The exit landscape in Southeast Asia has seen a huge rise in the recent past and if you consider the current trends, it will grow higher with every year. A report by Golden Ventures suggests a huge rise in the startup exits in the region with a resounding 700 plus startup exits expected for the forecast period of 2023-2025. 

Over the years there has been a number of tech startups encouraging the exit landscape scene in Southeast Asia. But, the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has changed the exit landscape with its restrictive access to business facilities and workforce. 

Amongst the odds of supply chain restrictions and low workforce efficiency, the services sector is the worst hit with a 28.51 per cent impact due to COVID-19 hit provinces in China. The question again arises, that will the strong exit landscape of Southeast Asia backed up by the tech-based service sector sustain the momentum in a pandemic Corona hit economy?

Let us first understand the impact of three pillars of startup exits in Southeast Asia.

Acquisitions

As far as mergers and acquisitions are concerned, for Southeast Asia, local M&A over the global startups has been a resounding trend.

But, the terms of mergers and offers for acquisitions can rapidly change with the recent downfall of the global market following the outbreak. 

With over 100,000 cases and 4,000 deaths, it has caused a panic situation, creating a huge downfall across global markets. M&A depends on largely market trends and a startup’s potential growth cap, which is constantly plunging due to uncertain supplies, restrictive demand, and limited workforce efficiency. 

Also Read: Coronavirus is driving the world into an economic slump. How to cope up?

Currently, most of the intermediate product supplies are dependent on the Chinese supply for Southeast markets. So, the impact on the SEA markets due, to the Covid-19 outbreak is certainly impacting major M&A decisions.

IPO

IPO or Initial Public Offering is a way of issuing stock offerings to the public of any private corporation. IPOs are a way in which private organisations transition to public organisations through investments.

Last year, Southeast Asian markets saw 89 IPOs raised the proceeds up to US$4.8 billion with a one per cent spike over 2018. This was extremely remarkable given the fact that global IPOs took a hit last year.

Supply cut downs of the intermediate products from China can make a huge impact on private organisations going public with IPOs as the trust among the public investors can be dwindling in the outbreak scenario.

Secondaries

Secondaries or secondary buyouts have been surging in the private equity industry over the years. In recent years there are several venture firms that are increasingly investing in the secondary stocks. But, COVID-19 breakout can impact these secondary buyouts on a larger scale.

Let’s discuss how startups can thrive in these hard times!

What is the government doing?

Southeast Asian governments are cutting interest rates on their capital landing to the startups and businesses, who are incurring losses due to ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Recently, Thailand’s government reduced its rate to one per cent because of its trade exposure to Chinese goods for auto manufacturing and Chinese tourism. Other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia are cutting back their rates to boost local manufacturing and reduce reliance on Chinese goods.

Domestic boost

If you compare the dependency of Chinese markets for exports, the Southeast Asian market has seen a huge spike in the span of five years. As major manufacturing units, tech-based businesses and tourism dependency have been so reliant on the Chinese economy; the Corona outbreak should be seen as an opportunity to boost the local manufacturing landscape.

Also Read: Blessing in disguise: How coronavirus is helping China’s tech sector

Virtual workplaces

As much as we like it, work from home concept is now more than just an accessory in business. Tech startup CEOs and founders must consider virtual workplaces for their operational needs. Many businesses that are already in the process of developing mobile apps for their businesses can rely on freelancers or ask employees to work from home.

The need for virtual workplaces in the Southeast Asian markets needs a boost in their network intensities over several places.

Cross-discipline training

Beating the workforce deficit can also be tackled with cross-discipline training of employees. Startups can leverage this training for developing cross-discipline skills in their limited workforce. It can reduce the impact of lower employee attendance and keep the flow of work intact.

Revenue over growth

Whether you think of M&A, IPO or Secondary buyouts, like any other business decision, startup exits are driven through numbers. These numbers can be kept intact through short-term revenue-based projects that may be fruitful in the short run instead of trying to get the big fish.

For the time being, CEOs and startup entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia should focus on sustaining the pandemic outbreak than looking for a restructuring of the business model. As it may not be easy for ASEAN governments to tackle the cost behind containing the outbreak and at the same time provide a boost to the startups bearing heavy business losses.

Startups in the Southeast Asian markets need to gauge the situation that has been getting worse day by day. With the shortage of supplies, restricted flow of unfinished goods and raw materials, the sustainability of business poses a challenge.

