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Explore every episode of the podcast Analyse Asia with Bernard Leong

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TitlePub. DateDuration
Data Centres in the Era of AI with Jay Park29 Oct 202400:48:04

Fresh out of the studio, Jay Park, Chief Development Officer of Digital Edge, explores the rapidly transforming landscape of data centres in the Asia-Pacific region. Kicking off with the story of Jay’s remarkable career in building cutting-edge data centres, we dive into the explosive growth fueled by AI and the innovative cooling and energy solutions Digital Edge is pioneering to address environmental challenges. Jay also examines the impact of advanced AI chips on next-generation data centre engineering and shares his vision of what great would look like to design efficient and sustainable infrastructure in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.

"So if you look at this, according to this recent structural research report, the data centre industry will spend 100 billion dollars, and about 50 per cent of that growth will be happening in APAC. So, this is massive growth. If you look at the data centres, they have to be built where people are to better support them. But we have a new kid on the block. It's called AI servers, and it's something I have never experienced before in any industry, and this is massive. It'll do a lot of things, but it has to do data processing. So you cannot have all these data centres in, let's say, North America, have people in the APAC area grab that data, send it back to the U.S. or North America, do all the processing, and then send it out to APAC. I just don't see that happening. So, they're building the data centres closer to the users, where people are. And then you do all the processing there. The growth is going to be gigantic, and that's what we are seeing today."

You can find Jay Park on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-park-b5b579335/ and on Digital Edge: https://www.digitaledgedc.com/about

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] - Quote of the Day by Jay Park #QOTD
[01:07] - Jay Park’s Background
[02:38] - Becoming Chief Development Officer at Digital Edge
[03:22] - Data Center Evolution and Power Density Growth
[05:24] - Digital Edge’s Mission and Approach
[07:30] - Supply Chain Challenges and Skid-Mount Equipment
[09:25] - Scaling Data Centers for Increased Power Needs
[12:19] - Cooling Systems and AI Server Requirements
[15:39] - Modular Data Center Design: Pros and Cons
[18:57] - Balancing Efficiency, Scalability, and Cost
[22:08] - Challenges in Data Center Engineering in APAC
[27:25] - AI Chips and Their Impact on Data Centers
[31:29] - Principles for Designing Efficient Data Centers
[34:04] - Water Usage and Environmental Impact
[37:39] - Exciting Advancements in Data Center Technology
[42:54] - Advice on Innovation in Data Center Engineering
[43:36] - Digital Edge’s Vision for the Future
[44:42] - Personal Inspirations and Emerging Technologies
[46:26] - Closing

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

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Resetting Expectations on Southeast Asia with Arnaud Bonzom23 Oct 202401:05:17
"So that's why if you have 1 billion to invest, we're not expecting the same return as if you invest 10 million. At that time, when all this money flowed to Southeast Asia, people there thought, "Oh, we made it. Now the world is looking at us. We're finally a good ecosystem.' Everyone was ready to invest in us, but that was just the tide, right? And when the tide recedes, the first place the money will leave is Southeast Asia because it's not offering the best returns. So, the money is going out, and I don't think it's coming back anytime soon. People shouldn't expect investors to be as aggressive as they were. Lastly, great companies will always raise capital. The top ones will always find their way, so there's no issue for them. The challenge is for the ones just below them. It will be very difficult for those companies. Some will have to become much more capital-efficient, for sure."

Fresh out of the studio, Arnaud Bonzom, founder of Black Mangroves and angel investor, engages in a lively discussion with our host about the entrepreneurial and venture capital landscape in Southeast Asia for 2024. Arnaud shares his insights on the evolution of late-stage funding and the resetting of expectations in the region’s venture capital scene. He also offers valuable advice to founders on how to navigate the challenging fundraising climate and what success could look like for the region in the coming years.

You can find Arnaud Bonzom at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaudbonzom/ and X (formerly known as Twitter): https://x.com/ArnaudBonzom?

Audio Episode Highlights:
[0:44] Quote of the Day by Arnaud Bonzom #QOTD
[2:09] Arnaud’s Reflections on Southeast Asia Since 2018
[5:28] Southeast Asia’s Economic Challenges
[6:15] New Outlook for the Region’s Startup Ecosystem
[10:37] Lessons from India’s B2B Market
[14:31] How Venture Capital Works in Southeast Asia
[16:52] Over-Optimism in Southeast Asia’s VC Landscape
[24:27] Challenges in Attracting Foreign Investments
[27:38] The U.S. as the Biggest Accessible Market
[30:29] Market Segmentation in Asia Pacific
[35:44] IPO Slowdown and M&A Challenges
[37:59] Zombie Companies in Southeast Asia
[39:14] The One Thing Arnaud knows about the SEA ecosystem that very few do
[41:28] Explaining DPI (Distributions to Paid-In Capital)
[47:48] Timing in Venture Capital Investments
[51:48] Advice for Founders in 2023-2024
[53:33] Bottlenecks in Southeast Asia’s Startup Ecosystem
[56:40] What does great look like for the Southeast Asia ecosystem?
[58:45] Crypto Companies in Southeast Asia
[60:44] Final Thoughts and Future of Southeast Asia’s Startup Ecosystem
[61:10] Closing

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

Akamai Cloud Computing & The Age of Edge AI with Jay Jenkins17 Apr 202400:45:41
"So already this year we've rolled out 10 of these regions. So two in APJ and Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. But 75 of these locations by the end of the year along with our core computing regions will give us 100 locations where customers can run these workloads, and we're not going to stop there. So we're going to have hundreds of these regions over the next few years, and we're going to focus on those locations where hyper-scalers don't have compute. Africa and South America, for example, have been extremely underserved when it comes to computing capabilities. There's a huge potential for those countries if we could get them the compute. And that's exactly what we intend to do. But, those are extreme regions. Even in places like the U.S., which are well served by the hyper-scalers, there's certainly the middle of the U.S. which is ignored. In Southeast Asia, if you're in Singapore or Jakarta, you're served by everybody. But if you're in Vietnam, how are you served? If you're in Thailand, how are you served? The internet is inherently unfair. We want to make it more fair for our customers and our customers' customers." - Jay Jenkins

Fresh off the studio, Jay Jenkins, CTO of Cloud Computing in Akamai, dives deep into the transformative potential of edge AI in a dynamic conversation on Akamai's latest technological advancements. Discussing the company's strategic edge computing platform, Gecko, Jenkins describes how it is redefining cloud computing paradigms by embedding capabilities directly into the edge network. He explores the broader implications of edge AI for real-time applications and generative AI technologies, highlighting Akamai's vision to support the burgeoning demands of data processing and AI inferencing at the network edge. With insights into early trials and future use cases, he shares how Akamai is set to revolutionize industries, from immersive retail to spatial computing and explores what great would look like for Akamai in cloud computing and AI at the edge.

Episode Highlights:
[0:40] Quote of the Day #QOTD by Jay Jenkins.
[1:45] Introduction: Jay Jenkins, CTO of Cloud Computing from Akamai.
[4:29] Lessons learnt from Jay’s career journey.
[6:31] Total Market Opportunity for AI at the Edge and Akamai’s value proposition.
[8:55] Introduction to Akamai and its global footprint.
[11:18] Jay’s role as global CTO in Cloud Computing and future vision.
[16:23] Generalized Edge Compute aka Gecko and why it differs from the hyper-scalers such as AWS.
[19:53] How Gecko enhances the user experience in terms of performance and latency.
[22:59] Challenges to integrate cloud native computing at a massive edge network.
[25:38] Lessons learned from Gecko’s early trials with enterprise customers of Akamai.
[28:01] Applications of Gecko beyond immersive retail.
[30:33] The One Thing that Jay knows about Gecko in generalized edge computing that very few do.
[33:07] Generative AI with Akamai Gecko’s platform.
[37:30] Inference at the edge with Large Language Models (LLMs).
[39:41] Role of Edge Computing for real-time AI processes.
[41:47] What does great look like for Akamai in the cloud computing space?
[43:53] Closing.

