When Cheryl Goh joined Grab in its early days, the company was still a young startup navigating the messy realities of Southeast Asia’s fragmented markets. Over the years, she helped shape it into one of the region’s most recognisable consumer brands, and now that journey has earned her global recognition.

Grab’s founding Chief Marketing Officer and Group Vice-President (Marketing, Loyalty, Sustainability and Support) has been named the 2025 WFA Global Marketer of the Year, an award judged by an expert jury of client-side peers and partners including Kantar and The Drum. The honour recognises marketers who can prove that brand building translates into measurable business outcomes.

Goh was one of six finalists and notably became the first winner from an Asia-based brand in the award’s nine-year history.

Also Read: Marketing’s next big challenge? Making AI feel human

But the significance extends beyond personal achievement. It signals that Southeast Asia’s brand-building playbook — often shaped by constrained budgets, intense competition, and diverse consumer behaviours — is now being taken seriously on the global stage.

The marketing role that went far beyond marketing

Goh’s remit at Grab has never been limited to campaigns and messaging. Over time, she has overseen the company’s broader marketing engine across markets, spanning product marketing, communications, growth, loyalty, customer support operations, and sustainability.

That mix matters because it reveals how Grab has treated marketing not as a standalone creative department, but as a commercial function tied directly to the business.

One of the clearest examples is her responsibility for the P&L of Grab’s loyalty programmes. This role forces brand decisions to be measured against revenue, retention, and long-term customer value. In many companies, loyalty sits somewhere between product and marketing. At Grab, it became a key lever of growth economics — and Goh was placed in the middle of it.

The award jury highlighted her “grit, agility and pragmatism” in demonstrating that marketing can be a driver of growth in an “ethical and sustainable way”.

Why this matters for Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem

In Southeast Asia, startup success stories are often told through product, funding rounds, and expansion maps. Marketing is sometimes treated as secondary — something you scale after the business model is proven. Goh’s recognition challenges that assumption.

Her win reinforces that marketing leadership can be a competitive advantage, particularly in consumer markets where trust, habit, and brand familiarity often decide winners. For founders across the region, it also strengthens the case for investing earlier in strategic marketing talent –not just growth hacking or performance spend.

It is also likely to influence how investors interpret consumer startup potential. In a market where distribution advantages are increasingly expensive to buy, brand equity becomes a defensible asset. Goh’s award is a reminder that strong marketing is not about spending more — it is about building systems that turn attention into repeat behaviour.

Grab’s brand as a blueprint for scaling across diversity

Grab’s rise was not simply a story of product-market fit. It was also a story of building trust across multiple markets that do not behave like a single region.

Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines each come with their own languages, pricing sensitivities, consumer expectations, and regulatory environments. Scaling across them requires more than localisation; it requires a brand identity that feels consistent while still being culturally adaptable.

Also Read: 3 stages of marketing for your startup that can drive effective results

Over time, Grab became shorthand for convenience in many of these markets, building a mass consumer relationship that extended beyond ride-hailing into delivery, payments and financial services. That kind of category-building is difficult to replicate because it relies on habit formation and trust — the two most expensive things to acquire in consumer tech.

Kantar’s Mark Visser has noted that Grab’s marketing in Indonesia has improved both salience and meaningfulness, suggesting that the brand is not just widely recognised but also emotionally and functionally relevant. That combination is what gives platforms staying power.

The ‘commercial marketing’ playbook behind the recognition

Goh’s approach reflects a disciplined marketing model that many high-growth startups struggle to execute.

Rather than treating marketing as awareness-building alone, she appears to have operated with a tight link between brand activity and measurable business performance. Grab’s growth has depended heavily on repeat usage and ecosystem behaviour — the exact areas where loyalty mechanics, customer experience, and product marketing intersect.

Several patterns stand out: fast experimentation, rapid iteration across markets, and a willingness to align marketing decisions with operational realities rather than creative ambition alone.

In other words, it is marketing as infrastructure — not marketing as theatre.

Goh herself captured this mindset in her remarks, describing marketing as “often far more logical than it looks”, shaped by learning, iteration, and continuous adjustment.