Many startups in Malaysia and Indonesia are hopeful of foreign investments to boost their businesses, which is under pressure due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Startup exits landscape in Southeast Asia is already stronghold and few steps taken by startups and governments in the region can ensure a harmless passage of the pandemic outbreak.

Despite its impact, COVID-19 poses an opportunity for Southeast Asian startups to become self-reliant and rise above the leading markets in Asia.

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Remote working offers so many exciting possibilities, from sipping Pina Colada while working on a beach to sitting next to an inspiring startup founder in a coworking space.

But in times like this, when everyone is forced to stay where they are the safest, working from home might be all you have to keep you afloat –and sane. 

At e27, we have a team mixed of remote workers all over Southeast Asia and India, and a dedicated office in Singapore for teammates based in the country. So you can say we know a thing or two about managing a remote working.

But to have a fresh perspective, we turned to our community to understand how one can be productive working from home –next to their pop and ma, their kid, and their siblings. Because they, too, are stuck at home.

The matter of communication

The first challenge to emerge is communication. You are used to sitting next to Susan, and go into an hour meeting with Simon to talk about an ongoing project. But now, suddenly, they are nothing but icons on Zoom or Google Hangout.

Issues such as connection, noisy background, and sound delay may make you feel like things are not working in your favour, but it is the perfect time to get creative.

Also Read: Why remote working is the future for startups

One of our community members pointed out a valid point regarding remote communication in working from home situations.

“I think about it in two ways: one is that interactions build trust. Other is if the related parties don’t have similar experience in things like writing and literature then their use of languages is always going to be different and it will create differences that make communication hard. The second one is often ignored, but being a reader and a writer is critical to team success remotely. The key is to listen and to over-communicate in this period.”

One community member directed us to this hilarious curation of remote-working, WFH-related tweets to @WorkWithoutPants. One tweet suggested to do a virtual coffee, which is essential to have a sense of belonging in a team –even if it is just on the screen.

Essential digital tools for WFH

At e27, the tools that help us every day are regularly-scheduled meetings on Zoom for weekly updates, Slack for daily huddle, and Hangouts for other meetings.

Another member pointed out other digital management products to use: Trello and Asana, along with Calendar and Google drive.

Other alternatives

Remote working is something that does not favour micromanagement. Micro-managing by managers are easily done when working in an office environment, but WFH would not succeed with a helicopter-style of leadership.

However, it is understandable to feel as if your team might neglect their work during their stay at home simply because you cannot see them face-to-face. This is why many people choose to stick to working on office hours despite the convenience that WFH offers.

One team member gave his take on the matter to make the setting work for both the company and the employee.

“Give each other space as you would in a physical office, but make it a point to communicate at regular intervals, to shoot the breeze if not anything, as your mileage may vary depending on working styles,” he said. 

But in a situation involving a self-quarantine, there will be limited mileage made, which left the managers in charge with no option but to practise confidence in their team and being more result-oriented.

Also Read: e27’s remote staffers sharing their work-from-home experience

Another way to do WFH without losing the productivity the office environment offers is to set a clear policy about what it means and what it takes for employees. This one is especially necessary if WFH would be something that is completely new for your team.

“With my trainees that I train for companies, I set soft deadlines and in-between, I do morning check-ins with them,” said one member. 

The age of video

“All I can tell you is that I have used video these days to communicate with my audience. It helps me come up with ideas and helps me practice communicating with people, which is the core function of my role,” said another member, who works with a Hong Kong-based VC firm, where a face-to-face meeting is needed but impossible now.

With startups being forced to get that creative juices flowing to make sure that business goes on as usual, VC firms that rely heavily on in-person meetings must resort to online calls. Our community member thinks that video is a good enough medium for now, as it helps support the meetings –which can happen two to five times a day.

Conclusion

Our community members shared that for some of them, working from home is practically the norm even when quarantine order is not enforced in their area.  

We learned that roles such as developers, content writers, and people who deal with data are the ones most adaptive to this working-from-home situation.

“I run a remote data science training company, so I’ve been 90 per cent remote from day one, so the change hasn’t been too drastic for my co-founder and me,” said one community member.

The case is also the same for half of e27’s team members, particularly the Content and Marketing team, who have been working remotely for the company. They have shared their take on their WFH lifestyle and how they stay on top of their work even with home-based distractions.