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

Pace Enterprise & the Future of Finance in Asia Pacific with Turochas Fuad13 Feb 202200:35:56
"If the goal is to really democratize finance of businesses and consumers imagine that Mastercard and Visa has built an interchange network to facilitate payments across the globe. What if Pace can establish a similar global interchange network? For digital financing, covering a myriad of services to consumers, businesses, and even financial institutions, basically building the digital financing engine that lives on the cloud powered by blockchain on a web3 infrastructure and serving the needs of, you know, the future consumers, businesses, and even financial institutions down the road." - Turochas Fuad  

Fresh out of the studio, Turochas "T" Fuad, CEO and co-founder of Pace Enterprise joined us in a conversation to discuss his latest venture, Pace Enterprise and dived deep into the weeds of the "Buy Now, Pay Later" (or BNPL) space. He shared his thoughts on why BNPL can lead to sustainable companies and not just being a feature of a fintech company. Last but not least, Turochas offered his perspectives on how the different accelerating trends: fintech, decentralized finance and web3 are converging towards a coherent future of finance.

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is mixed edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig (LinkedIn).

Rainforest & the rise of Ecommerce Aggregators in Asia Pacific with JJ Chai07 Feb 202200:35:14
But fundamentally the core of the business, at least the way we see it, is that, we need to be great operators of these brands as a start, in fact the best operators for these brands. For us here, it's about looking into ways to be differentiated around how to run those brands better than anyone else, and definitely better than the last owner. - JJ Chai

 

Fresh out of the studio, JJ Chai, CEO and co-founder of Rainforest, joined us in a discussion on his company, a leading eCommerce aggregator that focuses on brands and products for the modern mum and offered his perspectives on the rise of ecommerce aggregators in Asia Pacific region. We dived into how JJ shared the vision and mission of Rainforest and their customer focus for the ecommerce aggregator. From there, we broadened the conversation with JJ explaining how ecommerce aggregators work with platforms such as Amazon and their playbook in selecting the right brands to acquire, scale and distribute. Last but not least, JJ offered his perspectives on how the landscape of ecommerce aggregators will change in the next couple of years globally.

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is mixed edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig (LinkedIn).

AppWorks & Investing in Web3 with Jamie Lin18 Jan 202200:37:29
"So as of today, I think the choice between DAO and equity is how bullish you are in the project. So if you're thinking that companies launching its first or second project, there's still a highly likelihood that it's not gonna be hugely successful and you want to bet on the entire life cycle of the company, then right now, maybe equity is still a better tool. If you're really bullish on the project, but you're not as bullish on the company that maybe the DAO is a better way to go." - Jamie Lin

Fresh out of the studio, Jamie Lin, chairman and partner of AppWorks, an accelerator and venture capital form shares the backstory of the company and how it started his investments across Taiwan and Southeast Asia and grew to its present state today. Jamie shares the investment thesis of the firm and the key traits of entrepreneurs and verticals which they can invest into. Last but not least, Jamie shares his perspectives in how venture capital will be transformed by web3 and offers his point of view on how AppWorks will position itself in this new era.  

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Meta & What the Metaverse Opportunity means for Asia Pacific with Dan Neary09 Jan 202200:30:23
"The important thing is, look, our mission hasn't changed. We're still focusing on helping people connect and finding communities and, and grow businesses. We've just very clearly put a stake in the ground around what we believe is the future. And more and more that's going to take place in the metaverse." - Dan Neary

 

Fresh out of the studio, Dan Neary, Vice President for Meta (formerly Facebook) APAC joined us for an interesting conversation on the company’s re-brand, vision for the metaverse and why this may the biggest opportunity for businesses in Asia Pacific. In the conversation, Dan describes how Meta is helping to build the metaverse & talks about how the current ecosystem of communities, creators, commerce will converge with the next computing platform and create a completely new generation of experiences. Last but not least, he also shares how Meta is working with small businesses  to support their digital transformation journey and get them future-ready.

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

The State of China in 2021 with Shai Oster02 Jan 202200:40:44
"There's definitely decoupling happening in terms of tech. And I actually was really skeptical of the coupling until this year. And I'm like, wow, you're really going to be seeing it. But on the other hand, the financial services sector is opening up much more this year than before." - Shai Oster

 

Fresh out of the studio, Shai Oster, the Asia Bureau Chief for The Information returns for the sixth year to discuss the state of China in 2021. Shai reviewed his predictions in 2021 and offered his perspectives on what surprised him the most on China tech from the regulatory tsunami from the Chinese government to dwindling funding of the startup ecosystem. We discuss how the Chinese economy is undergoing major transformation and whether we have a China tech ecosystem in 2022. Last but not least, Shai Oster provided glimpse of what is to come for 2022.

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Yield Guild Games & the Crypto Gaming Metaverse with Gabby Dizon27 Dec 202100:25:47
"You're actually helping people, escape, lockdown, escape, poverty, and most of all, you're providing equal economic access to crypto based economies anywhere in the world. So now you don't have to be super crypto or tech savvy. What you really need is an internet connection in a device, in a crypto wallet, and you can start earning money. And if you don't know how to do that, your community managers are there to help you how to do it." - Gabby Dizon

 

Fresh out of the studio, Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games (YGG) joined us in a conversation to share the origin story of YGG and how it builds the guilds with community managers and players to bring financial inclusion globally with play to earn crypto gaming. Gabby explained the role of YGG and how play to earn is transforming the gaming industry and what it means for the industry moving forward. Last but not least, Gabby offers his perspectives in the metaverse and what it means for the Web3 movement going forward.

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Axie Infinity & the Play to Earn Metaverse with Aleksander Larsen20 Dec 202100:34:48
"And right now the internet is the metaverse to an extent. The only difference here is that it's not truly decentralized and you didn't have ownership on the internet before now you have ownership through the blockchain. So that means that the internet is now becoming more metaverse like, because people can own their own assets. They can interact with the blockchain through their web explorer for the front ends to where the metaverse are right now." - Aleksander Larsen

 

Fresh out of the studio, Aleksander Larsen, co-founder and chief operating officer of Sky Mavis, the studio behind the first successful blockchain game, Axie Infinity, joined us to discuss the origin story of the company and how it jumpstarted the NFT and play to earn games to life. Aleksander shared the early days of Axie Infinity and explained why they ended up building the Ronin side chain to launching the decentralized exchange, Katana. Last but not least, Aleksander offered his thoughts on how Axie Infinity will contribute to the metaverse conversation in the years ahead.

 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Evergrande's endgame with Ren Liqian15 Dec 202100:45:16
"I will say that in the end, the Evergrande situation will be similar, particularly to like HNA group. So I think right now they have not filed for an event bankruptcy cases. Yet their hope is still can can muddle through. But in the end, the likely end of Evergrande is going to turn out to be much more similar than people realize." - Ren Liqian

Podcast Information:The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Fresh out of the studio, Ren Liqian from Wisdom Asset Management, joined us to discuss the fallout from the likely default of Evergrande, a Chinese real estate conglomerate and what it means for the Chinese economy and the rest of the world. Liqian started the conversation with her background and her analysis of the Chinese market specifically in the real estate and technology sector. She debunked the misconceptions of Evergrande from Western media similar to the Lehman contagion during the 2008 financial crisis and explained the likely outcomes of Evergrande if it ever defaults. Last but not least, she shed light on how State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration, a Chinese government body that are working behind the scenes on the Evergrande situation similar to other conglomerates in trouble such as HNA and Huarong.