A milestone beyond one award

Cheryl Goh’s WFA win lands as more than an industry headline. It reflects a deeper maturity in Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem — one where global-standard leadership is emerging not only in engineering and finance, but also in brand strategy and commercial execution.

For founders, the lesson is straightforward: a product may get you started, but a brand is what keeps you in the game. And in a region as diverse as Southeast Asia, building trust at scale is not a soft skill; it is a serious competitive weapon.

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The image was generated using AI.

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The market landscape paints a stark picture of unravelling risk appetite, where optimism has given way to caution across nearly every asset class.

Equity markets led the retreat, with the Nasdaq falling 1.59 per cent, the S&P 500 down 1.23 per cent, and the Dow shedding 1.2 per cent. This was not merely a correction. It was a targeted unwinding of the very trades that had powered the post-2024 surge. Two members of the Magnificent 7 announced capital expenditure plans for AI infrastructure that far exceeded analyst projections, sparking fears that the much-touted AI profitability narrative may be overshadowed by unsustainable spending. Investors are beginning to question whether today’s AI investments will yield tomorrow’s returns or simply inflate balance sheets without corresponding earnings growth. The VIX’s 16.8 per cent jump to 21.77 confirms rising anxiety, signalling that volatility is no longer dormant but actively pricing in uncertainty.

This shift in sentiment spilt over into fixed income, where US Treasury yields fell sharply. Two-year yields dropped 10.3 basis points to 3.450 per cent, and the 10-year yield closed at 4.180 per cent, down 9.3 basis points, as traders sought safety amid equity turmoil. The move reflects growing conviction that the Federal Reserve will indeed pivot toward easing, especially as labour market data have become increasingly weak. Weekly jobless claims came in at 231,000, well above the expected 212,000, while December JOLTS data revealed job openings had slumped to 6.45 million, the lowest since 2020. These figures challenge the narrative of a resilient economy and bolster the case for rate cuts in the second and third quarters of 2026, as previously anticipated. The timing remains delicate, with Jerome Powell set to step down as Fed Chair in May, which will push markets into a period of heightened policy ambiguity.

Currency markets mirrored this flight to safety. The US dollar strengthened broadly, pushing the DXY up to 97.824, even as central banks elsewhere signalled a dovish stance. The Bank of England’s hold, interpreted as dovish, sent GBP/USD plunging 0.93 per cent to 1.3525, while the ECB’s decision left EUR/USD modestly lower at 1.1777. Despite the dollar’s short-term strength, the underlying trend still points toward depreciation later in the year, driven by expected Fed easing. Similarly, USD/JPY edged higher to 157.04, but sustained yen weakness appears increasingly untenable if U.S. rates begin their descent.

Also Read: Cheryl Goh’s global win signals Southeast Asia’s marketing maturity

Commodities suffered one of the sharpest reversals. Gold plummeted 3.7 per cent to 4,779 dollars per ounce, and silver collapsed nearly 20 per cent to 71 dollars, an extraordinary move that suggests forced liquidations rather than a fundamental reassessment. Brent crude also retreated 2.7 per cent to 67 dollars per barrel after Iran confirmed nuclear negotiations with the US would resume on Friday, temporarily defusing fears of Middle East conflict. This calm may prove fleeting. Any breakdown in talks could reignite supply concerns and push oil back toward last June’s 80-dollar peak. Gold’s long-term thesis remains intact, but its near-term path is hostage to macro liquidity conditions and risk sentiment.

Nowhere was the fragility of speculative positioning more evident than in crypto. The total market cap plunged 8.71 per cent to 2.22 trillion dollars, driven by a brutal deleveraging event in Bitcoin. A break below 70,000 dollars triggered over 1.01 billion dollars in BTC liquidations within 24 hours, a 213 per cent surge, creating a self-reinforcing spiral of margin calls and panic selling. Ethereum fared even worse, dropping more than 15 per cent as large holders reportedly moved tokens to exchanges, likely to meet collateral requirements or exit underwater positions. Critically, crypto’s 92 per cent correlation with the S&P 500 confirms it is no longer operating as a separate asset class but as a high-beta extension of tech-driven risk sentiment.