Also Read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how to make it work for you

Some of the top tips shared by e27’s team members are the importance of having a dedicated workspace, keeping a routine, and having a daily or weekly to-do list to make sure the team’s focus is aligned with tasks and OKRs.

Finally, the success of a remote team all comes back to clarity in communication. Not just about work but also about mundane, daily things that happen in your life that is worth sharing with teammates.

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Image Credit: Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

 

The post e27 Community shares their proven tools and tricks to work from home appeared first on e27.

Listen in to hear how Sebastian Starzynski, CEO of TakeTask, has created a system to manage tasks when you have a geographically dispersed labour force or freelance partners working for you. You can communicate with them via the mobile application. Complex tasks can be preceded by in-app training.

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This article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Sunyu Kim on Unsplash

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With e27 Pro pioneering feats in the startup tech ecosystem, here are 6 startups who have decided to be part of the future

At e27, our mission is simple: to empower entrepreneurs by proving them with the right tools and insights to build and grow their companies. As such, we decided to build a platform that can help bolster our efforts, nurtured by the same principles and goals that have kept the e27 brand relevant across the startup tech ecosystem.

But a platform is nothing without those who choose to maximise it. When we quietly launched e27 Pro, our community has been most supportive; offering encouragement and feedback that helped us design e27 Pro into what it is today: a membership programme that is designed to give you actionable insights, exclusive business-building programmes, and tools that enable your company’s success.

So, without further ado, we would like to introduce six startups who have signed up for e27 Pro effectively solidifying their commitment to innovation and community-building.

Riskwolf AG

Riskwolf is a white-labeling solutions platform that insures the digital economy by providing event-based product innovation. It enables re-insurers to simulate, test, launch and operate high-frequency insurance products based on parametric insurance products for individuals & SMEs cheaper and faster. Their first product is a parametric loss protection coverage against Internet outages for digital businesses in emerging markets.

Rekosistem

Rekosistem is an end-to-end zero waste management Startup that strives for a sustainable ecosystem. They improve how waste value chain works to be more productive and efficient with minimal behavioural changes. They believe through technology and innovation, there is always a way to realize a circular economy. Rekosistem — coined from combining “re” which stands for (1) reduce, (2) reuse, (3) recycle, (4) renewable, and “ecosystem” (in Bahasa: Ekosistem) — redefines end-to-end zero waste ecosystems.

Meerkats Work

Meerkats Work is a B2B business automation platform that connects workplace behavioural data to business performance. Built by a founding team of industry insiders for all service companies, Meerkats is the only software in the world that integrates business intelligence with employee engagement to empower business owners with true agility.

I Task Pte Ltd

iTask is a platform that creates the opportunity to improve the community’s living quality. With this simple platform, they want to help connect with people who are ready to work with people who need the work done. Their platform assists to help people get their tasks done in a faster and more economical way. By 2030, they aim to serve 0.4 million frequent users in Southeast Asia as well as 4 million users in the same region. iTask also targets 0.1% of the 400 million people living in urban areas to register as a frequent user, which is equivalent to 0.4 million users with an average of 15 tasks completed in a month.

Flexible Pass

Flexible Pass is the No. 1 Health and Fitness app in Myanmar that gives users access to over 80 gyms, fitness centers and hotels offering a wide variety of fitness activities in 19 different categories.

The vision of Flexible Pass is to help people in Myanmar live a healthier lifestyle by providing them with affordable and flexible fitness and wellness options.

The fitness activities that can be accessed using Flexible Pass are gym usage, boxing, indoor skydiving, rock climbing, rowing, swimming, yoga and over 80 different types of classes.

Shuttle Delivery

Shuttle Delivery is a food solution platform that connects people to restaurants in their area and gives them the option to schedule a pickup or get food delivered. The easy-to-use interface makes it effortless to browse photo menus from local restaurants, see reviews, and connect to favourites. Shuttle remembers past orders, gives smart suggestions, and integrates preferred payment methods.

Stay tuned as we unveil more e27 Pro early adopters in the coming days. Watch out for them.

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Be a member. Sign up for e27 Pro today >>>

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Are you a startup and keen to connect with these 4 funds and 160 others this April? Let us know today >>>

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The novel coronavirus spreading fast globally, affecting about 180 countries and territories and claiming over 10,000 lives. While almost all industries got severely affected by the virus, e-commerce is seeing massive growth as people prefer to shop online while staying indoors. 