Editor's note: We recorded this conversation in early November, and hence it does not include the recent news on Evergrande's default.

Move with Parag Khanna11 Dec 202100:38:12

Fresh out of the studio, Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of Futuremap and celebrated author of various books, joined us to discuss his new book "Move" and explain why mobility is destiny. Parag started from the future in 2050 and worked backwards to explore the various scenarios in how mobility of talent will be in the midst of geopolitical tensions and climate change. Last but not least, Parag translated what it means for Asia Pacific moving forward based on its current trajectory and global technology shifts.

 

"So I look at every single one of those categories of mobility, of migration and everything to electric VTOL aircraft and the impact that will have on the future of urban design. That is part of the individual experience of mobility in the future as is of course climate migration, fleeing countries, where there is simply not a drop of water left. All of those are drivers of our future mobility, depending on who you are and where you are." - Parag Khanna

 

Podcast Information:The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Why Cloud Computing & SAAS are different in China with Lillian Li07 Dec 202100:43:19

Fresh out of the studio, Lillian Li, founder of the Chinese Characteristics newsletter joined us in a conversation to explain why cloud computing and software as a service (SAAS) are different in China as compared to the rest of the world. Lillian began her origin story in why she started the newsletter and approach the Chinese market. Then we dived deep into the weeds of the Chinese enterprise market and explore why the Chinese tech companies found it difficult to build enterprise software and drive adoption in global expansion specifically in the Asian markets. Last but not least, Lillian explores how the Chinese cloud computing sector and SAAS model will evolve in the future to adapt to the changing world out there.

 

"In China, when you talk to someone about SASS. They typically link it with a type of software architecture rather than the payment recurrent payment theme. So that's one thing. And cloud computing is more understood as cloud adoption rather than using a last platform." - Lillian Li

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Saison Capital and Real World Asset Monetization in Crypto with Qin En Looi09 Apr 202400:46:32
"The one thing that has become quite clear in Asia, at least it's direct to retail - the government is not ready. The market is not ready. And there still needs to be a very high level of consumer protection. A lot more of a B2B-to-C approach. Where, let's say today's Web3 companies will need to partner up with existing licensed entities, whether they be licensed startups or even licensed institutions to provide their offerings to the retail. That's actually really good. Because it provides safeguards. We saw what happened last time when we didn't have those safeguards. So many retail investors lost money in FTX's spectacular blow-up, right? And that really hurt the space, that really hurt the trust, it really hurt the reputation of the space. So directionally it is inconvenient but necessary. For governments to I would say slow down or make access to retail a lot harder. Like in Singapore, we don't see any upcoming movements that crypto is going to be available to retail or easily available to retail anytime soon. We see the same in Hong Kong. The exception would of course be Dubai, but that's already more on the Middle East part, right? And then in the US, it's like a witch hunt. Basically, the long story short is it's still going to be very B2B2C driven, where the interface towards the masses, the retail, will still lie within licensed institutions." - Qin En Looi

Fresh out of the studio, Qin En Looi, partner of Saison Capital, dives deep into the current developments and the future of Crypto and Web3 investments. He began with an overview of Saison Capital and its investment thesis. He shares how Saison Capital invests in the fintech and crypto space, and the current emergence of real-world asset (RWA) monetization, specifically in the tokenizing of physical assets on the chain. Last but not least, he shares what great would look like for Saison Capital.

Episode Highlights:
[0:00] Quote of the Day by Qin En Loi. #QOTD
[1:20] Introduction: Qin En Looi from Saison Capital.
[4:09] From entrepreneur to VC.
[5:40] Lessons from Qin En’s career journey.
[7:15] Overview of Saison Capital as a corporate VC and investment thesis.
[11:10] Definition of Crypto, Web3 and Real World Assets (RWA) monetization.
[14:40] Typical day as a VC for Qin En Looi.
[17:53] Choice of Blockchains (L2, Alt-L1) for Development.
[22:02] Web 2.0 vs Web3.
[23:07] Case studies in Web3 and Crypto.
[26:54] How Web3 model can reduce operational costs in TradFi.
[31:27] Challenges of RWA in different crypto markets.
[35:26] Fractional Ownership and Illiquidity in RWA.
[36:02] Trends in Web3/Crypto and RWA.
[39:45] The one thing that Qin En Looi know about RWA and Web3.
[41:45] Role of Web3 in the Finance Industry.
[43:06] What does great look like for Saison Capital?
[43:45] Closing

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

Xfers and the launch of StraitsX XSGD with Liu Tianwei30 Nov 202100:39:37
"So I think from a market perspective, Southeast Asia is still in its early stages. We probably do not have that much of that to have so many stable coins. End of the day circulation and liquidity is everything. So the one that is pretty much have the most adoption and since the circulating and support will be the one that most, probably 90% of everything will happen at." - Liu Tianwei

Fresh out of the studio, Liu Tianwei, CEO and co-founder of Xfers, sit down for a discussion on the origin story of Xfers and shares the backstory in how the company has managed to launch their StraitsX exchange with the first stable coin XSGD in Southeast Asia. Tianwei dived deep into the weeds in how the team put together the white paper from concept to launch with key applications in DeFi and worked with the regulators and partners to launch the stable coin into action. Last but not least, he shared his perspectives on the ongoing convergence between cryptocurrency and fintech.

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Daraz & the growth in South Asia with Bjarke Mikkelsen23 Nov 202100:34:53
"The way we've designed our strategy in the way of the businesses that we need to create sustainable value, and we need to do something good for the communities and the markets that we operate in. That is the best way to create shareholder value." - Bjarke Mikkelsen

Fresh out of the studio, Bjarke Mikkelsen, CEO and founder of Daraz, joined us to discuss the origins of the e-commerce marketplace and the key trends on technology and business across South Asia in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bjarke shed light on the backstory on how Daraz was eventually acquired and fully owned by Alibaba Group. Last but not least, he shared his perspectives on the business trends in South Asia and explained how the businesses in region is poised to grow along with Daraz.

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Animoca Brands and the Open Metaverse with Yat Siu15 Nov 202100:50:54

Fresh out of the studio, Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands joined us in a conversation about the story of the company and offered his perspectives on true digital ownership, blockchain gaming, NFTs and the open metaverse. Yat Siu started the conversation with his backstory and how he eventually spun off the company Animoca Brands from the parent company to focus on blockchain gaming. Last but not least, he share his thoughts on the open metaverse and what it means for true digital ownership and play to earn in the crypto gaming space.

"The open Metaverse, from our perspective, is the real Metaverse, because you can then have ownership. Once you have ownership, you care to keep it because it's precious and meaningful to you, but if you don't own anything, then you actually don't care to protect it because you're just simply a guest. And I think this is part of why we are so excited about non fungible tokens as digital property rights." - Yat Siu

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Additional note: Yat Siu's profile photo is credited to Kevin Abosch.

Evolution of Media Coverage in Asia with Terence Lee and Jon Russell08 Nov 202100:45:46

Fresh out of the studio, Terence Lee and Jon Russell, two editors from well-known technology news outlets, joined us in a roundtable to discuss the evolution of media coverage in Asia in the past decade and offered their perspectives on what the future of media coverage would look like in the next decade. We discuss how different newsrooms deal with scoops and tip offs from sources, handle the right to reply with companies who are affected by the breaking news and the challenge of covering companies in Asia.

"Usually the rule of thumb is that: we are very careful with anonymous sources. The bar that we set is that if the source has direct knowledge of what's happening, that is usually credible. If  you see a message from the CEO, if it's something like hearsay, or this person give us something from that person, we have a lot more to be careful and broadly speaking, that's how it works." - Terence Lee "So there's a very fine balance between doing things properly and mostly trying to make sure that you've got this lead in the right." - Jon Russell

Disclaimer before discussion: BL has ownership of Tech In Asia indirectly and Jon and Terence do not represent the opinions and views of the media outlets which they work for as we reflected on how media coverage has been evolving in Asia.