From my point of view, this moment reveals a structural truth about the current market regime. Despite narratives of decentralisation and digital scarcity, crypto remains deeply embedded in the macro financial ecosystem. When liquidity tightens or risk aversion spikes, leverage gets flushed out indiscriminately, and crypto, with its thin order books and high open interest, becomes a lightning rod for volatility. The extreme fear reflected in the Fear & Greed Index, now at 5, suggests capitulation may be nearing completion, but recovery hinges on two variables: price action and geopolitics.

If Bitcoin holds the 60,000 to 62,500 dollar support zone, a technical bounce toward 70,000 dollars is plausible, especially if spot ETF inflows resume or US-Iran talks yield de-escalation. A decisive break below 60,000 dollars could trigger another leg down, potentially dragging the total market cap toward 2.4 trillion dollars. The key signal to watch is a daily close above 67,000 dollars, which would invalidate near-term bearish momentum and invite short-covering.

Also Read: Cybersecurity and data governance in the boardroom: A strategic imperative for Asian boards

In conclusion, yesterday’s selloff was not just a correction. It was a stress test. It exposed over-leverage, over-optimism, and over-concentration in a handful of AI-linked equities and digital assets. The path forward depends less on narratives and more on hard labour trends, Fed communication, and geopolitical stability. Until those stabilise, markets will remain in a defensive crouch, waiting for either a catalyst for relief or confirmation of deeper economic cracks.

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The lead image of this article was generated by AI.

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APAC’s cybersecurity sector slowed noticeably in 2025 as investors shifted from broad dealmaking to fewer, higher-conviction bets, according to Tracxn.

While the region has raised US$8.35 billion to date over the years, annual inflows have declined sharply since peaking in 2021. In 2025, APAC startups attracted just US$185.2 million, down 27.7 per cent year-on-year, with deal volume falling to 43 rounds, reflecting stricter investor scrutiny and higher expectations for proven go-to-market traction.

This pullback contrasts with global momentum, where cybersecurity funding rose 41 per cent to US$14.6 billion despite fewer rounds overall. Within APAC, early-stage activity remained resilient, with US$138.8 million deployed, up 15 per cent year-on-year.

However, seed funding declined 34 per cent to US$25.1 million, and late-stage funding collapsed 78 per cent to US$21 million, highlighting a growing shortage of scaling capital.

Funding remained concentrated in a few markets, led by India (US$116 million), followed by Australia (US$32.1 million) and Singapore (US$24 million). Application security and data security emerged as key growth segments, while Kasada, FireCompass, and CloudSEK led the year’s biggest rounds.

Looking ahead, Tracxn expects 2026 to favour mature, enterprise-ready cybersecurity firms focused on integration, resilience and measurable ROI.

REGIONAL

DayOne’s US$2B round supercharges SEA’s January funding: Southeast Asia’s startups raised US$2.04B in January, marking a sharp rebound from the end of last year. According to Tracxn, the figure represents a 315.29% jump from December 2025 and a 152.11% increase YoY.

Singapore’s next payments chapter will be written by AI and tokenised money: Several trends shaping the next phase of payments innovation are embedded finance and super apps and AI-powered payments and tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins.

Indonesia urges ASEAN action on AI deepfakes, disinformation: Authorities highlighted the importance of cross-border mechanisms to combat malicious AI use, citing fragmented regulations as a challenge. AI’s potential benefits should be balanced with safeguards to protect public interest and social equity.

Indonesian plant-based meat startup Green Rebel raises US$12.5M: Its current investors include Unovis NCAP Fund II, Teja Ventures, and Agfunder. The company aims to develop plant-based alternatives tailored to Asian tastes and is part of the growing foodtech sector in Southeast Asia.

FEATURES & INTERVIEWS

NASA built SpaceX. Can Singapore build SEA’s space champions?: The opening of the Space agency is a starting signal. For founders, VCs, and technologists, it should be treated as an opportunity to build onshore capabilities and an invitation to move faster, design for regulatory interoperability, and think regionally.