Tiki.vn, a leading e-commerce firm in Vietnam, is also witnessing a growth in the number of orders. Let’s look at how Tiki is growing amidst the corona crisis and the different measures it has taken to tide over the epidemic.

15% revenue growth from the beginning of February

Since the beginning of February, the demand has recorded a 15 per cent increase over the November-December 2019 period. The most purchased items have been masks, wet towels and air purifiers.

The reason for making a comparison with the Nov-Dec 2019 period is because Q4 was a shopping festival time in Vietnam. During peak time in this period, e-commerce firms in the country saw an average of 3,000-4,000 orders per minute.

Also Read: E-commerce wars in Vietnam intensify. Here is all you need to know

“Tiki is always committed to high quality and good prices of all products on our platform, especially for disease prevention products such as hand sanitizers or masks. Besides controlling the prices of products, we also strive to ensure the product supply, particularly hand sanitizer products as washing hands is considered one of the effective disease prevention methods recommended by medical experts and doctors,” said Ngo Hoang Gia Khanh, Vice President of Corporate Development at Tiki.

Books witnessed 1.5X growth 

The first two months of 2020 (as Covid-19 breakout was in the initial stages), Tiki witnessed a 1.5x y-o-y growth in the books category. The top-5 bestselling genres were literature books, self-help books, children’s books, books on economics and manga-comics. 

Two genres with remarkable growth rates were medical books and family knowledge books with 2.7x and 2x growth, respectively. Foreign language learning books, reference books, mother-baby books, and medical books also got attention.

Tiki is currently running an online book fair until March 31, 2020, 

Safety first

The company has disinfected all of its workplaces and fulfilment centres (areas such as canteen and offices are disinfected daily). Mandatory wearing of masks by employees is strictly implemented to ensure the safety of customers when shopping demands are high. 

As online shopping peaked, Tiki’s logistics unit TikiNOW Smart Logistics (TNSL) swiftly activated/made operational all of its 33 fulfilment centres and warehouses of over 80,000 sqm in 13 key cities, including Hanoi, HCMC, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Can Tho.

“Goods are sourced and stored in our fulfilment centres, which allow us to proactively respond to the needs and wants of consumers,” said Henry Low, CEO of TikiNOW Smart Logistics.

Safe delivery

In peak times, the site received 4,000-5,000 orders per minute, requiring continuous stock-in. Top-selling products on Tiki have been masks, wet tissues, and air purifiers. Besides, other essential products like commodities and consumer goods are also adequately supplied to customers in 63 cities and provinces.

Tiki is also closely working with business partners (manufacturers, suppliers and retailers) to keep minimal the negative impact of Covid-19.

“Tiki has encouraged the partners to join hands with us to quickly and safely conquer the acute challenges of the Covid-19 storm,” said Vu Thi Nhat Linh, Vice President of Managed Marketplace at Tiki.

Safe TNSL has assured safety regulations during product processing and delivery to consumers. All employees working at TNSL’s fulfilment centres, hubs and sorting centres are required mandatory temperature checks before and after their work shift and are required to use hand sanitizer regularly.

Shippers and delivery executives, who regularly work outside and have direct contact with customers, are asked to wear masks all the time.

Thousands of back-office employees are allowed to work from home from March 15 to 22 to mitigate the risk of infection amongst. They are required to set up work objectives and deadlines and update their work daily through an internal work management system. All departments are requested to have online meetings.

Employees are discouraged from travelling to regions hit by Covid-19.

The post How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki is tiding over Covid-19 crisis appeared first on e27.

Finance

Community-based social commerce platform Chilibeli raises US$10M led by Lightspeed Ventures

Indonesian social commerce platform Chilibeli that connects farmers and manufacturers to bring fresh and quality products at affordable prices, has received US$10 million in funding, led by Lightspeed Ventures. 

Also participated in the round are Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia Surge, Kinesys Group, and Alto Partners.

Also Read: Meet the 8 Southeast Asian startups who will receive US$1-2M each from Sequoia’s Surge programme

According to the company, the funds are being used to strengthen Jakarta, Tangerang Selatan, and Depok’s networks of communities, while also expanding its reach to Bogor and Bekasi. It also plans to continue to improve the UI and UX of its application, as well as advancing the facility of its Depok’s warehouse.

