” noted Yoiro. “Decentralisation is what people are drawn to, so there may be pushback against a big player getting involved in the space.”

Yorio added that many metaverses utilise what is referred to as a DAO — a decentralised autonomous organisation. These act as the media for decision-making and can be joined by regularly contributing to the specific DAO’s community.

In the end, you are the one who would choose the role you play in the imminent metaverse, and your participation and engagement would define the development of this parallel world. 

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Image Credit: Republic, Decentraland

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Society Pass, a data-driven loyalty platform in Vietnam, today announced the closing of its Series C funding round.

The details of the money raised and investors remain undisclosed.

The funding will enable Society Pass to acquire new growing e-commerce brands in Southeast Asia, with Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines among its priority markets, with several deals in the pipeline for 2021.

“This new funding will allow us to replicate our success in our target markets and our ongoing aggressive M&A initiatives in the pipeline,” said founder, chairman and CEO Dennis Nguyen.

Founded in 2018 by Nguyen, Society Pass operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the regular circulation of its universal loyalty points. It connects consumers and merchants across multiple product and service categories fostering organic loyalty.

Also Read: Society Pass acquires Vietnam’s luxury e-commerce brand Leflair that was closed last year

Society Pass claims it has amassed over 1.5 million registered users and over 3,500 registered merchants and brands.

Separately, Society Pass announced the relaunch of Leflair that it acquired in June this year after the luxury e-commerce brand filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Before the acquisition, Leflair generated over US$10 million in sales y-o-y and was ranked amongst the top 5 e-commerce platforms in Vietnam.

The addition of Leflair complements Society Pass’s two other existing businesses: SoPa, an online ordering and loyalty platform, and #HOTTAB, a POS service provider specialising in payment infrastructure, loyalty management and joint marketing programs for merchants.

It builds on the fast-growing e-commerce opportunity in Vietnam, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets, valued at US$13.2 billion and expected to grow steadily until 2025.

According to the Digital 2021 Global Overview Report by HootSuite & We Are Social, Southeast Asia is sporting a 69 per cent internet penetration rate with 9.6 per cent YoY growth, and South Asia with a 42 per cent internet penetration rate with 9.1 per cent y-o-y growth.

Both regions stand to see tremendous growth, with Google, Bain, and Temasek estimating Southeast Asia internet economy GMV reaching US$309 billion by 2025, while RedSeer Consulting estimates the South Asia internet economy to touch US$250 billion by 2025.

E-commerce and online travel are expected to take the lion’s share of this growth. Society Pass plans to expand its market presence by harnessing the untapped potential of South and Southeast Asia believing that developing countries are only now experiencing a surge in digital adoption, with large potentials for future growth.

Society Pass capitalises on the rapidly developing earlier stages of the internet economy in the region, spanning verticals such as F&B, beauty, travel and lifestyle.

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While COVID-19 catalysed ASEAN’s digitisation, the upward trajectory of the region’s digital economy was already apparent before the pandemic – on track to cross a whopping US$300 billion by 2025. 

What’s the lifeblood of this digital economy? Data. With more than 40 million people coming online for the first time in 2020 alone, it is no surprise that ASEAN is one of the most data-rich regions in the world. Data as a resource is abundant and will only continue to grow in this region.

Many organisations have leveraged this data to become more resilient amidst the uncertain economic climate. They are stepping up investments in core data competencies across business intelligence, data engineering, data science, and machine learning.

Yet, few organisations have laid the proper groundwork for a truly data-driven business model in getting ahead with these technologies.

According to recent research from MIT Technology Review, just 13 per cent of organisations worldwide ‘excel’ at delivering upon their data strategies. Another study finds that anywhere from 60 per cent to 73 per cent of all data goes unused.

Without adequate data strategies, businesses miss massive opportunities to understand their customers better, offer high-value products, streamline operations, and more.

If it is so critical to succeeding in the long-term, why are so many organisations effectively using it— or worse, struggling even to get started entirely?

It’s not too late for organisations to catch up.

To provide the optimal performance and capabilities that will drive your organisation forward, organisations can look to these three technology pillars to create the foundation for a successful, transformative data strategy. 

Modernise your data architecture

To set your organisation up for data-driven success, reevaluate your data architecture. In the past, different use cases demanded other data structures. For example, business intelligence typically requires data warehouses— a collection of data structured and filtered for particular purposes.

Other use cases, like data science or machine learning, required separate data lakes — or extensive collections of unstructured, raw data. Over time, organisations will adopt more solutions or add onto existing ones, creating a messy and expensive network of applications that don’t always work well together.

Networks like these are difficult to maintain and prevent separate data teams from collaborating with a single source of truth, limiting an organisation’s ability to get the most value from data. 