Cheryl Goh’s global win signals Southeast Asia’s marketing maturity: Rather than treating marketing as awareness-building alone, she appears to have operated with a tight link between brand activity and measurable business performance. Grab’s growth has depended heavily on repeat usage and ecosystem behaviour.

Stablecoins are becoming ‘dollars as a service’ for emerging markets: Stablecoins preserve purchasing power and lower the friction of moving value across borders. Regions — where local currencies are volatile, or banking infrastructure is costly and slow — have shown robust adoption of dollar-pegged digital assets.

In a world of copyable AI, founders with scars win: The 2025 Endeavor Catalyst Annual Report highlights a marked shift: investors are increasingly backing entrepreneurs who have already paid the price of scaling companies: the “scars and instincts” that come from building in markets such as São Paulo, Lagos, and Istanbul.

INTERNATIONAL

Coupang data breach hits 165,000 more accounts: The initial breach involved roughly 33.7M accounts. Information exposed included names, phone numbers, and addresses, but no transaction or login data was compromised. Hackers accessed data from about 3,000 accounts, which was later deleted without sharing it with third parties.

Anthropic, Palantir AI spark drop in Indian IT stocks: Anthropic’s automation initiatives have raised concerns about potential impacts on IT sector revenues. Shares of Indian software exporters fell 0.7% on February 5, after a 6% drop the previous day. The decline came amid fears that AI-driven automation from Anthropic and Palantir could shorten project timelines.

US House panel summons Coupang over trade practices: The House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to Coupang as part of an investigation into alleged discrimination against US firms. The committee is requesting communications between Coupang and the South Korean government and has called on the company to testify.

SpaceX acquires xAI via triangular merger: The move allows SpaceX to avoid repaying billions in debt and provided tax benefits to xAI shareholders. The transaction keeps xAI as a wholly owned subsidiary, separating its liabilities and legal risks from SpaceX, which aims to protect itself from investigations and litigation.

CYBERSECURITY

Global cybersecurity heats up, and APAC cools off: Tracxn’s dataset shows funding peaked in 2021 (about US$1.7B that year) and has tapered since. In 2025, the region attracted US$185.2M, representing a 27.7% YoY decline from 2024. The number of rounds also contracted to 43, down 27.1% YOY.

AI at machine speed: What 2026 holds for cybercrime and enterprise security: AI agents are supercharging cybercrime in 2026, automating reconnaissance and attacks, forcing organisations to shift from perimeter defence towards resilient, data-centric security models built on identity and lifecycle control.

Why protecting data today means proving you can restore trust: Privacy has shifted from policies to proof: organisations must demonstrate control, clean recovery and resilience under disruption to protect data, meet regulation, and sustain trust in an AI-driven, cloud-first world.

Cybersecurity and data governance in the boardroom: A strategic imperative for Asian boards: Cybersecurity and data governance are now board-level priorities in Asia, demanding strategic oversight, real-time monitoring, scenario planning and cultural accountability to protect enterprise value, trust, compliance, and long-term resilience.

Beyond the hype: What generative AI is actually changing in startups: Generative AI is reshaping startups by accelerating build cycles, enabling workflow-based products, and shifting defensibility towards trust, integration, reliability and data loops, while raising the bar for real-world performance, economics, and governance.

SEMICONDUCTOR

US chipmaker Microchip forecasts weak profit on memory shortages: Microchip forecasts weaker Q4 earnings due to global memory shortages, sending shares down over 5 per cent. Despite beating Q3 estimates, reduced smartphone and PC orders are weighing on demand.

Taiwan’s ASE forecasts its advanced chip packaging to hit US$3.2B: The company made the projection during a conference call after reporting a Q4 revenue of US$5.6B, a 9.6% increase from the previous year. Its net income for the quarter rose by 58%.