Launched in July 2019 by Alex Feng, Damon Yue, and Matt Li, Chilibeli empowers its agents (partners), many of whom are housewives, with the opportunity to create value for consumers, promote community bonding, and increase their household income.

Chilibeli saw a social opportunity in Indonesian housewives being in control of household spending. The firm is seeking opportunities to pursue their aspirations by also finding another source of income to the family, and Chilibeli benefits housewives by leveraging social networks amongst their communities and neighbourhood through the most basic household spendings, and also by making the price of groceries more affordable compared to the price of the market, daily.

Genomics-tech startup Nusantics raises seed funding led by East Ventures

Indonesia-based genomics technology company Nusantics announced today it has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding, led by East Ventures. 

The fresh funds will be used to “accelerate company in pioneering the BioGenome journey” in the country.

Nusantics focusses on applying advancements in genomics and microbiome research to fulfil consumer needs of a healthy yet sustainable lifestyle. The company was founded in 2019 by Sharlini Eriza Putri, Vincent Kurniawan, and Revata Utama.

Microbiome is a complex ecosystem of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live on and inside every human and every living thing on earth. It is instrumental to the immune system and each person has a unique microbiome profile.

Nusantics believes that understanding customers’ own microbiome profile is essential in helping consumers pick the necessary products that fit their bodily needs and also are more sustainable. 

The firm said it plans to begin to introduce its technology to the Indonesian lifestyle market by applying them for human skin — a living ecosystem of billions of microbiomes.

Corporate angel network she1K injects over US$348K in 3 startups

Corporate angel network she1K has invested over US$348,000 in three startups, which participated in its C-shark Tank programme. The startups are marketplace startup Lumiere32 (Singapore), petcare startup Kibus (Spain), and medtech Nephtech (Singapore).

According to an article by DealStreetAsia, the top three startups were selected from 12 finalists of the C-shark Tank programme. According to she1K, startups were evaluated based on valuation appeal, defensibility, team, traction, business model and scalability.

Also Read: Singapore’s version of ‘Shark Tank’ will send the winner to the UK

She1k was founded by Christina Teo, founder of Startup Asia Women, with the aim to expose more corporate women to startups and angel investing. It seeks to push for more gender diversity on company boards, especially in the startups it invests in.

Indonesia-based edutech startup Pahamify raises US$150K funding from Y Combinator

Pahamify, an Indonesia-based edutech startup that provides lessons for senior high students, has received US$150,000 funding from Y Combinator. 

The company said that the funds will be used to add new learning materials for junior high students and teachers to the platform, as reported by KrAsia.

“Our target is to remain innovative in helping Indonesian students reach their maximum potential and feel the thrill of learning,” said Pahamify CEO Rousyan Fikri.

Before this funding, Pahamify has also received an undisclosed amount in grants from YouTube and Y Combinator. Pahamify is listed among Y Combinator’s winter 2020 batch, together with two other Indonesian startups, Newman’s, and YukStay.

Founded by a YouTube science influencer in mid-2017, Pahamify combines science learning, film-making, and gamification to create high-quality educational content under its Pahamiframework. The platform uses animated videos, quizzes, and summaries to engage users.

Business

gojek denies laying off employees and merger with Grab, stating profitability

gojek has addressed the issue that it has recently laid employees off amid the company’s profitability. In a TechInAsia’s article, gojek CEO Andre Soelistyo reportedly told employees that the company’s transportation business has been profitable for “a few months” during an internal town hall meeting, while its food delivery and a payment gateway arm remain unprofitable.

During the town hall, Soelistyo also denied a recent report that said gojek has let go of over 100 mid- and lower-level employees.

In addition, Soelistyo said that news about merger talks between Grab and gojek, is false.

Recently, the company raised US$1.2 billion in fresh funding.

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Picture Credit: Nusantics

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Singapore government-owned startup builder and investor SGInnovate announced today that its Board has appointed Lim Jui as its new CEO, effective 1 May 2020.

He will be taking the helm from Steve Leonard, who stepped down as SGInnovate’s founding CEO in January. Leonard announced last month that he will join US-based Singularity University as its CEO.

Dr. Jui has over two decades of experience in innovation, research commercialisation and investment. “I am fortunate to have experienced commercialisation through multiple lenses as an investor, startup CEO, and most recently, seeing through early-stage technology commercialisation. I hope to bring this experience to bear at SGInnovate,” he said.