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Thomas Craig.

Wise and Fintech in Asia Pacific with Venkatesh Saha04 Nov 202100:26:45

Fresh out of the studio, Venkatesh Saha, CEO Wise (or Transferwise) Asia joined us to discuss the geographical footprint and key business activities in Asia Pacific. We started with Venkatesh sharing his background story on how he came to join Wise. From then on, he dived deeper into the key business of Wise within the region and shared his perspectives on the current fintech trends in Asia.  

So it's not just existing users who went deeper and got more comfortable and tried more products, but it's brought many new people who would have been forced to think about digital ways of living their lives. So I think that's the first thing that acceleration. The second thing, which has been a happy coincidence, is that a few years ago, government started taking fintech more seriously. - Venkatesh Saha

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Thomas Craig.

Connecting the Next 2.5 Billion with Scott Beaumont27 Oct 202100:32:56

Fresh out of the studio, Scott Beaumont, President Asia Pacific from Google joined us for an interesting conversation on why, what and how it takes to connect the next 2.5 billion people online in Asia. He discuss how COVID-19 has accelerated the digital adoption in Asia Pacific and broke down the key opportunities on how entrepreneurs can innovate and build their start-ups on the dynamics in the region. Last but not least, Scott offers his perspectives on the emerging technology trends and where they are heading from AI to quantum computing.

If we're going to create equitable progress throughout Asia, then we need to make sure that everybody's got access to that technology. The demographics in Asia are astonishing.  Since COVID began, so 2019, in the last two years, we've seen about 217 million people come online for the first time, so a whole new Indonesia which is really quite remarkable.  What we want to do is make sure that they've got access to that technology, that they know how to use it, and that the products and services that they can leverage are meaningful to them. - Scott Beaumont

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian

The Southeast Asia Exit Landscape with Michael Lints23 Oct 202100:42:01

Fresh out of the studio, Michael Lints from Golden Gate Ventures discuss the Southeast Asia exit landscape for startups and what it means for investors all over the world. We discuss Michael's career and investment thesis as to what strengths and red flags he search in founders and start-ups. We dived deep into the exit landscape and explain how SPACs, direct listings and M&As will impact the startup ecosystem across Southeast Asia.

At every single investor meeting, literally every single LP meeting. I got the same question. What is the exit landscape look like in Southeast Asia? The issue was that most exits were relatively small to other markets. The largest exits were at like around $200 million dollars. If you compare that to India or China, that's just a very small number. Every single LP was concerned that it's an emerging market. There's lots of happening under early stage, but at some point when we need liquidity as LPs and then where would that come from? - Michael Lints

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian

China Internet Report 2021 with John Artman18 Oct 202100:38:11

In episode 347, John Artman, technology editor from South China Morning Post (SCMP) discuss the dawn of a new era for China technology from the annual SCMP China Internet Report 2021. We dived deep into three key topics: the tightening regulation and new legislation introduced by the Chinese government on anti-trust, data protection and usage and how it differs from GDPR by the European Union; the aggressive geographic expansion of Chinese tech into Southeast Asia and the exploitation of private domain traffic on e-commerce in China.

"Historically, the Chinese government make these really big moves, and they make an example of one or two companies and then they move on. Then maybe in a couple of years, they'll come back and they'll make examples again. When we're looking at some of these unfair practices, on the one hand, we do have some very visible and very public moves against the technology industry. But I think that, over time, it'll be interesting to see, how compliant some of these platforms are." - John Artman

In conjunction with this episode, SCMP is providing a 30% off to the Analyse Asia audience for the CIR Pro report with the promo code: ANALYSEASIACIR. It won't apply until you go to the checkout page. This will be valid for 2 months till 30 Nov 2021. Here is the link where you can purchase the report with the promo code embedded.

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian

Technology Past, Present & Future with Benedict Evans11 Oct 202100:58:11

In episode 346, Benedict Evans shares his perspectives on the history and trends of technology. Benedict explores the different narratives spanning across the mobile wars between Apple & Google, generational shifts in digital transformation of enterprises, the challenges of app stores and digital advertising & privacy. Last but not least, he asks the key questions on what's next for technology.  

There's some industries where 10 years time is the next product cycle. There's some industries where, you know what your rent's going to be in 10 years time. There's other technology: 10 years is right on the edge of science fiction.  You really don't know what you know, anything beyond 10 years, you really don't know what's going to happen, except there'll be more stuff. - Benedict Evans

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin, LinkedIn). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian

What just happened to the Tech Giants in China? with Shai Oster07 Oct 202100:55:19

In episode 345, Shai Oster, Asia Bureau Chief from the Information joined our returning host, Bernard Leong to answer the most important question in Asia, "What just happened to the Chinese tech giants?" We dived deep on why they are facing a regulatory crackdown and its downstream impact not just to Chinese tech CEOs stepping down from their jobs but also to the successful US companies from Apple to Tesla that are based in China.

"What Alibaba and Tencent have done is created national banking infrastructure. In China, national infrastructure is a national security. It's like highways, it's like power. And if huge amounts of your economy are being transacted behind closed doors effectively, through a private enterprise, that's not okay for the Chinese government." - Shai Oster, The Information

The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin). Sound credits for the intro music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian

Digital Report 2024 and why Generative AI did not show up this time with Simon Kemp02 Apr 202401:07:12
"The key thing that I realize every time I look at the data is that the media is telling us a lot of nonsense. I think that the one thing I know is that the data tells a very different story to the media headlines. So I suppose my advice there is, never to accept clickbait at face value. If you're building a marketing plan, do your due diligence, and check the data because the data always surprises me. The one thing I know is that I'm always surprised. There's your key takeaway.” - Simon Kemp

Fresh out of the studio, Simon Kemp, co-founder and CEO of Kepios joined us for the 7th year to discuss the Digital Report 2024 and its pivotal insights. The dialogue kicked off with Simon pondering AI's potential impact on his job, then swiftly moved to the report's core findings. Simon also explored how digital marketing and content strategies are evolving due to generational differences, underscoring the necessity for content creators to adapt across diverse social media channels. Last but not least, Simon addressed the current lack of comprehensive data to include generative AI in this year's report. Last but not least, Simon shared his anticipation for what's on the horizon in the coming year.

Episode Highlights:
[0:55] Quote of the Day #QOTD by Simon Kemp.
[1:22] Introduction to Simon Kemp, co-founder and CEO of Kepios.
[2:59] Are we going to be replaced by AI?
[3:57] Key Takeaways for Digital 2024 report.
[5:14] TikTok is still growing quickly despite the headwinds.
[10:20] Mobile and social media are still growing especially in India.
[12:43] Trendlines for e-commerce and search engine use.
[15:22] How do you add generative AI to search engine use, for example, Perplexity AI?
[17:51] Do generational differences in online behaviour change how digital marketing and content strategies work?
[21:14] How do content creators adapt and decide which social media platforms to use?
[23:43] Why the horizontal approach of broadcasting across all social media does not work anymore?
[28:16] Success on any social media platform is based on chance and preparation.
[32:04] Implications of TikTok’s potential ban in the US and how users shift from one platform to another.
[35:25] From X (formerly known as Twitter) to Threads and TikTok to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
[36:39] Insights on WeChat, Discord, and Telegram.
[44:59] LinkedIn: a B2B social media platform for engagement but don’t discount YouTube.
[48:57] The One Thing that Simon Kemp knows about Digital Report 2024 that very few do?
[50:04] Why Generative AI usage is not in the Digital 2024 report.
[54:59] Is Generative AI a new paradigm or should it be incorporated into existing digital use cases?
[60:30] How Generative AI changes digital marketing, branding and advertising.
[64:17] What Simon wished to add in the Digital 2024 but could not.
[65:40] Closing.

