As the year comes to a close, let’s have a look at the top 10 community articles that caught our readers’ attention

The strength of a cohesive and forward-thinking ecosystem is built upon a philosophy of collaboration.

At e27, we hold these values close to our heart; and over the years, we have consistently engaged stakeholders in the Southeast Asia tech industry — investors, entrepreneurs, and more — to contribute their thought leadership to our platform.

Today, this community of contributors has become integral to our platform’s growth. They complement our core team of reporters by providing in-depth and critical insights into the industry on top of our daily news and features coverage.

2018 has been a banner year for our community posts: many of them have become some of the top-read articles on our site.

Without further ado, we present to you the 10 most read e27 community articles of 2018!

Note: the articles are arranged in no particular order.

1. 2018 may be the year Uber gives up on Southeast Asia, and other predictions

Venture builder Momentum Works was definitely not the first to speculate about Uber’s retreat from Southeast Asia, but it was right on the money nonetheless. Find out its reasons for thinking so.

In the article, Momentum Works also cast some predictions on how Chinese internet companies would exert greater influence, as well as its thoughts on emerging markets, corporate innovation initiatives and finding the next unicorns in the region.

Oh, and it also forecasted that Bitcoin would hit US$100,000 in dollar value. On hindsight, that figure seems rather silly.

Also read: The e27 Community Archive

2. Why Uber Southeast Asia’s ex-employees are walking into a bright future

Following Uber’s sale of its Southeast Asia-based assets to rival Grab, Momentum Works wrote a piece on why the company’s former employees will continue to have successful careers.

The article essentially highlights why their skill sets, honed to a sharp edge at hyper-growth focused company like Uber, make them well-equipped to handle a myriad of roles at other tech companies.

Momentum Works makes a pretty convincing case as many of its own employees are made up from former staff of another ride-hailing company, Easy Taxi, who withdraw from the market much earlier.

3. Rebuilding trust within the sharing economy through decentralised apps

This article by Kenny Au, co-founder of AI company LUXSENS, highlights why the use of blockchain and smart contracts will aid with alleviating the pain points in the sharing economy, such as untrustworthy reviews, data breaches and more.

The immutable nature of blockchain-powered solutions will help to facilitate transparent and secure transactions, he said, which will give both customers and service providers a greater peace of mind.

4. Who leads e-commerce in Malaysia? Lazada or Shopee?

Lazada and Shopee are easily the two biggest e-commerce players in Southeast Asia.

This article by Jeremy Chew, content marketer at online shopping aggregator iPrice Group, deep dives into the performance of each platform, stacking them up against each other with concrete statistics.

The article also touches upon the state of Malaysia’s e-commerce scene. According to iPrice Group’s findings, the top five e-commerce platforms in Malaysia — Lazada, 11street, Shopee, Lelong and Zalora — have created more than 1,000 jobs in the country.

5. This Singapore Founder created thousands of jobs over the past 50 years, yet not many people have heard about him

Kenneth Lou, the co-founder and CEO of finance portal Seedly, wrote about a veteran in the Singapore civil service by the name of Philip Yeo.

Yeo was responsible for helping to entice many foreign MNCs to set up shop and invest in Singapore, at a time Singapore was still experiencing a major financial recession.

To date, he has groomed multiple leaders of industries and politicians like George Yeo, Lim Swee Say and others who are leading agencies like A*Star, NUS, JTC, EDB, National Gallery, and EDIS.

6. Yet another application of blockchain tech, digitalising real-world assets can come with security benefits

Blockchain is obviously a running theme this year.

Kenny Au once again writes about the benefits of blockchain technology, and how it can help people establish a more secure digital identity and curb e-commerce fraud.

Also read: 27 most read articles by community contributors in 2017

7. Streaming is hugely successful, but why can’t content creators make money?

The web streaming industry is becoming a huge part of the entertainment sector. Due to the highly accessible nature of the internet, content streamers can reach a wide audience easily with major video streaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. And often, these sites don’t require users to pay.

Which leads us to this big problem: many streamers can attract a huge audience but making money out of it is tough.

Kenny Au explains the pain points behind the internet streaming industry, and how blockchain-powered platforms can help ensure streamers get an equitable share of the revenue.

8. Why fasting is the ultimate productivity hack for entrepreneurs

This article is a little different from our usual community articles in the sense that it is not really about business-building or tech, but rather, about taking a holistic approach to becoming a better entrepreneur — through improving your health.

Adrian Li, Managing Partner and Founder at Convergence Ventures, explains the science behind regular fasting and why it’s good for one’s health.

9. Why Singapore is the worst place to start a tech company

This one is a little controversial. Keith Tan, co-founder of offshore software development firm Wonderlabs, gives his two cents on why Singapore is not a good place to start a tech company.

One of his main gripes is that it is too costly to operate in Singapore.

I guess that’s why he runs an offshore software development company.

10. 6 successful real-life examples of blockchain technology being implemented

This article by contributor Aaron showcases how both corporations and startups across the world are implementing blockchain technology in their operations.

For example, he cites supermarket giant Walmart is using blockchain to better ensure food safety by tracking the product from when it leaves the farm to when it lands at the store.

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