Also Read: SGInnovate’s Steve Leonard to join Singularity University as its CEO

“I intend to build upon the very considerable successes of SGInnovate by focusing on the deeptech sector, in which Singapore has established competitive advantage and thought leadership, but which remains relatively underfunded. Deeptech startups need more tangible support than others,” he added.  

Yong Ying-I, Chairman, SGInnovate said: “The Board and management are confident that given Jui’s experience in commercialising research and bringing new technologies to international markets, under his leadership, SGInnovate will be able to continue its good work in building and strengthening the Deep Tech ecosystem in Singapore.”

SGInnovate works with local and international partners, including universities, venture capitalists, and major corporations to help technical founders imagine, start and scale globally-relevant early-stage technology companies from Singapore.

Since its launch in 2016, the SGInnovate team has been part of the building and investing in 90 deeptech startups, as well as creating an engaged deep tech community of more than 33,000 people.

The organisation said in a statement that it would continue to work closely with a wide range of partners and co-investors to back entrepreneurial scientists through equity-based investments, access to talent and business-building advice. 

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Image Credit: SGInnovate

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Uber considers suspending ride-sharing options in India after US, Canada

Ride sharing company Uber is considering to suspend its Uber Pool service in India, according to Tech In Asia. The company had made a similar decision in US and Canada on March 17 and is speculated to do the same in India.

The group ride-sharing feature in US and Canada has been called off to “help flatten the curve on community spread in the cities we serve,” according to Vice President Andrew Macdonald, directing towards the pressures of coronavirus and rules of social distancing.

An India serves as a key market for Uber, discontinuing this service could temporarily result as a setback for the company.

KKR names new APAC tech lead

Lucian Schoenefelder, KKR’s head of European technology growth deals division, will take over as the new Asia Pacific head of technology, according to South China Morning Post.

Schoenfelder will be helping with private equity deals and building growth equity for smaller businesses.

Last year, according to The Financial Times and DealStreetAsia, KKR was also looking to move into early-stage investing.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Chilibeli raises US$10M, gojek denies staff layoff and Grab merger reports

Indonesian government launches chatbot to spread COVID-19 awareness

The Indonesian government announced today that it has released a chatbot on WhatsApp to spread basic awareness and prevent misinformation about coronavirus to citizens, according to Kr-Asia.

The account will be released in the name of COVID19.GO.ID, which will be the same as the government’s URL information portal about COVID-19. It can also be accessed at this number: +62-811-3339-9000.

Singapore also has a similar chatbot feature.

The contents will be provided by the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) and the Ministry of Health and will be updated in accordance with global developments for increased credibility.

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Image Credit: Dan Gold on Unsplash

 

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Singapore is the hub of the e-commerce sector in Southeast Asia, given its strategic position and economic status. From Singapore-headquartered firms like Lazada and Sea Group-owned Shopee to homegrown ones like Qoo100 and newcomer Amazon.sg, it seems like there’s a seat for everybody on the table.

However, according to the 2019 Yearend Report put together by iPrice, App Annie, and SimilarWeb, it’s still Lazada and Shopee that hold the key positions in the e-commerce race in the city-state. Both are the most actively used e-commerce shopping apps in 2019, according to App Annie, not only in Singapore but also in Southeast Asia.

The report goes into detail intending to keep track of the city-state’s world-class digital economy and ambition to achieve the Smart Nation status by analysing the most interesting developments of the top-performing e-commerce players in the Lion City as of 2019.

According to Google, Temasek & Bain company, the e-commerce industry in Singapore is predicted to contribute a total of US$6.8 billion in 2025, a 22 per cent increase from 2015. It signifies an ample room for further growth in the country’s e-commerce sector within the next five years, and from the looks of it, the ecosystem welcomes new players with open arms.

The report concludes with four insights regarding the e-commerce scene in the country:

Singapore as the vanguard

Lazada and Shopee, as Singapore-headquartered companies, were consistently the most actively used e-commerce apps in Singapore and Southeast Asia in 2019, according to App Annie. Data reveals that the two giants showed clear stability throughout the year, indicating strong customer loyalty.

Also Read: E-commerce wars in Vietnam intensify. Here is all you need to know

For web visits, Shopee maintains its stability in 2019 both in desktop and mobile web platforms, garnering more than two billion visitors across Southeast Asia.