A fast-growing trend in the industry is to rationalise existing, complex architecture to streamline the ability to gain new insights. With over half of respondents in Asia-Pacific and Japan either searching for or implementing a new data platform to address current data challenges, more so than any region. What type of platform should they adopt?

Rather than incorporate several disconnected solutions for different use cases, look for an open and modern data architecture that can grow with your organisation. Architectures that allow all data teams, from marketing to data engineers, to work with it and collaborate on a central platform — no matter the use case — will accelerate innovation faster for the entire organisation. 

Build your tech stack in the cloud(s)

While it was initially considered a nice-to-have, cloud is now the foundation for modernising and successfully scaling data management. The shift towards the cloud has steadily gained momentum since its introduction in the early 2000s, exploding in recent years as the de facto approach to building modern platforms.

It provides more excellent storage, computing ability and interoperability, making it an obvious choice for most enterprises. 

2020 may have best highlighted the many benefits of the cloud. When companies closed offices because of the pandemic, cloud-based technologies like Zoom and Slack helped teams seamlessly work together when they couldn’t access on-prem solutions.

The shift is likely to stick; most significant enterprises in Singapore have begun to use some form of cloud storage, and investment in the public cloud is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years, from US$1.5 billion in 2018 to about US$3.6 billion in 2023.

Even further, many data and technology leaders go as far as to say that it’s not enough to think about cloud in the singular sense but rather about building for a multi-cloud environment. As the adoption of cloud-based technology grows, many data teams are now looking for solutions that can move across major clouds like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud if needed.

Typically they understand a multi-cloud capability can provide their organisations with several benefits: the flexibility to run workloads anywhere, easy integrations when bringing on new solutions or businesses that use other cloud providers, and the assurance that they can comply with regulations down the road.

Embrace open source and open standards

As data architectures evolve, the value of open-source and open standards will only increase. Open source is already top-rated; RedHat found that over two-thirds of IT leaders in the Asia Pacific use open source for infrastructure modernisation.

The region is also ahead of others in tapping open-source for AI and machine learning workloads, with 51 per cent using open-source software in those projects today compared to 48 per cent in the US and 45 per cent in EMEA. 

Open source has several advantages. It prevents teams from building tricky solutions in-house from scratch, which eats up resources; it usually comes at little to no cost, and it’s tried and true— solutions have been thoroughly adopted and vetted by many, meaning fewer headaches for your IT team down the road.

It also offers complete transparency and visibility into source code and discussions surrounding it. Your team will know how bugs are addressed, while proprietary software may not disclose bugs or common problems experienced by others. Even more, open-source brings with it an entire community of those encountering the same challenges and working toward the exact solutions as you.

These technologies further complement cloud-based platforms, helping enterprises quickly roll out the latest innovations even with a strapped budget. Embracing open data formats also helps fend off vendor lock-in, delivering the flexibility that will allow organisations to more easily share data securely across systems and tools, from wherever their it lives.

As data becomes increasingly integral to your organisation’s success and growth, the technology you put into place can either enable that growth or hinder it.

Together, these three pillars of technology— modern data architectures, multi-cloud, and open source— will establish an IT ecosystem that not only supports your data strategy and solves for business needs, but future-proofs your organization to take on whatever challenges may come.

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One of the biggest challenges in the workplace is employee burnout. Most of us are not strangers to stress and fatigue caused by work, but these have been made even more apparent with Covid-19. A recent report by job portal Indeed showed that 52 per cent of all workers are feeling burned out, 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

It comes as little surprise, then, that mental health in the workplace is one of the key issues that all organisations have to tackle. While work can be good for mental health, a poor working environment can lead to problems in the long run. 

For example, harassment and bullying are both commonly reported problems, and lack of rest due to overwork is also harmful.

Fortunately, in recent times, there has been more emphasis placed on the importance of mental health in the workplace. This is partly due to the rise of work-from-home arrangements and the blurring of lines between individuals’ personal and professional lives. We see this in how China’s controversial ‘996’ culture — working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week — has come under fire for ruining work-life balance.

Also read: Finding product-market fit with the power of product analytics

For fast-growing startups that are pursuing growth, this is even more crucial.

While there is nothing wrong with striving for speedy and exponential expansion, steps must be taken to prevent employees from burning out. Both employees and leaders must take active roles in ensuring the overall mental wellbeing of the organisation.

This is why corporate wellness platform Mindfi held a webinar addressing this specific issue on 13 August 2021, 1-2 pm SGT. Titled “Startup Success: Building your team’s mental wellbeing”, the webinar had three prolific panellists who shared their thoughts on mental wellbeing on both personal and professional levels. 