You can find Simon Kemp at X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/eskimon and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eskimon/ and the Digital Report 2024: https://wearesocial.com/sg/blog/2024/01/digital-2024-5-billion-social-media-users/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig.

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Tencent & China's Gaming Crackdown with Josh Ye22 Sep 202100:27:33

Fresh out of the studio, Josh Ye, tech reporter from South China Morning Post (SCMP) joined us to discuss the evolution of Tencent, the tech giant in China specifically with respect to the recent gaming crackdown by the Chinese government. Josh discussed the impact of the regulations to the entire gaming industry and how Tencent will focus their efforts towards overseas expansion. Last but not least, he presented the future of the gaming industry in China.

Uber in Asia Pacific & The Future of Mobility with Pradeep Parameswaran18 Jul 202100:39:29

Fresh out of the studio, Pradeep Parameswaran, President - Mobility from Uber APAC joined us in a conversation on Uber's continued focus on mobility in Asia Pacific and the future of mobility. We begin the conversation with Pradeep sharing his background and the key lessons learnt from his career journey. Following that, he dived deep into Uber's footprint in Asia Pacific excluding Southeast Asia and China and focus on the challenges and opportunities in expanding Uber's mission into new and uncharted areas. Last but not least, he also offered his thoughts on the future of mobility specifically on autonomous and electric vehicles and the likely impact to transportation in the near future for Asia Pacific.

 

The Grab SPAC with Jon Russell & Nadine Freischlad16 May 202100:36:37

Fresh out of the studio, Jon Russell & Nadine Fresischlad from The Ken joined us to discuss the 40 billion Grab SPAC (and largest in the world till date) and its impact to the entire Southeast startup ecosystem. Kicking off the conversation, Jon and Nadine analysed why Grab decided to take the SPAC route, summarize the key takeaways from the current businesses to where future growth engines will come from. They discuss what it means for Uber, the investors, the employees, the startup and venture capital ecosystems across Southeast Asia. Last but not least, they examine what it means for their rivals competing in the Indonesia market: Goto and Sea Group.

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

The Two Sessions in China 2021 with Zhou Xin26 Apr 202100:38:27

Fresh out of the studio, in episode 341, Zhou Xin, political economy editor from South China Morning Post, joined us in a conversation to discuss the Two Sessions in China for the year 2021, and what it means for the rest of the world. Zhou Xin dived deep into the key agenda for the Two Sessions for 2021 and how the Chinese government will focus on in the next 5 years from technology development to boosting the small and medium businesses segment in China. We discuss the implications on how the Chinese economy impacts the rest of the world for the year ahead.

Special offer for our readers: SCMP has kindly offered a one-month free discount for 1-year subscription plan to all listeners of Analyse Asia podcast. Go to https://sc.mp/Analyse-Asia and enter the promo code: ANALYSEASIA, T&Cs details available at sc.mp/promo-code.

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

The potential Gojek-Tokopedia merger with Rama Mamuaya05 Apr 202100:39:28

Fresh out of the studio, in episode 340, Rama Mamuaya from DailySocial in Indonesia joined us to discuss a potential merger between Gojek, Indonesia's largest ride-hailing app and Tokopedia, the largest ecommerce site in Indonesia, and what it would mean for the most important market in Southeast Asia as well as their key rivals: Grab and SEA Group with Shopee. Rama introduced the backstory of Tokopedia, and discuss the dynamics on how Tokopedia and Gojek would merge under a SPAC backed by Peter Thiel and Richard Li. He provided the key reasons to why Grab and Gojek will not merge and offered his perspectives on how this will mean for the future of Indonesia startup scene.

China AI Deep Dive: Computer Vision Report 2020 with John Artman31 Jan 202100:36:49

Fresh out of the studio, in episode 339, John Artman, the technology editor of South China Morning Post (SCMP) joins us on a conversation with China AI Deep Dive: Computer Vision Report 2020 published by SCMP research. We began the conversation with John’s reflections on the year of 2020 during the pandemic and then dived deep into the report, where John provide a comprehensive overview of the computer vision market in China with the four dragons: SenseTime, Megvii, CloudWalk and Yitu and what the tech giants in China are focusing on in the same sector. John also discuss the implications of the US-China tensions as to how it impact the CV market and offered his thoughts on where the key players will focus on, given the impending regulatory measures introduced by the Chinese government on data privacy and anti-trust.

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

Reflections and Predictions on China and SoftBank in 2020 with Shai Oster01 Jan 202101:06:41

Fresh out of the studio, in episode 338, Shai Oster, the Asia Bureau chief for The Information is back on his annual review with us again to discuss the state of China technology giants and SoftBank in the time of COVID-19 pandemic and predict what is to come in 2021. Starting the conversation, Shai reviewed the predictions he made in 2019 and explored the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on how they played out in 2020. From there, Shai reflected on the year that dominated the headlines in 2020: the diffusion of the China-US tensions to other regions: India and Australia against China tech giants, Tik Tok's problems in the US, Ant's botched IPO and SoftBank's attempt to go private. Last but not least, Shai offered his predictions for 2021 and what is to come for the Chinese technology giants and SoftBank for the year ahead.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

    • Shai Oster (@beijingscribe, LinkedIn, TheInformation Profile), Asia Bureau Chief in The Information 
      • So since your last appearance on the show, what have you been up to?
    • 2019 Predictions: 
      • China & US: Trump’s impeachment
      • China economy: growth 
      • Tiktok will retreat from US, scale back & renew focus china, maybe India, Southeast Asia and Africa: accurate 
      • Huawei 
      • The shift of Chinese money to other markets
    • 2020 Events that shook China and SoftBank: The China-US tensions have exacerbated and percolated to other regions now (and that includes Australia and India) to Chinese companies: 1/ India banning 47 apps including Wechat, Tik Tok and many apps from China and 2/ Australia and US banned Wechat.
      • Let’s go to India first, given that the major unicorns are invested by Chinese tech giants, for example, PayTM by Alibaba, and the rise of local giants such as Reliance Jio backed by a strong US consortium: Facebook, Google, Silver Lake Partners, KKR, how do you see the challenges moving ahead for Xiaomi, which is dominant in India as well? 
      • How do you think the Biden administration will handle the current tensions with China? 
      • In the year ahead, do you think China will come down hard on US companies that are heavily invested here, like Apple or Starbucks Coffee?
      • Currently, the Chinese government has directed the local companies to be self-reliant, and specifically in the semiconductor industry, does that mean that we will see the decoupling of the supply chain accelerate much quicker?
      • Given that Tencent owns a few major gaming companies, for example, Epic, and with the recent lawsuit between Apple and Epic, do you see a possibility that the US government will pressure Tencent to divest their holdings in the US?
    • Tik Tok’s problems in the US and elsewhere: First, Kevin Mayer, the former CEO of DisneyPlus was poached and then became the CEO of Tik Tok US and Group COO, and subsequently resigned in July 2020, given the Trump’s administration insistence that the company has to be sold. Finally, after talks with rumors that Microsoft might acquire the entity completely, the eventual decision is that Oracle becomes the beneficiary of being an investor (along with Walmart) for Tik Tok US to ensure that data resides in the US.
      • What are your thoughts on Tik Tok’s current situation in the US? 
      • Can ByteDance grow further given that there is so much pushback from other markets?
      • Where do you see ByteDance’s growth markets are? Will be they turn inwards towards domestically or expand to other markets where the push back is lesser, for example, Southeast Asia?
    • The Botched IPO of Ant Financial and what’s going to be next?
      • The Chinese government has ended Ant Financial’s IPO with direct interference from President Xi as reported by various outlets. What are the causes in your opinion as to why the IPO ended up not happening?
      • What are the implications for Alibaba Group as a whole with Ant Financial not able to IPO?
      • What must Ant Financial do in order to convince the authorities to allow them to IPO? 
      • The billion-dollar question: Will Ant Financial eventually IPO?
      • A lot of people did not realize that the Ant Financial IPO has left a lot of money on the table in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, do you think that the companies which are going to IPO in HKSE will benefit from this event? 
      • Does this offer a lesson to how Chinese tech companies should conduct themselves? Which companies do you think might run into trouble with the state? 
    • COVID-19 Pandemic: 
      • Which tech companies in China are the major beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic? 
      • China has managed the COVID-19 pandemic much better than the US. What are the implications to the Chinese economy from now with the various successful vaccines, for example, Pfizer vaccine being approved? 
    • SoftBank in 2020 and its current strategy to go private
      • After the Wework debacle, SoftBank has gone on a few different directions: 1/ Selling their Alibaba stake, 2/ Sell ARM to NVDIA and Boston Dynamics to Hyundai, 3/ Ran a stock market gambit with futures in tech,  4/ DoorDash’s IPO giving them 10B gain that will write off Wework’s investment, and 5/ quietly buying back shares to go private?
      • How do you assess SoftBank’s performance in 2020 and do you think that with DoorDash’s success, will SoftBank Vision Fund 2 happen?
      • Has SoftBank’s enormous influence on the tech industry waned after WeWork’s debacle? Where do you think that they will spend the remainder of the $100B Vision Fund on?
      • Do you think that SoftBank will go private according to Tim Culpan’s analysis on Masa’s strategy? Do you think that SoftBank will manoeuvre and make a comeback after being private?  
    • 2020 is now closing to the end, what are your predictions for 2021 so that we can have a future conversation a year from now?
  • Closing
    • Any recommendations? 
    • How does our audience find you?

