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With digital media advertising spending expected to account for nearly half of global advertising spend this year, adtech’s importance for any business has never been greater. For companies to leverage the latest advertising technology, they must first understand the trends and why the industry is moving towards various advancements.

As a leader in adtech, I’ve outlined below movements I am seeing in the industry to help marketers better capitalize on their ad spend.

Moving to mobile

As desktop internet usage falls and mobile use outperforms TV for overall time spent, marketers are utilizing their resources to adhere to their target audiences’ medium of choice: mobile. As such, marketers are looking to break into mobile apps’ untapped potential and hope it serves as the next gold mine of previously untapped revenue and potential customers for advertisers.

Near-instant machine learning

Adtech companies provide data that help marketers properly A/B test and determine what resonates with a target audience. However, with the increase in competition, speed is a close second to data in terms of importance. AI and Machine Learning’s presence in the industry is quickly increasing as technology can outpace humans and more efficiently optimize ad campaigns to ultimately increase revenues.

A native ad experience

The rise of the “super app” is point-proven that users seek a seamless online experience; they don’t mind ads, as long as it doesn’t interrupt their in-app user experience. As such, marketers are relying more heavily on programmatic advertising to create more refined and user-specific targeting. Spamming users with unrelated, clunky or invasive ad placements can become detrimental to a brand’s reputation.  It is not about the number of impressions; it is about reaching the correct users and integrating ads seamlessly onto apps.

Mobile data, coming soon

Web-based advertisers had decades to perfect measuring the success of ads on their platforms. At the moment, mobile doesn’t have the capabilities to compete with the data that web ads provide. The good news, however, is that adtech companies are pushing to create these tools and create a more measurable experience for marketers on mobile platforms. Moat— an analytics and measurement company that offers viewability, attention, and brand safety solutions— was developed to help provide a solution to mobile’s lack of ability to measure viewability on the screen, and companies are pushing to create more advanced technology to provide advertisers the proper tools to better address various methods of ad fraud.

Rise of Walled Gardens

The rise of consumer privacy concerns is leaning towards a cookie-less industry, opening the door for large publishers to maximize their value through walled gardens. A walled garden in advertising allows large publishers to build an entire marketing infostructure around their platform, utilizing their data and services, and empower small and medium-sized businesses to customize this walled garden for their own marketing efforts. By allowing anyone with a publishing position to transition into their own walled garden, more companies can maximize the monetization and the value that they propose. Before referring to the traditional adtech structure and finding supply partners, they can create their own network operations and monetize their data from within.

Transparent sourcing

Agencies are seeking more transparent platforms as ad fraud continues to remain a top-of-mind concern for publishers. As such, companies are building their own audience networks, utilizing premium, first-party data sources, such as e-commerce platforms and mobile apps with engaged audiences. The first-party data allows advertisers to leverage reliable audience insights and alleviate data privacy concerns.

Super Apps becoming super

Large apps have a lot of potential to grow into “Super Apps,” but aren’t yet tapping into that potential. Apps with large audiences typically start off making money on their technology that connects a consumer to something – a driver, a delivery service, a product. And once they receive investors and the opportunity to grow, they begin floundering; we’ve witnessed it with both Uber and Lyft. To ensure profitability, these apps need to turn to other revenue streams, such as advertising. Apps can make money from media buys, both from inside and outside their app. Apps can provide ad space within their platform, like Amazon, or they can remove themselves from the front lines and simply be used as a powerful source for data. Many major apps are sitting on an incredible amount of data that can help them grow.

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If you’re a fan of Shark Tank and Kevin O’Leary, you would have probably seen this video on CNBC. Also known as Mr Wonderful, O’Leary is a tough investor, persistent with a go-getter attitude that has gotten him global recognition as a trust-worthy entrepreneur. 

So it’s no surprise when O’Leary told CNBC Make It – “I work every day”. And he expects his employees to do the same. 

