We all know Singapore is the heart of all the startup action in Southeast Asia. But 2021 has given local ecosystems in emerging economies of SEA a much-needed boost. From all the unicorn action Indonesia to Malaysia’s competitive edge to Vietnam’s youth entrepreneurship; the emerging markets are calling out.
The e27 community contributors have encapsulated some of the trends from emerging markets in their contributions this year. This is the time to soak up on their experiences and inform your market expansion strategy.
A big thank you to all our amazing contributors. You too can join the bandwagon by sharing your opinion via an article, video, podcast, or infographic.
Look beyond Singapore: Why Kuala Lumpur is an emerging tech hub alternative
While Singapore is well known for a range of startups, Malaysia has more long-term potential and does more to encourage tech companies that can help it fulfil its ambitious plans to make its workforce one of the most highly skilled and gainfully employed in Asia. It does more to encourage tech companies that can help it fulfil its ambitious plans to make its workforce one of the most highly skilled and gainfully employed in Asia.
How the gig economy is empowering women in Vietnam
The prolonged pandemic would further delay the return of women with children to the job market. All of the above explains why more and more women opt for food delivery as an alternate career option to make up for lost income. More and more women in Vietnam are opting for food delivery as an alternate career option to make up for lost income during COVID-19.
Where is Taiwan’s AI ecosystem headed?
As Taiwan’s future cloud infrastructure realises, developers will no longer need to build services through overseas data centres, which will accelerate AI innovations and applications by local teams, especially in areas that are more sensitive to data sovereignty, such as finance. Every six months, AppWorks releases an updated Taiwan AI Ecosystem Map, distilling the latest trends and developments while highlighting various companies leading the charge.
Will Indonesia’s startup economy lose its ‘emerging’ title in 2021?
While Indonesia’s domestic market is strong, the startup economy cannot hit full maturity until it begins to see a more regular pipeline of Indonesian startups expanding beyond national borders and attracting more outside investment from the rest of the world.
With the scale of the domestic market, it is unsurprisingly that the vast majority of new startups in Indonesia are not born with global ambitions. While this works for the short-term – considering the scale and untapped potential internally – to realize their full potential, Indonesian startups must eventually look outwards.
It’s raining unicorns in India. Here is why
The Indian tech industry has reached a new peak. For years, Indian has been the world’s outsourcing capital, but finally, the time for Indian startups has come. 2021 has been remarkable for some of India’s tech startups so far, despite the pandemic. In fact, when most businesses were shutting down because of the virus, lockdowns accelerated economic digitisation worldwide and more so in India, which had already been on the path towards digitisation prior to the pandemic.
Underrated, untapped, and unknown: Malaysia’s startup ecosystem is coming of age
Within ASEAN, Malaysia was one of the first countries to invest in the digital economy with the establishment of multiple government agencies, seeding policies, industry blueprints and development acceleration programs. Coupled with its multicultural society, ease of adoption in digital economy services and a well-exposed middle class, the nation has always been a prime destination for Asian and MNC organisations to expand their business footprints.
Lessons on launching into new markets with Shopback co-founder Henry Chan
Henry Chan of ShopBack led his team, expanding throughout most of Asia Pacific and is definitely one of the most impressive entrepreneurs in the region, having led the company to expand to nine countries in years. In a conversation and sharing during the roundtable at Makan for Hope, he shared how Shopback thinks about market expansion. This article has some of the learnings for you.
Thailand’s startup ecosystem has a Seattle Problem. And that’s not such a bad thing
An overarching issue that Thailand’s entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, government officials, academics and other stakeholders have struggled with over much of the past decade is how to boost Thailand startup formation, activity, growth, and exit.
How do we meet the aspiration of making Thailand a startup hub of Southeast Asia? How do we attract and build a community of global entrepreneurs and tech talent, and how do we attract an outpouring of venture capital to fund them?
5 emerging opportunities within Malaysia’s gig economy
Malaysia’s job landscape is expanding the pool of gig workers in the country. While this shift reflects the changes in today’s multi-faceted workforce, its expansion has also drawn attention to the various challenges emerging from the gig economy. Mic Tham delves deeper into these challenges and explored how new opportunities and innovative solutions could emerge as businesses tackle these issues.
Tech for good: How Ula aims to facilitate the needs of small businesses in emerging market
In developed markets, technology is built for hyper-connected users who own multiple (and mostly high-end) devices. Contrary to that, technology in most emerging markets fundamentally skipped the era of home desktops and laptops, and dove straight into a mobile-first world, leading to a very different understanding and expectation of technology.
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