Editor's note: Our team in Analyse Asia thanked our audience for your support and wished everyone a Happy New Year 2021. The episode is recorded in the last week of 2020.

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Reflections and Predictions on China and SoftBank in 2020 with Shai Oster
The Ant Group's Botched IPO with Rui Ma20 Dec 202000:46:17

In episode 337, Rui Ma from TechBuzz China podcast joined us in a conversation to break down what just happened to Ant Group's IPO and why it was halted at the eleven hour by the Chinese government. At the start of the conversation, Rui Ma shared the back story and explained how Ant Financial have built their business from the escrow and payments app to now a vast financial business with lending and investment services included. Last but not least, Rui Ma dived deep into the regulatory landscape and offered the different scenarios to when Ant Group might be able to IPO in the future.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Rui Ma, Creator & Host of Tech Buzz China podcast by Pandaily produced by SupChina (LinkedIn, @ruima)
    • Since our last conversation in April 2020, what have you been up to? 
  • Ant Group and why China slams the brakes on their IPO
    • Before we start talking about the IPO, let’s understand the company a little bit more. Can you talk about how Ant Group was initially started as Alipay by Jack Ma and then became Ant Financial? I believe there was a huge controversy about the founding of Alipay as well right?
    • What is the current ownership of Ant Group like and who are the key stakeholders? 
    • Can you talk about the many branches of business that they offer and how these businesses are structured? For example, the lending & investment business?
    • Alipay is just one of the different products which sits within Ant Group. There are other products, for example, Zhima Credit, Huabei, Jiebei, MYBank, Ant Insurance, etc. Can you talk about how these products are organized by the different businesses within Ant Financial?
    • Ant Financial changed their name to Ant Group in June 2020 wanting to stress that they’re not just a finance company but a tech company. Why do you think they wanted to shift away from this kind of branding and do you believe in this rhetoric?
    • How has Ant Financial worked within the regulatory landscape in the financial services sector in China?
    • But as we all know, one day after the US Elections on Nov 4, the Chinese government halted the IPO. What happened and what is the current status of Ant IPO? 
    • If the Ant IPO did take place, what would have been the prospects of growth for the company?
    • What are the implications of Ant Financial’s botched IPO towards the Alibaba Group? 
    • Do you think that they will be going public in the next half a year or beyond?
  • Closing

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · The Ant Group's Botched IPO with Rui Ma
The SCMP China Fintech Report 2020 with Eugene Tang27 Nov 202000:27:20

In episode 336, Eugene Tang, business editor from the South China Morning Post (SCMP) joined us to discuss the China Fintech Report 2020 where he dissect the latest important trends in the fintech market. Eugene started the conversation with a story of his career and interesting learnings in his journey. From there, he dived into the key themes of the China Fintech Report 2020, from explaining how the fintech space in China are currently dominated by the tech giants in China, the impact of AI in the industry and most important, what the new digital cryptocurrency launched by China would mean for its domestic economy and the rest of the world.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Eugene Tang (LinkedIn), Business Editor, South China Morning Post (or SCMP in short)
    • What is your current role and responsibilities as the business editor for South China Morning Post? 
    • How did you get started in your career? 
    • In your career journey, what are the key learnings you can share with our audience?
  • China Fintech Report 2020 by SCMP (Promo Code for 20% off: ANALYSEASIA)
    • What are the key themes for the China Fintech Report 2020? 
    • What is the intended audience for the report?
    • Let’s start with the key observations, in the report, the tech giants in China for example, Alibaba Group, Tencent and Baidu and JD and Ping An are currently leading in the fintech race. Can you explain how these companies have built their digital only banks and help to broaden economic development with micro loans to customers and extending credit to SMEs? 
    • What are the underlying technologies in China Fintech that have helped to propel their advances in the past few years, for example in the payments space?
    • How do you see artificial intelligence (AI) influence fintech growth? Can you provide any examples that are stated in the report (for example MYBank and Daokou Fintech)?
    • Global expansion for Chinese fintechs has been ongoing in the recent years. Can you expand on how fintech in China can help different parts of the world, specifically in broadening financial inclusion?
    • Can you discuss the state of blockchain technology in China and the vision for China to establish the first central bank issued digital currency?
    • What are the implications for the Chinese economy as of when and if the digital currency is launched?
    • What are the regulatory shifts for Chinese fintechs? 
    • What are the new rules in play that will change the landscape in the next year?
    • Recently, the Ant IPO has been delayed because of the clash with the financial regulatory body in China. Can you offer your perspectives on the issue? 
    • What will be the key challenges for Chinese Fintech in the year ahead? 
  • Closing

Editor's Note: SCMP has kindly offered a 20% discount for the China Fintech Report 2020 to all listeners of Analyse Asia podcast and please click on this link and enter the promo code: ANALYSEASIA

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · The SCMP China Fintech Report 2020 with Eugene Tang
The Google e-Conomy Southeast Asia 2020 Report with Stephanie Davis15 Nov 202000:45:10