Qualcomm posts US$12.3B revenue in Q1 2026: The firm’s Q1 fiscal 2026 results, with record revenues of US$12.25B, up 5% from the previous year. The company’s GAAP net income was US$3B, and non-GAAP EPS reached 3.5. Revenue growth was driven mainly by its QCT segment, which includes handset, automotive, and IoT products.

AMD shares plunge 17% after cautious Q1 outlook: AMD’s This marks its worst day since 2017, after the company issued a cautious outlook despite beating Q4 earnings estimates. CEO Lisa Su said demand for AI and data centre products has increased in recent months, with the company’s data centre business accelerating from Q4 into Q1.

AI

Endeavor report shows AI is eating venture capital alive: Global venture capital is rebounding but increasingly polarised, with AI megadeals dominating funding, squeezing non-AI startups while disciplined, domain-driven companies in emerging markets find selective opportunities amid shifting investor priorities.

The AI-energy paradox: Will AI spark a green energy revolution or deepen the global energy crisis?: AI’s energy use is rising fast, but AI can also cut emissions by optimising data centres, grids and industry. Long-term sustainability depends on efficiency gains and massive renewable expansion.

AI can’t replace doctors, but it can catch disease before they do: MASH remains massively undiagnosed despite huge costs, but new therapies shift the bottleneck to scalable detection. AI-powered liquid biopsies and cross-disciplinary innovation could enable early screening, personalised care, and better outcomes.

Nvidia CEO predicts India will build its own AI infrastructure: Jensen Huang said that India will develop its own AI infrastructure, including data centres and chips, emphasising AI as essential to modern nations. Huang compared AI to utilities like water and electricity, suggesting every country needs its own systems.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Markets on edge: AI rally fizzles as crypto plunges below US$2.42T: Markets turned risk-off as AI optimism faded, mixed US data fuelled Fed-cut speculation, tech sold off, volatility rose, commodities rallied, and crypto plunged amid leveraged liquidations and fragile macro sentiment.

When streaming prices ignore how people actually watch: Indonesia’s OTT boom highlights a mismatch between rigid subscription pricing and intent-driven viewing habits, fuelling subscription fatigue, churn, and piracy despite strong content availability and platform competition.

Ex-PayPal risk leader’s AI exposes credit underwriting’s hidden flaw: Kevin Lee’s TrustPlus AI tackles finance’s “judgment deficit,” automating credit underwriting preparation to reclaim analyst focus, cutting workflows from 16 hours to two.

Why visibility in the AI era is a design problem, not a discipline one: In the AI era, consistency is no longer about discipline but system design, where micro habits and AI-assisted workflows create sustainable visibility, leverage, and communication without burnout.

Why your 50s are the perfect time to start a business: At 50, after major health challenges and shifting tech waves, the writer argues it may be the best time to start a business, citing experience, networks, financial stability, purpose, and higher success odds.

How social media and public relations work together to drive brand success: Social media has reshaped public relations by boosting visibility, enabling real-time crisis response, expanding content distribution, and providing measurable insights, while influencer partnerships and ethical storytelling help brands build trust and engagement.

Fractional hiring, distilled: Fractional work challenges traditional career ladders, offering flexibility and efficiency, but founders must ensure fractional leaders enhance their vision, not dilute it through mismatched corporate instincts.

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By focusing on early-stage innovation and measurable impact, Temasek Trust’s Catalytic Capital for Climate & Health (C3H) is positioning itself as one of Asia’s most important champions of climate and health tech startups. Still in its infancy, the platform has already backed three pioneering ventures — Notpla, Dozee, and Equatic — and is actively scouting new technologies across climate, health, and the rapidly expanding climate–health nexus.

At the centre of this effort is Ryan Tan, founding Head of C3H and Co-Head of Strategy and Development at Temasek Trust. Tan’s mandate is simple yet ambitious: deploy catalytic capital that bridges the “valley of death” for early-stage innovators, helping them scale commercially while delivering measurable climate and health impacts.

Founders in these two areas frequently encounter a familiar hurdle: promising science, but a long road to demonstrating commercial and environmental viability. C3H targets precisely this gap.