On the other hand, Lazada continued to thrive on the market share in Southeast Asia, as it experienced a 13 per cent growth in visits as of 2019.

Singapore-focussed e-commerce company

Singapore’s e-commerce sector already has two early unicorns — Sea Group (owner of Shopee) and Lazada. Despite the tight competition against these two, Qoo100 (formerly known as GMarket) maintained a strong presence in 2019.

Not a unicorn itself, Qoo100 managed to come through the other end sitting on the second most-visited e-commerce website platform, with almost 30 per cent of the web market share in Singapore as of 2019. The same also goes for its app, up until the third quarter in 2019 before it slid to 3rd position in the fourth quarter.

Growth of Amazon.sg since its debut

Amazon has recently launched in Singapore under Amazon.sg, and it quickly rocketed into the 4th position.

It managed to garner more visits than older e-commerce portals within a quarter, which is the result of its localisation strategy to tailor their products to Singaporeans, according to the report.

Also Read: How ShopBack sweetens shopping in Southeast Asia

Both Amazon Prime Now and Amazon apps also remained in the top 10 most-used e-commerce shopping apps as of 2019’s fourth quarter. The report further predicts that due to its nature of various inventory of products and local and international shipping reach, the company is most likely to increase the demand of local consumers in Singapore in 2020.

Singapore to outgrow the pond

According to the report, Singapore is at the forefront of having the highest average basket size in Southeast Asia. In 2019, shoppers in Singapore had an average basket size of US$69 on Single’s Day.

The high spending on online sales events was driven by the positive interest of consumers of the sales event paired with extravagant deals & marketing initiatives by various e-commerce companies.

Moreover, many possibilities that most likely led to high spending on online sales events were probably due to high per capita incomes. With its maturity in technological advancement, the average order values in Singapore’s e-commerce sector are 3-4 times higher than its neighbouring countries.

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Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash

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McKinsey Global Institute Study shows organisations that harness Big Data and Analytics are …

• 23 times more likely to acquire customers
• 9 times more likely to retain customers, and
• 19 times more likely to be profi­table

But a few years ago, Gartner estimated that 60 per cent of big data projects fail. As bad as that sounds, according to Gartner analyst Nick Heudecker‏ Gartner was “too conservative” with its 60 per cent estimate. The real failure rate? “Closer to 85 per cent.”

Since then, the tweet Heudecker sent has been deleted. This is a hard truth that illustrates the problem isn’t the technology, it is you!

Leadership troubles

Leadership and strategy work hand-in-hand. In the past, Big Data Analytics would be a strategy in itself but with the maturity of the technology now and with the abundance of data, the strategy is to sit and look at the crucial problem statement.

It is true but very upsetting to know that the biggest failure in this Big Data implementation is that the C-suite underestimates their involvement to carve out the problem statement.

The key decision-makers in the C-suites should sit and discuss the primary pain the company is facing. They will need to work on a few that would make the biggest impact.

These issues are usually left to the Chief Data Scientist (CDS) (who is usually a very intelligent geek) or the Chief Data Officer (CDO) (again – who is a very smart person that knows how to manage the company’s overall data governance and sees the big picture for data priorities and strategy).

Also Read: The big data heroes of today: citizen data scientists

I remember having a conversation with an ex-Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a multi-billion Dollar company, who suggested that we should churn out more business-minded Data Scientists.

I believe that we are looking at this all wrong. If a Data Scientist can address the business problem and the business strategy, the work of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and CFO would become irrelevant.

This statement can anger the C-suite. It is hurtful but it is important to remind the management that strategy starts from top-bottom.

When this is left to the Data Science group and the line managers or individual departments, you are then left with 200-300 Big Data projects which I predict more than half will fail. After all, failing to establish order and governance over big data projects leads to chaos and poor business decisions and places businesses at a severe disadvantage in today’s data-driven world.

Harvard Business Review indicates that a data strategy helps organisations “clarify the primary purpose of their data and guides them in strategic data management.” Astoundingly according to McKinsey, only 30 per cent of banks have a data strategy.

Deciding to become data-driven can be a long, difficult process that once decided can spur a rush to try to attract data specialists and make scientific inferences before knowing the real problem. That may not seem like a problem because after all, we need data and these specialists know how to handle it.

But do we stop to think about what data we need? This is where a data strategy can be overlooked and therefore crucially missing from a business’s overall strategy.