How employees see it

While it’s understandable, even acceptable on some levels for entrepreneurs, business owners and highly paid executives to be constantly tuned-in to work, most if not all employees aspire a work-life balance.

Employees are people and people are driven by different things, and those drivers aren’t necessarily money, fame, or accolade. On the other hand, flexible hours, options for remote working, commitment to health and wellbeing are just some of the findings revealed from the 2018 Global Talent Trends study by Mercer. 

No matter what drives you or the type of workplace culture you find yourself in, expectations are almost always to achieve more, with less. 

Meetings: by numbers

This doesn’t simply mean meetings, emails or phone calls are work-place hazards. In fact, it can be productive when applied in the right doses. Overdoing any of these, however, is significantly counterproductive. A Verizon Business  whitepaper reveals some startling discoveries about business meetings: 

Also Read: The millennial force: changing the workplace and its culture

1. Meetings dominate life in America. 37 per cent of employee time is spent in meetings.

2. Busy professionals attend over 60 meetings each month. However, most say they cannot attend all meetings to which they are invited due to the tremendous demands on their time. 

3. Most of the respondents (over 90%) admit to daydreaming, missing meetings or parts of meetings. 

4. Over 70 per cent say they have brought other work to meetings.

5. Almost 40 per cent say they have dozed off during meetings.

6. USD 37b in salary cost for unnecessary meetings for U.S businesses. 

Despite the existence of thousands of productivity and collaborative apps available at our disposal, the question remains – why are businesses struggling to improve employee productivity? How do we stop this madness?  

It’s not doom and gloom 

The truth is, no two businesses operate in the same way. What works for a start-up in Silicon Valley may not necessarily work for another located in Kuala Lumpur, nor the gridlocked city of Jakarta or the exuberant Ho Chi Minh.  

Asian businesses are unique. So are the people managing these businesses. Messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, and WeChat are widely used by employees to communicate with suppliers, colleagues, customers, etc. on a daily basis blurring the lines between work and personal messaging. 

Also Read: Sex in the office stairwells: the importance of company culture

While these apps were never built with true collaboration in mind (except for group chats perhaps?) more and more Asian businesses and startups have adopted various team messaging applications (Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc) to complement other productivity tools (Trello, Asana, Google Calendar, Monday, Click Up, HubSpot, etc.) over the last several years. 

Bottom line

Of the 2,319 knowledge workers using JANDI surveyed, the biggest problem cited at the workplace in relation to communication and effective collaboration is the use of personal or consumer messaging apps. 

When you put unproductive meetings, consumer messaging apps and emails in a typical work environment it’s no surprise there is a massive gap between expectation and reality in terms of productivity. 

Whilst emails and meetings won’t go away anytime soon, it’s in the best interest for start-ups or enterprises to look at ways to improve efficiencies and productivity. The future of work is here and now. 

A good place to start is looking at communication and collaboration tools that fits your team. Don’t let outdated messaging apps confuse busyness with productivity for your business. 

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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Image Credit:  Isaac Smith

 

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With its rising popularity, it is understandable that your business might want to include cryptocurrency as one of the available payment options –assuming that it is legal in the market that you operate in, of course.

But before you decide to jump on the bandwagon, there are some points that you need to consider.

Let this infographic by Fundera be with your guide in making that decision.

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Image Credit: Stanislaw Zarychta on Unsplash

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appoints ex-Airbnb & Carousell exec, Chai Jia Jih as CEO- Press release

SE-AsiaTech startup xto10x Technologies announced that it has set up its Singapore office to serve Southeast Asia startups, with Chai Jia Jih (JJ) leading its SE-Asia business as CEO, SE-Asia.

Founded by Saikiran Krishnamurthy (former McKinsey director & ex-Ola, Flipkart executive), Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder & former CEO), Neeraj Aggarwal (ex-Flipkart, Curefit executive), the Bangalore headquartered startup provides software, knowledge, and capabilities across several critical areas of scaling up, such as translating strategy to execution, hyper-growth, operations, data science, HR, strategic business finance, and putting in place operating systems for effective governance.