“We take a dual-lens approach to evaluation – looking at both commercial viability and measurable impact,” Tan explains in an email interview with e27.

Unlike conventional investors, C3H is comfortable entering at an earlier stage and taking a long view on development. This is crucial in climate technology, where extended pilots are often required to validate both the underlying innovation and its eventual real-world impact.

By providing patient, early capital, C3H gives startups the runway to develop sustainable and scalable models — the key to crossing the notorious “valley of death.”

Also Read: The finish line fallacy: What Olympic psychology reveals about startup exits

One of the central roles of catalytic capital is to prepare early-stage ventures for commercial capital. Tan describes a two-pronged approach.

First, C3H conducts rigorous evaluations of both business and impact models, effectively absorbing early-stage risk. This de-risking signals confidence to later-stage investors, who are assessing whether a new technology can reach scale.

Second, C3H actively supports portfolio companies through its networks. “We frequently connect the startups we support to various organisations across the larger ecosystem for pilots and broker introductions for potential follow-on funding,” Tan says. Startups such as Notpla, Dozee and Equatic have already benefited from this hands-on facilitation.

For startups in climate and health navigating opaque markets and complex implementation pathways, this combination of validation and connectivity can be transformative.

Asia needs a different catalytic capital model

Tan emphasises that Asia cannot simply replicate Western models of climate innovation.

“Asia is highly diverse, with differing regulations, cultures and commercial environments. This creates information gaps and uneven implementation pathways. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to scaling here,” he notes.

Impact measurement, as a core pillar of C3H’s thesis, must also be contextualised to the region’s regulatory and environmental variations. As such, catalytic capital in Asia must go beyond financial support. Strong partnerships are essential, particularly when it comes to assisting with pilots, market entry strategies, and long-term scaling.

Also Read: How East Ventures adopts materiality-driven ESG strategy for its portfolio companies

As the climate crisis intensifies, technologies that address the intersection of climate and health are becoming increasingly urgent. Tan sees robust momentum in climate adaptation, a complement to long-term mitigation strategies.

C3H is especially excited about three areas:

1. Heat-stress monitoring for workers in high-risk industries, enabling earlier interventions that protect health and productivity.
2. Next-generation cooling technologies that reduce energy use while remaining climate-safe.
3. Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) innovations, including novel electrochemical solutions that enable greater renewable integration and cross-border energy collaboration.

Each of these areas promises not only commercial potential but also substantial, quantifiable impact for communities most vulnerable to climate risks.

Looking ahead, Tan outlines three strategic thrusts for C3H in 2026.

First, the organisation aims to lead or participate in high-potential investments, as it did with Equatic. Second, it plans to selectively invest as a limited partner in early-stage funds where general partners show strong differentiation and alignment with C3H’s impact mission. This expands networks and deepens sector insights.

Finally, C3H intends to strengthen ecosystem partnerships — among startups, funds, academia, and corporates — to build a robust pipeline and support its portfolio companies in scaling both commercial and impact outcomes.

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Image Credit: Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash

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As the global travel industry moves into 2026, demand remains resilient. Bookings continue to recover, intra-regional travel is accelerating, and Asia-Pacific is gaining prominence as both a source and destination market. Yet beneath this surface-level optimism, the operating realities discussed at MarketHub Asia, HBX Group’s flagship industry forum that convenes leaders across travel, hospitality, payments, and technology, point to a deeper recalibration underway.

The next phase of travel will not be defined solely by expansion. It will be shaped by how effectively the industry balances technology, artificial intelligence, and trust at scale, in a system where data volumes are exploding, regulatory environments are increasingly fragmented, and security risks evolve faster than governance structures.

Power and control in travel distribution

One of the clearest realities of global travel today is the concentration of power within its infrastructure layer. While innovation across platforms, experiences, and booking channels remains vibrant, control over payments and settlement remains in the hands of a few dominant networks.

Global payment providers such as Visa and Mastercard shape much of the industry’s commercial and operational framework. High commissions, opaque routing logic, and limited competitive alternatives are largely treated as fixed constraints rather than areas open to challenge. As a result, value creation in travel increasingly happens downstream of infrastructure control, not at the point of customer experience or product innovation.