Poor communication

‘Communications’ are often still taken for granted by management as something that just ‘happens’ through emails, WhatsApp messages, calls or spreadsheets. However, without a well-defined communication strategy, many companies are facing money wastage with every project they attempt to execute.

Also Read: Challenges and opportunities for Big Data enterprises

Poor communication is the primary contributor to project failure one-third of the times and can have a negative impact on project success more than half the time. Once the C-suite has identified crucial strategic initiatives, they must communicate these initiatives down to the line managers.

Now, it is extremely important not to pass it down without equipping these managers with relevant technology and talent. Being in this vulnerable state can lead to ambiguity, noise, and complexity, especially if teams aren’t ready to discover, interpret and use the data in decision-making.

Line managers from various departments need to come together and exchange notes on what data is required to help achieve the problem/strategic statement defined by the C-suite. Having a clear mission will help to recognise data that is going to support business objectives and the sources that might distract from achieving goals.

Everybody says critical thinking is a must-have skill but never has this been more true than when it comes to investigating insights. Don’t purely and blindly take data as fact without ensuring its accuracy or assessing the potential impact this data-driven decision could have on your company.

The tricky part is getting them to identify, store, collect (if needed) and run analysis on the data. This brings us to the next topic.

Lack of skills

Based on my observations and several conversations with other industry leaders, I believe that the lack of skills in organisations contributes to 30 per cent of the failure. This affects or takes effect on several levels:

• C-suite not having the digital leadership mindset to drive strategy
• Line managers not understanding the data they have within them
• Rest of the company, not understanding the lingo of analytics

The danger lies in there not being a culture that normalises embedding analytics in their daily work. Usually, this would be 80 per cent of the company population. No initiative from above can be driven because the rest of the organisation is still stuck in the past and everything that is being spoken would either be perceived as ‘back to the future’, therefore perpetuating resistance to change.

Also Read: Challenges and opportunities for Big Data enterprises

Unfortunately, dataphobes are likely to squander promising business opportunities and often fail to see problems until these problems become full-blown crises. As we know, it is human nature to fear what we don’t understand. Most people, let alone companies, are not prepared to adopt radical changes and to become data-driven.

The challenge lies in ensuring big data projects perform reliably and efficiently enough so that organisations can flip their mindsets from considering big data as only a defensive tool for current activities to using it as a catalyst for business growth.

Ambitious intentions

Nearly all companies that embark on data-driven organisation or digital transformation initiatives are too ambitious. They either spend millions of ringgit on infrastructure or claim a framework for analytic or digital transformation that might not be wholly sustainable or stable. Having observed this for years, it is clear that this has to be tackled from above and below.

The C-suite may try to achieve sweeping change throughout the company to go data-driven—which can lead to counterproductive and overreaching. Organisations are expected to give a quick ROI because of the investment made.

The issue here is that the investment can be made with a lot of assumptions. The reality is the investment was made based on how traditional businesses would do it. They will tender and buy equipment then assume that with a click of a button, it would solve the company issues. I usually say that the selling point is that – press that button and it would solve world hunger.

Data is based on reality by examining what is actually happening. Therefore, decisions should be grounded in facts as much and as often as possible.

Emerging victorious in this landscape of digital transformation will not be made by making huge bets. Winners of the digital age will be agile, pragmatic and disciplined. They will follow a carefully devised transformation roadmap to optimise performance in the functions and operations that create the most value while building the technical proficiency and resources to sustain the transformation.

Scope for hope

60 per cent or 85 per cent is a big number and cannot be brushed aside. But this could be rescued by having some simple but hard measures put in place.

Also Read: Top 5 skills needed to carve a niche in big data

People from the top must define clear problem statements. They need to have a data-driven session to thrash out the strategy and priorities. From there, the C-suite has to parallelly initiate the whole organisation to be data ready. This would be a top-down approach whereby the journey will allow you to meet in the middle, thereby allowing quick wins and long-term initiatives to be driven clearly.

Another important thing is that, based on the maturity of the industry, companies could strategise on if they need to quickly build their used cases or have a team whether internal or external to operate on the problem statement so that they can hit the ground running. This helps to get the buy-in from the management quicker.

Always built a talent strategy around whatever problem statement is produced to ensure there is an opportunity to inherit the solution. Companies can then take it and run it on their own.

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