“After startups have found product-market fit and created serious business momentum, there is still significant work to scale into large, profitable, world-class companies,” said Mr. Krishnamurthy, xto10x Co-founder, and CEO. “There are many more SE-Asia startups now at the scale-phase and we see the opportunity to help them with significant 10x opportunities. We’re excited to have JJ onboard to deliver our solutions to startups in this region”

“After working through 10x growth at both Airbnb and Carousell, I’ve seen that startups face unique challenges in the scale-up phase that they hadn’t needed to solve in earlier stages. I am thrilled to take up this role to help more startups in SE-Asia, bringing expertise from experienced practitioners like Saiki, Binny, and Neeraj to founders in this region” said Chai.

Delivery Hero to buy S Korea’s Woowa Brothers for US$4b- Reuters

German food delivery company Delivery Hero has agreed to acquire its South Korean rival Woowa Brothers for US$4 billion, said a Reuters report.

Woowa Brothers said the companies will also create a joint venture in Singapore to tap into the booming food delivery market in Asia and compete with Grab, UberEats and Gojek. The deal comes as Woowa Brothers Corp, which owns South Korea’s biggest food delivery service “Baedal Minjok”, faces growing competition from rivals such as e-commerce firm Coupang, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group.

Delivery Hero ranks second in South Korea’s food delivery market. Delivery Hero will acquire an 87 per cent stake held by investors such as Goldman, GIC, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital, while the remaining 13 per cent owned by Woowa’s management will be converted into the German company’s stake. Reuters

Singapore-based Acronis acquires software firm 5nine to bolster cloud services- DealStreetAsia

Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity firm Acronis has acquired 5nine, a global provider of Microsoft Hyper-V and Azure cloud management and security solutions, for an undisclosed sum as per a DealStreetAsia report. Following the deal, 5nine will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acronis, per a company statement.

Also read: Goldman Sachs invests US$147M in cybersecurity startup Acronis, gearing up for acquisitions

Acronis will integrate 5nine’s technology into the Acronis Cyber Platform. Founded in 2009, 5nine helps manage and secure workloads across the Microsoft Cloud – public, private or hybrid. Its software is designed to reduce costs, increase productivity, and mitigate security risks. Acronis provides cyber protection, catering to areas such as safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS).

“By adding 5nine’s solutions to our portfolio of cyber protection products and services, we’re giving our partners and customers an easy way to adopt the Microsoft hybrid cloud platform,” said Acronis founder and CEO Serguei “SB” Beloussov. Founded in Singapore in 2003, the company claims that it has 5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses worldwide.

YouTube’s Music App Outpaces Spotify and Local Rivals in India- Bloomberg

YouTube has signed up more than 800,000 subscribers for its paid services in India since debuting in March, according to people familiar with the matter, said Bloomberg in an article.

The services are growing faster than rival paid music offerings in India, including Spotify and local players Gaana and JioSaavn, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the subscriber data hasn’t been released. The one paid service that could have more users than YouTube is Apple Music, which has been tight-lipped about its subscriber figures.

YouTube has long struggled to gets users to pay for its services, especially since the company’s main website is synonymous with free videos. But the Google division has started to gain traction, and the numbers out of India suggest it’s having particular success in the world’s second-most-populous country.

YouTube sells two paid services in India: YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium. The music service offers a library of songs on-demand, much like Spotify, as well as the ability to download tracks, listen to music without ads and play tunes while using other apps. YouTube Premium offers the traditional YouTube video service without ads — and the ability to play clips offline. But music is the driving force behind YouTube’s appeal, especially in India.

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What is the gig economy and why is everyone talking about it? Gig work has been around since the beginning of time, but as far as the modern era goes it hasn’t been quite as standard in the employment landscape until very recently.