In episode 335, Stephanie Davis, Vice President of Google Southeast Asia, joined us in a discussion on the latest e-Conomy Southeast Asia (SEA) report and dissect the latest digital trends and discuss how the different industries are moving under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stephanie started on the key themes, takeaways and intended audience for the report and broke down the key verticals which have benefitted during the COVID-19 pandemic and which industries have faced the strongest headwinds, for example travel. Last but not least, Stephanie offered an optimistic outlook to what 2021 will look life given the uncertainty ahead.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Stephanie Davis, Vice President, Google Southeast Asia (LinkedIn)
    • What is your current role and responsibility in Google? 
    • How did you start your career and end up in Singapore?
    • In your career journey, what are the key learnings you can share with our audience here?
  • e-Conomy Southeast Asia (SEA) 2020 by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company
    • This is the 5th year of the e-Conomy report, and it is assembled by Google, Temasek (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and a key investor to many startup unicorns from China to Silicon Valley) and Bain & Co (one of the well-known consulting firms). To start the conversation, what are the key themes from the e-Conomy 2020 report this year?
    • Who are the intended audience of the 2020 report?
    • Southeast Asia has often been touted as the next geographical region after China and India. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the headlines of every nation in the world, and has acted as a catalyst to digital growth & transformation. How has COVID-19 pushed the population of Southeast Asia to come online or accelerated this process, and where is this new growth coming from?
    • What are the three key verticals which have benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic? 
    • Given that most of the world is still caught in a lockdown, you’re probably WFH as well, what is both the quantity and quality for digital engagement of users in the Southeast Asia region?
    • Has the economic growth in Southeast Asia slowed down? Which countries within Southeast Asia have shown growth and which ones have slowed down?
    • Can you talk about how ecommerce has thrived this year and what kind of headwinds do you see in the coming year? 
    • As more people go digital in the years to come, we see that fintech, entertainment and gaming will continue to grow, where do you see the behaviour and activity of different stakeholders such as consumers, businesses, and regulators within this ecosystem?
    • One of the sectors that is gravely affected this year is, of course, the travel industry. Where do you see the signs of recovery? 
    • The Chinese word for crisis consists of 2 characters that mean danger and opportunity, and as Einstein has once said, “In the midst of every opportunity, lies great opportunity.” So what are the two verticals that have emerged this year? 
    • Temasek is a co-publisher of the report, they’re Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and a key investor of many startups from China to Silicon Valley, so how do you see the startup space evolving with regards to deal activity, diversification of portfolios by investors from private equity to venture capital? 
    • What is the outlook for businesses in the year ahead? Should we be optimistic given that the pandemic has both accelerated digital transformation but also shut down many businesses at the same time?
  • Closing

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · The Google e-Conomy Southeast Asia 2020 Report with Stephanie Davis
Is TikTok going to be banned in the US? An Asian Perspective with Jing Yang26 Mar 202400:47:54
"If we assume that happens, I'm sure TikTok, let alone ByteDance as a company as a whole, will survive - and maybe even continue to thrive after this. Because, let's put things into perspective, right? TikTok has more than 1 billion users globally and then the US represents just a little over a 10th of that, 170 million. So I'm not saying that it's not going to impact TikTok and ByteDance. But does it pose an existential threat? Probably not. I believe given we already talked about how ByteDance has been super profitable. I think that, even if they get banned in the US, this is by no means the end of TikTok or ByteDance." - Jing Yang

Fresh out of the studio, Jing Yang, the Asia Bureau Chief for The Information, provided an insightful analysis of the potential implications of the recent U.S. House of Representatives bill to force Bytedance to divest TikTok or face a ban in the US. Detailing a timeline of events, she illuminated how Bytedance and TikTok executives may have misinterpreted U.S. political signals. Despite Bytedance's profitability in China, she shed light on why TikTok is facing financial challenges and the complex dynamics between Bytedance and the investors of the company. Concluding her discussion, she offered her perspectives on the possible future of TikTok globally pending the outcome.

Episode Highlights:
[0:40] Quote of the Day by Jing Yang.
[1:27] Introduction: Jing Yang, Asia Bureau Chief of The Information.
[3:53] Lessons shared by Jing Yang from her career journey.
[5:19] Chronology of the different attempts by the US government to ban TikTok.
[7:40] What are the chances of TikTok being banned in the US?
[9:34] TikTok’s response to the US government after the announcement of the bill.
[11:15] Impact of TikTok's potential ban in the US on content creators & users in the market.
[12:52] The one thing that Jing Yang knows about the TikTok situation very few do.
[14:10] Why TikTok misjudged the political situation in the US.
[17:59] Project Texas and how it encumbered TikTok.
[22:17] TikTok’s engagement with USDS.
[25:14] Chew Shou Zi’s impact on negotiations with the US government after taking over as CEO of TikTok.
[27:45] Assessment of Bytedance and TikTok’s team in handling the US government.
[30:04] Why TikTok is in the red and losing money.
[32:55] Can TikTok still be profitable with a potential US ban?
[36:04] Investors of TikTok distancing themselves from the company.
[40:26] Impact of political affiliations and donations on TikTok.
[41:43] Future of TikTok
[42:43] Closing

You can find Jing Yang at X (formerly known as Twitter): https://x.com/jingyanghk and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jing-yang-33548123/ and her articles on The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/u/Jing%20Yang?rc=fk3gq1

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig.

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Attention Factory: The Story of Tik Tok & China’s ByteDance with Matthew Brennan31 Oct 202000:50:14

In episode 334, Matthew Brennan returned to discuss his new book "Attention Factory: The Story of Tik Tok & China's ByteDance". Matthew began with the inspiration and the key themes behind the first English book specifically focused on ByteDance, observing the rise of the company. He discuss the backstory of Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance and how he learned from his past experiences to build Toutiao first before embarking on Douyin that eventually led to Tik Tok. Last but not least, Matthew debunked the common misconceptions on Tik Tok and ByteDance, explained how their business models work and offered a glimpse to the challenges ahead for the company in the near future.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Matthew Brennan, Co-founder of China Channel and author of “ (chinachannel.co, @mbrennanchina , Linkedin, Wechat:Yowdy-CQ)
    • As the highest recurring guest on the podcast, it’s great to welcome you back. First question: what have you been up to since our last conversation?
  • “Attention Factory - The Story of Tik Tok and China’s ByteDance” by Matthew Brennan
    • What is the inspiration behind writing this book?
    • What are the key themes for this book?
    • Who are the major audiences that you want to target in this book?
    • Tik Tok and ByteDance are often characterized by Western commentators and media as a threat to Facebook, Twitter and even to the US government itself. What are the key misconceptions about Tik Tok and ByteDance? 
    • Probably this is the first book which dives in depth into the background of Zhang Yiming, the founder of Bytedance, and the surprise is that he used to work for China’s twitter clone, Fanfou (started by Wang Xing, now founder and CEO of Meituan-Dianping) and was shut down by the authorities. Can you elaborate more on his background and his stint as a CEO with another startup called 99Fang before coming to ByteDance? What has 99Fang taught Zhang Yiming in the process?
    • After he resigned from 99Fang, he started ByteDance and it was not with Tik Tok that he started his foray. He did Toutiao, can you talk about the design concepts and what Toutiao taught the ByteDance team?
    • One can think of the success of Tik Tok in three stages: Douyin in China, acquisition of Musical.ly and then expanding globally across the decade of 2010 to 2020. Let’s start with Douyin first, how did the app cross the chasm to drive users?
    • Tencent has tried to challenge Douyin on the homeground with Weishi, what did they get wrong and why have they failed to challenge Tik Tok? 
    • What are the key business models for Tik Tok and Douyin from ByteDance? How does the app bring revenues to the company? How are the apps localized or globalized to ensure a better user experience? 
    • There are different ways to look at Tik Tok. One interesting insight was from Eugene Wei’s recent article “Tik Tok and the Sorting Hat”, where Tik Tok does not need the social graph but rather rely on the recommendation engine algorithm to push the interests of the user, which makes Tik Tok a more direct competitor to Youtube. What are your thoughts on how one should think of Tik Tok as a mobile app or social network or video network?
    • Probably, we should talk about what happened to Tik Tok in the US this year. They have hired Kevin Mayer, former head of Disney+ and then Donald Trump threatened to shut them down, and first there was supposed to be an acquisition from Microsoft, but ended up with Oracle and Walmart clinching a partnership deal. Can you share your thoughts on what happened and where this is likely to go before & after the US elections?
    • What are the key challenges you see for ByteDance in the coming year?
  • Closing
    • Do you have any recommendations that have recently inspired you?
    • Where can our audience find you and your new book “Attention Factory”?