Also Read: HeyMax’s US$11M raise signals a new era of programmable travel loyalty in Asia

This concentration has consequences that extend far beyond pricing. It determines how quickly new models can scale, how risk is distributed across ecosystems, and how trust is enforced across borders. Individual companies, regardless of size, have little leverage acting alone. Real change requires collective pressure, coordination across stakeholders, and a willingness to rethink the underlying rails that power global travel.

“We cannot compete with these giants on size alone,” David Amsellem, Chief Distribution Officer at HBX Group, said. “The only viable response is strategic alignment. By forming alliances and coordinating as an ecosystem, we can rebalance the market and preserve healthy competition. When competition is healthy, travellers benefit, innovation thrives, and regional players retain agency.”

He pointed to history as a cautionary guide. “We have seen what happens when markets consolidate too far. In social media, for example, dominance by a single player came at a cost. Privacy eroded, choice narrowed, and users paid the price. Contrast that with cloud computing. At one point, Amazon Web Services held close to 50 per cent market share. Had competition not emerged, the market would look very different today. Instead, the rise of Azure and Google Cloud rebalanced the ecosystem. Market share diversified, competition improved, and customers gained greater autonomy and choice.”

For Amsellem, the lesson is not that dominance should be countered with brute force. It is that it should be countered with coordination. Strategic alliances, not fragmentation, are what shift power. This is where HBX sees its role: to act as the ecosystem of reference, a platform where players, particularly across APAC, can align, collaborate, and maintain a competitive balance alongside these global giants.

Trust remains travel’s defining currency

Against this backdrop, one idea stood out, as Mark Antipof, Chief Growth Officer at HBX Group, put it: “travel has always been about trust.” The weight of that observation lies in what it implies: many of the industry’s most pressing challenges are not failures of innovation, but failures of trust reinforced by scale.

Antipof points out that trust in travel operates across multiple, interdependent layers: payments clearing correctly, identities being verified securely, refunds being processed fairly, data being handled responsibly, and recommendations reflecting reality rather than promotion. As travel becomes increasingly digital and interconnected, these trust dependencies multiply, raising the cost of failure across the entire ecosystem.

Also Read: Travel is back, and it’s more cutthroat than ever

The past year underscored how fragile these systems can be. Cybersecurity activity in 2025 reached record levels across industries, with phishing and malware incidents rising sharply and credential-stealing attacks tripling year-on-year. The rise of Phishing-as-a-Service and Ransomware-as-a-Service lowered the barrier to cybercrime, while deepfake-based scams surged by more than 1,500 per cent between 2023 and 2025, directly targeting identity and executive trust.

Hospitality, a critical layer of the travel ecosystem, was among the most affected sectors. In 2025, 82 per cent of North American hotels experienced a cyberattack during peak periods, most commonly targeting payment systems, guest Wi-Fi networks, and booking platforms. Each breach introduces friction, exposes sensitive data, and steadily erodes the trust that underpins the travel experience.

Evidence over brand in the algorithmic economy

As trust becomes harder to maintain, the way travellers evaluate credibility is shifting. Traditional markers such as brand reputation, polished imagery, and static reviews are losing influence in algorithm-driven environments.

Jiha Jung, Tripbtoz CEO and Founder, observed that travellers increasingly seek real-time, human-generated proof when making decisions. Influencer content, live experiences, and unfiltered perspectives now carry more weight than curated marketing assets.
Algorithms increasingly privilege evidence over reputation. Engagement signals, recency, and contextual relevance matter more than brand heritage. This aligns with findings from HBX Group’s Travel Trends 2026 report, which highlights a growing preference for experience-led, emotionally resonant travel shaped by social influence and community validation.

In this environment, influencers function less as promoters and more as intermediaries of trust. Their value lies not in reach, but in perceived authenticity, a commodity that is increasingly scarce.

AI in practice, not theory

Artificial intelligence now sits firmly in the realm of execution rather than ambition. The most credible discussions across the industry no longer frame AI as a distant, transformative promise, but as an operational requirement embedded into everyday decision-making.