“Gig” is a term that was coined by Jazz musicians around the turn of the last century that referred to their performances. It was around that time that organized labor was also pushing for more regular work schedules, and by the postwar era, one-income households with 40 hours a week jobs were considered the norm. By 1995 in the United States, only about 10% of workers were in nontraditional jobs and working arrangements.

During the time of the industrial revolution the economy was changing in very noticeable ways, and workers needed to fight for reasonable work hours and working conditions. Labor and employers agreed upon the 40-hour workweek, which gave people greater predictability in their lives.

But now the economy is changing again and workers need greater flexibility in order to participate to their fullest. The gig economy is taking over, and in just a few years gig workers are expected to outnumber traditional employees.

Worldwide, however, there is a different story. The global gig economy is worth US$4.5 trillion as of last year. The prevalence of smartphones and internet access worldwide are making it much more attractive to people who may lack access to traditional employment.

Apps like Airbnb, which was created to help roommates make rent, can help people rent out extra rooms in their house or extra properties on their land to tourists and business travelers. Lyft and Uber can help people afford vehicles who might otherwise not be able to by putting that vehicle to work. Postmates and Instantcart type services can help people who are lacking in employment options find work delivering food to those in traditional employment who need assistance with day-to-day tasks.

In the United States, gig work is still mostly seen as harmful to the workers, and there are constantly new legal challenges to it, mainly because of issues of liability and workers’ rights. But the system is helping many people in most cases. The average gig worker is someone who works in addition to their regular job, and they can expect to add US$1122 a month to their income because of it. Only 16 per cent of gig workers are working in the gig economy as their only source of income, even though they would prefer traditional employment, and 13 per cent are using gig work to cover all their monthly living expenses. The majority are involved in gig work in order to increase their spending power a little more.

By 2025, the gig economy is expected to add US$2.7 trillion to the global economy while increasing employment worldwide by 72 million full-time equivalent positions. An estimated 10 per cent of the global labor force will be impacted. Learn more about the history and future of the gig economy from the infographic below!

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Centauri Fund, a new growth-focussed venture capital fund jointly established by KB Investment, a business unit under Korea’s financial institution KB Financial Group and MDI Ventures, the corporate venture capital initiative under Indonesia’s state-owned telecommunication company TelkomGroup with headquarters in Jakarta and Seoul.

The fund is set to close at US$150 million, and it will begin investing in January 2020 managed by Managing Partner of MDI Ventures Kenneth Li alongside CEO of KB Investment Jong Pil Kim, both act as Centauri Fund’s General Partners.

Centauri Fund is said to be focussed on startups that cover financial technology, e-commerce infrastructure, software-as-a-service, big data, and “digitally native vertical brands”.

Centauri Fund aims to invest between US$1 million and US$5 million in rounds that range from pre-series A to series B stage in tech startups throughout ASEAN, with an emphasis on its largest market, Indonesia.

Li of MDI Ventures joined the fund right after being able to generate seven exit events within three years of its first investment.

Also Read: Meet the VC: How Indonesia’s MDI Ventures managed 3 overseas exits within a month

Meanwhile, Kim joins Centauri Fund after cultivating multiple investment exit scenarios for KB Financial Group.

“The launch of Centauri Fund is a commitment by both TelkomGroup and KB Investment with the aim of expanding their horizons deeper into the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem, as well as supporting Indonesia and the regional startup space,” explains Achmad Sugiarto, Director of Strategic Portfolio of TelkomGroup.

The fund’s thesis revolves around a principal issue of solving for low success rates and the inability of many startups to transition to the next phases of maturity. Therefore, the fund proactively seeks to mitigate this effect by providing direct support from corporate partners.

Kim adds, “By partnering with Telkom on the Centauri Fund, KB is showing how serious it is about further expansion into ASEAN. We believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that by placing a greater focus on Indonesia, we will be able to effectively realize this mission. We see Centauri Fund as the culmination of two industry powerhouses collaborating to forge a new path of discovery.”
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Photo by Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash

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Indonesia’s largest private lender by assets, Bank Central Asia (BCA) has pumped up its venture capital arm Central Capital Ventura (CCV) with IDR 200 billion (US$14.26 million) to pursue fintech investments according to a DealStreetAsia report.