The panellists were:

• Anita Sadasivan, chief wellbeing officer at MindFi
• Jeffrey Tiong, chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of innovation intelligence platform, Patsnap
• Michelle Alphonso, CEO and co-founder of cloud computing consulting company, PointStar Consulting

The webinar was moderated by Mohan Belani, CEO of e27.

Exacerbated by COVID-19, mental wellbeing takes a front seat

Before diving into the organisational level, the webinar kicked off with each panellist sharing their personal challenges with mental wellbeing and what approach they took to address these challenges.

As a mother of two very young children, Michelle had to take care of her family while managing many organisational changes within PointStar. 

“The last year, we had a lot of changes to make because of the Covid-19 situation,” she said. “So I think it was all piling up.”

However, she found that creating clear boundaries between work and home helped her deal with the stress. Every month, she also finds time to step back and take stock of what is happening in her life.

Both Jeffrey and Anita shared their stress management tips as well. As the founder of a startup that recently achieved unicorn status, Jeffrey is no stranger to stress and finds time to exercise and get enough sleep in order to alleviate it. For Anita, she engages in a daily gratitude practice at the end of each day and tries to do a different activity every weekend, like going to the museum.

The discussion then moved toward mental wellbeing on the organisation level. 

Michelle shared that while issues surrounding mental health in her company had always been around, they were never brought to the surface nor obvious to management until Covid-19 struck. With lockdowns and work-from-home as the norm, on top of company expansion, she noticed that stress was escalating among employees.

Her trigger point, she said, was when she found out that three of her staff had sought professional help for depression and anxiety without her knowing. This incident led her to take mental health much more seriously.

Jeffrey echoed Michelle’s points, citing Covid-19 as a key reason for employees’ mental health deteriorating. For example, some of his staff had to deal with loved ones passing away. 

Once he realised that mental health had to be addressed, Jeffrey started putting measures in place. They started by engaging speakers to share about mental wellbeing and launching an open hotline so that those who need help have a channel to turn to.

Also read: Connect with these X-PITCH 2021 startups through e27 Pro

Similarly, Michelle put programmes in place for her staff at PointStar. For example, the company started using Mindfi to keep track of employees’ mental health in an anonymous way, which made them feel safe and more comfortable sharing about their wellbeing. Employees also went for anagram training to understand each other’s personality types, reducing friction between their working styles.

Anita affirmed that Jeffrey and Michelle’s experiences were not uncommon. The key, she said, is to ensure that there are preventive measures in place.

“Even if you are depressed or anxious, you can do early interventions,” she explains. “You address it early on, and it doesn’t escalate.”

Another key challenge that the panellists agreed on was fostering a culture of being open about mental wellbeing. People in the United States and Europe are generally more receptive to speaking about mental health compared to those in Asia. 

Ultimately, both employers and employees have a part to play. For example, individuals can find what stress management activities work best for them, while companies can push for more awareness and education by organising talks and webinars that tackle the issue.

“At the end of the day, everybody needs to take responsibility for their own wellbeing, but organisations can help by giving them tools and resources,” says Anita.

Overall wellness as a key driver for performance

MindFi is a corporate mental health and wellness startup that aims to help enterprises build productive workspaces. 

Specifically, it provides services like a dedicated app, analytics and recommendations for human resource teams, and learning and development masterclasses on topics like mindfulness, resilience, and teamwork.

MindFi strongly believes in making positive changes in people’s careers and everyday lives by helping them prioritise mental wellbeing through a variety of innovative methods. Ultimately, their mission is to empower people to achieve peak mental performance.

Among other initiatives, the team aims to generate impact by providing self-care recommendations, 24/7 guided support, and educational masterclasses held by their behavioural coaches.

For example, the MindFi app helps employees build sustainable habits, access video classes and audio courses on mindfulness, and track their progress. Employers can also implement a ‘mind challenge’ for employees to clock ‘wellness minutes’ by completing exercises on the MindFi app.

Also read: Gearing up for the new normal: What do VCs want and how can startups ace their funding applications

MindFi’s latest initiative, the webinar ‘Startup Success: Building your team’s mental wellbeing’, complements the company’s overall mission of building a strong culture of mental health support in corporations. 

The company recently secured US$750,000 in a pre-seed fundraise that includes investors such as iGlobe Partners and M Venture Partners and was selected for Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 programme. They have also onboarded Erica Johnson, co-founder of unicorn startup Modern Health, as an executive adviser to accelerate the company’s growth in Asia-Pacific.

From February to August this year, MindFi has tripled its headcount and customer base. The company boasts more than 30 enterprise clients throughout Asia and 68 per cent of employees have reported improved mental wellbeing within one month of using MindFi’s app.

For more information regarding the event and other similar projects being spearheaded by MindFi, visit https://www.mindfi.co/  and watch the full webinar here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by MindFi

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