Across travel, AI is being applied to concrete problems: improving pricing precision, detecting fraud, forecasting demand, and managing customer interactions at scale. These applications are practical, measurable, and largely invisible to travellers. They closely mirror developments in cybersecurity, where AI has already become essential for identifying anomalies and responding to threats at machine speed.

Agentic AI takes this a step further. Rather than supporting predefined workflows, agentic systems can perceive context, make decisions, and take action autonomously within set constraints. In travel, this means systems that can dynamically adjust pricing, reroute inventory, personalise offers, resolve service disruptions, or manage refunds in real time, without waiting for human intervention. The experience is no longer optimised before or after the journey, but continuously shaped during it.

Also Read: Online travel becomes 2025’s breakout winner as accommodation prices lift SEA’s GMV

However, the same capabilities that enable real-time optimisation also expand exposure. AI-driven personalisation, automation, and data processing increase the number of attack vectors available to adversaries. Deepfake fraud, automated credential harvesting, and adaptive malware demonstrate how speed, when left unchecked, can amplify risk rather than reduce it.

This tension becomes most visible as decision-making shifts into live environments. When systems are empowered to act, not just recommend, errors propagate faster, and trust can erode instantly. The implication is clear: sustainable progress depends on the alignment of technology, AI, and human judgment. Guardrails, accountability, and oversight are not constraints on innovation. They are what make agentic systems viable at scale.

Fragmentation as the industry’s defining constraint

If trust is the industry’s core challenge, fragmentation is its most persistent constraint. Travel spans finance, aviation, hospitality, technology, and regulation, each with its own incentives, standards, and timelines.

Banking and payments introduce an additional layer of complexity. Regulatory requirements change dynamically, vary by jurisdiction, and directly influence how data can be stored, processed, and transferred. This makes scaling secure, compliant systems disproportionately difficult.

Fragmentation explains why many travel leaders are shifting focus from expansion to optimisation. Scaling a brittle system magnifies exposure. Modular architectures, continuous monitoring, and operational discipline are increasingly valued over rapid market entry.

It also explains why cybersecurity incidents propagate quickly. Breaches rarely exploit sophisticated vulnerabilities. They exploit seams between systems, vendors, and responsibilities.

Southeast Asia as a proving ground

These dynamics are particularly visible in Southeast Asia. According to HBX Group data, Asia-Pacific’s travel growth is being driven increasingly by intra-regional demand, favourable demographics, and rising middle-class consumption. At the same time, the region exposes operational weaknesses faster than more mature markets.

Regulatory diversity, uneven infrastructure, and rapid digital adoption create a high-pressure environment. Models that work here tend to be resilient elsewhere. Those who fail do so quickly.

Also Read: How Gen-Z travellers are driving the comeback of online travel agencies

Gen Z travellers amplify this effect. They expect connected journeys, value-led choices, and personalisation by default. Loyalty is fluid, trust is conditional, and switching costs are low. Economic and political uncertainty remains a real downside risk, reinforcing the need for systems that can adapt without undermining confidence.

As Javier Cabrerizo, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at HBX, observed, Gen Z uses AI and personalisation to discover what is trending and relevant to them. But once they arrive, they deliberately avoid the crowd, seeking hidden gems and local experiences instead. AI guides discovery, but individuality defines value.

For travel providers, this creates a tension: AI is essential for discovery and relevance, but value is ultimately measured by how effectively it enables individuality rather than conformity.

A recalibrated future

MarketHub Asia did not signal a slowdown in travel. It signalled a recalibration.

The industry is moving away from growth narratives built solely on scale and toward operating models grounded in trust, evidence, and resilience. Technology enables opportunity. AI accelerates execution. Security, often invisible, determines whether either can be sustained.

The next generation of travel leaders will not be defined by how quickly they expand, but by how well their systems hold under pressure. In an increasingly connected, data-rich world, discipline, not ambition, is becoming the industry’s most durable competitive advantage.

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Image credit: HBX Group

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