CCV typically backs Series A plus startups with the ticket size of US$500,000 to US$2 million. Its investment thesis covers fintech, insurtech, big data, deep tech and IoT bets related to the financial services space.

In a filing with the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) last week, BCA said that CCV has a strategic role to collaborate with fintech companies and CCV president director Armand Wijaya told the media that this investment will be allocated as additional capital in fintech startups. BCA holds a 99.99 per cent stake in CCV and it is the eighth sister company under the BCA Group.

Also read: AI startup 6Estates closes Series B funding round from GDP Venture, Central Capital Ventura

The company set aside an allocation of US$15 million in 2017 for investments in fintech and thus CCV has nine companies under its portfolio: Qoala (Jakarta-based insurtech firm), Airwallex (Australia-based cross-border transaction provider), GPN (national payment gateway), Element (US-based artificial intelligence), KlikACC (P2P lending firm), JULO (marketplace lending), Pomona (ad platform), Impact Credit Solutions (credit aggregator for consumers), and Wallex (currency payment processor).

Indonesia saw the launch of the country’s first bank-led VC in 2015 when Bank Mandiri set up Mandiri Capital Indonesia. The move was followed by BCA two years later. Now, other state-controlled lenders – Bank BRI, BNI and BTN – have set up VC firms to invest in fintech companies to add synergy to their core line of business.

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Image credit: Afif Kusuma on Unsplash

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SingSaver.com.sg, Singapore’s financial comparison platform, has launched instant digital insurance comparisons and secured a brokerage license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

With the license, the platform is now able to offer its instant digital insurance comparisons for its travel, home, and main categories insurance products ranging in over 100 policies by 12 providers.

The insurance providers include AXA, Allianz, FWD, HL Assurance, Ergo, MSIG, NTUC Income, Tokio Marine, Ergo, Sompo, Allied World, and Etiqa TIQ.

The platform’s new license as an insurance broker in itself is a milestone for the business as it diversifies beyond credit cards and personal loans. With it, SingSaver’s broking team are able to advise consumers applying for a range of insurance products.

Also Read: SingSaver’s parent CompareAsiaGroup raises US$20M funding led by Experian

Rohith Murthy, Founder and Country Manager at SingSaver said: “It used to be the case that banks and insurers sold you a product; now that model has been flipped upside down. As we become more digital savvy and less loyal to brands, a new generation of shoppers spearheaded by the Millennials and Gen Z’s want to instantly compare and apply for financial products like insurance online — and increasingly on mobile.”

SingSaver investors include Goldman Sachs, IFC World Bank, Alibaba, and Experian.

In 2019, SingSaver parent CompareAsiaGroup (CAG) secured US$20 million in Series B1 funding from Experian, a global provider of data and analytical tools, in August. The group is backed by institutional investors including Goldman Sachs, IFC World Bank, Alibaba, and Experian.

Founded in 2015, SingSaver’s mission is to empower people to lead healthier financial lives through increased financial literacy, helping them save money while becoming more financially independent. SingSaver provides financial comparison tools that allow users to quickly and easily compare credit cards, personal loans, and insurance for free.
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Picture Credit: unsplash.com/nitin_mathew

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We fund the founders creating the future of local and urban transportation. The micromobility revolution, motivated by a rapidly changing world, has started.

Micromobility is unbundling the automobile, and liberating resources.

These resources will yield countless market opportunities, and create economic incentives that make mobility universally available, accessible, and affordable.

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This article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Sunyu Kim on Unsplash

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He has always wanted to escape civilisation and recede into nature at every opportunity he got, for he was perturbed about the ill-treatment inflicted on the environment by human beings.

“Plastic rubbish at the peak of a Borneo mountain, mounds of trash in the middle of the Simpson desert, and litter washed up and strewn across the beaches of Southeast Asia, the humankind leaves traces of themselves everywhere, even in the most remote places,” said Ati Bakush, a nature lover and avid traveller from Australia.

“I’d reached a point in my life with four young children where I began to question what sort of legacy and future our generation is leaving behind. I decided to use my skills in software to develop a solution with a mission to help the planet. Ekoru is the result of this goal,” he added.

Located in Kula Lumpur, Ekoru is a search engine alternative to Google, which donates a part of its revenue to partners involved in ocean cleanup.

“During my professional career, I was involved in the development of search engines for mobile operators in Southeast Asia and Latin America. While working on these projects, it occurred to me that I could be applying the same skills and knowledge for the benefit of the environment instead of profiting a large corporation,” he said, sharing the story behind the starting of the venture.

Also Read: The Capture app enables you to track, reduce and offset carbon emissions from everyday life

At Ekoru, he is supported by his wife Alison Lee (Communications Director). A team of supporting developers and designers in countries such as the UK, Sweden, the US, and Indonesia also participate in the initiative from remote locations.

Bakush and team were initially looking to work with multiple environmental causes but settled on the health of the oceans as it’s becoming increasingly important.

“The effect of human impact and climate change isn’t just about rising sea levels, but increased temperatures, the sufferings of marine animals, reduction and contamination of our food supply, carbon absorption and a myriad of other issues. The health of an ecosystem which covers 70 per cent of our planet and contains 97 per cent of our water should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind,” Bakush stressed.

Ekoru V/s Google

Ekoru works just like any other search engine and makes money from the sponsored links which appear above the search results.

Ekoru’s USP is that 60 per cent of its total revenues go to its clean oceans partners, such as Big Blue Ocean Cleanup, whose mission it is to clean coastal and marine environments. “This allows users to help our oceans while they search and surf the Internet every day,” he noted.

The search engine works on any mobile, tablet, or computer browser. An Android mobile search app is already available, with the iPhone version to be launched soon.

All the searches are private, and no information about searches is stored. Every search is also encrypted to keep user data away from prying eyes.

The search engine is available in three languages — English, French, and German.

The startup is currently in touch with some schools and educational board about introducing Ekoru as the default search engine for classroom computers and devices.

“We’d like as many students as possible to learn about the importance of our oceans and helping conserve them while they research their school work,” he said.

Who does Ekoru compete with?

Also Read: MAEKO addresses climate change by converting food waste into compost. Greta Thunberg should feel happy

“We take the view we’re competing only with Google and not other search engines — it’s an unprecedented situation where one company has managed to achieve a comprehensive stranglehold/monopoly/dominance in a single vertical. The upside of this is that there is an enormous amount of room for everyone else to grow at Google’s expense,” he smiled.

Green energy-powered servers

Ekoru’s servers are located in green data centres powered by hydro-electricity. This minimises the carbon footprint on the Internet and ensures that every web search is as green and eco-friendly as possible.

“Finding a data centre for Ekoru’s servers that are 100 per cent green was, however, challenging. After an intense hunt, we discovered OVH, whose Beauharnois data centre in Canada is powered entirely by hydro-electricity. It uses water-cooled servers with no fans and uses thermal air convection in their buildings instead of air-conditioners,” he said.

“Having our servers powered by green energy was a top priority for us. The Internet’s C02 footprint is a hidden problem with data-centres around the world, consuming vast amounts of energy to power servers and air-conditioning,” he shared.

The Ekoru project is primarily self-funded in addition to an initial investment from private investors.

When asked about Ekoru’s fundraising plans, Bakush quipped: “It’s a bit hard to write a fundraising pitch when the first slide promises to give away 60 per cent of the revenue. At the moment, we hope we can continue to grow organically with the support of a growing userbase. Organic growth has the benefit of being free of any external pressures, meaning that we are only responsible for our users.”

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