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Attention Factory: The Story of Tik Tok & China’s ByteDance with Matthew Brennan
Tech Giants, Secondary Exits & Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia with Nadine Freischlad27 Sep 202000:33:24

In Episode 333, Nadine Freischlad, writer from The Ken, joined us in a conversation on the influence of both US and Chinese tech giants in the third most important market in Asia Pacific: Indonesia, the secondary exits spanned by venture capitalists and founders in Southeast Asia and the story of Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia. We began the story with Nadine's journey from startups to The Ken, and why Indonesia is an interesting and hot market after India and China. We discuss the influence of tech giants from US and China in Indonesia and how Google has fired the first salvo with bringing their cloud platform in Jakarta. Following on, Nadine explained why venture capitalists in Southeast Asia are exiting in secondary markets. Last but not least, she discuss why Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia will not follow in the footsteps of Luckin Coffee.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Nadine Freischlad, Writer, The Ken (@nfreischlad, LinkedIn, The Ken Profile, newsletter)
      • How did you start your career? 
      • What brought you to Asia and eventually to write for The Ken? 
      • Why are you in Indonesia and why is Indonesia the most interesting market in Southeast Asia?
  • Influence of US & China Tech Giants in Indonesia
      • Reference: “Google’s Kormo, AI Hurdles & Indonesia’s job recruitment nightmare”, “Google fires first volley in Indonesia’s cloud wars” and “Facebook, Paypal’s payments play a super app-ortunity for Gojek”
      • Can you describe how the US tech giants, for example, Google, Facebook and Paypal,  have built their influence in Indonesia? 
      • Google has recently launched a job recruitment site called Kormo in Indonesia, can you explain why that came about and what Google wants to achieve out of Kormo?
      • In terms of cloud infrastructure, Google is the first to enter the market before Amazon and Microsoft, does it hurt local hosting providers? 
      • Facebook and Paypal have invested in Gojek (along with Google and Tencent), how does that supercharge Gojek’s ambitions to be a super app in their war against Grab?
      • While the US tech giants have invested into Indonesia’s top unicorns, what are the Chinese tech giants doing in Indonesia?
      • Given the recent pushback from India and US on Tik Tok, will the Indonesian government follow suit with the influence of chinese apps in Indonesia? 
  • Secondary market for Southeast Asia startups
      • Reference: Southeast Asia’s startups surf a secondary wave
      • Given the number of exits from startups are few and far between in Southeast Asia, how are investors justifying their returns to the LPs (limited partners)?
      • We do not see a lot of IPOs in Southeast Asia. Can you talk about how VCs managed to generate liquidity by secondary shares sales and elaborate how the secondary share sales work?
      • Are there platforms where the secondary shares sales can be transacted between investors, employees and founders of the startup? 
      • Are there sources of friction generated between founders of startups & their investors (VCs, PE firms) on the secondary sales shares given that it will disrupt the capitalization table (or cap table in short) of the company?
      • Do you see secondary shares sales as an important mechanism for VCs and PE firms to generate liquidity? Is this similar to how Silicon Valley VCs and angel investors sold their shares to SoftBank two years back?  
  • Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia
    • Reference: “Kopi Kenangan wants to walk in Luckin’s path, not in its shoes”
    • Can you briefly describe the company Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia? 
    • Indonesia is a coffee country most well known for the javanese coffee beans, how is the coffee culture in Indonesia and how does it help Kopi Kenangan to reach its customers?
    • How has Kopi Kenangan as a business scaled up in the recent year for example, their number of retail outlets and customer reach? Are they having any issues of massive burn?
    • Can you explain the unit economics of Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia and contrast this with Luckin Coffee in China? (Refer to Part 2 of The Anonymous Report on Luckin Coffee’s flawed unit economics) 
    • In your perspective, what makes Kopi Kenangan able to move away from the shadow of Luckin Coffee given the latter’s recent scandal?
  • Closing
    • Can you recommend your book, podcast and something which has recently inspired your life?
    • How can my audience find you?

Editor's Note: Our apologies as there were some issues during the recording on Nadine's end. Hence you will hear a little background noise towards near the end during the Kopi Kenangan part of the conversation. We will hope to improve our recording with our guests in the future

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Tech Giants, Secondary Exits & Kopi Kenangan in Indonesia with Nadine Freischlad
Beyond the Smartphone & COVID-19's Forced Experiments with Benedict Evans06 Sep 202000:21:57

In episode 332, continuing our last conversation with Benedict Evans, we discuss the major topics that are dominating the global technology landscape. First, Benedict dissect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and explain how the forced experiments will shift the immediate future where we work and interact with each other. Moving forward, he discuss what lies beyond the smartphone, specifically touching on VR and AR and analyzed why other technologies such as AI and blockchain are lurking in the background. Finally, he offers his perspectives on our expectations on technology with the dawn of 5G.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Benedict Evans (@benedictevans , LinkedIn, Personal Site, Essays, Newsletter), Venture Partner of Mosaic Ventures & Entrepreneur First & Independent Analyst
  • COVID 19's Forced Experiments
    • Reference: COVID and forced experiments, Presentations: Tech and the New Normal & Tech in 2020: Standing on the shoulders of giants and What comes after Zoom?. 
    • The COVID 19 have accelerated digital transformation in the past three months more than the last 5 years for certain industries. What are the forced experiments which COVID-19 can help us to understand the evolution of technology, for example, Zoom for video conferencing and what it has and has not solved for us? 
  • Beyond the Smartphone
    • Reference: Should you care about the 5G?
    • Where is the smartphone in the S-curve: the beginning, the middle or the late stage?
    • If we slice and dice the other platforms in the horizon: IoT (or ambient computing), VR or AR, they don’t seem to show the scale that smartphones can extend in terms of their adjacencies. What are the signs that you will identify to show that the smartphone platform is in the decline?
    • What do you think that the contribution of 5G is to the entire telecommunications industry? 
  • Closing
    • Do you have anything from book, article, movie or podcast to recommend to our audience that have inspired you recently?
      • Benedict's recommendation: History of Germany economy in the 1930s-1940s.
    • How can our audience find you?

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Beyond the Smartphone & COVID-19's Forced Experiments with Benedict Evans
Technology Regulation, App Store & Global Decoupling with Benedict Evans30 Aug 202000:47:29

In episode 331, Benedict Evans, the independent analyst and venture partner from Mosaic Ventures & Entrepreneur First, joined us in the first of the two episodes to discuss the major topics that are dominating the global technology landscape. We began the conversation with his recent stint with Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in Silicon Valley and the key takeaways during his stay there. Then we dived deep into  the key topics which dominate the global technology landscape: tech regulation of the major Internet giants, the app store conversation featuring Fornite vs Apple and the decoupling of the global supply chain with China and India.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Benedict Evans (@benedictevans , LinkedIn, Personal Site, Essays, Newsletter), Venture Partner of Mosaic Ventures & Entrepreneur First & Independent Analyst
    • When we had the first conversation with you, you were a partner in the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, the first question for us, what are the key takeaways thinking about technology from the lens of a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley?
    • Since you have moved back to the United Kingdom, what have you been up to?
  • Tech Regulation and App Stores
    • Reference: Regulating Technology , Would breaking up big tech work? What would? and App Stores, Trust & Anti Trust
    • Let’s start with the recent movement in the US by the Congress to call for the break up of the four major tech companies: Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple and potentially restricting their M&A activity. We have the leaders of these four tech companies brought before the Congressional hearings. 
    • From looking at the hearings, what does the regulators get right and wrong about big technology companies and insist that the only way is to ‘break them up’?
    • Can we learn from history on how we should think about breaking up big technology companies? For example drawing on what they did to Standard Oil during the gilded age in the 1900s in the U.S.? 
  • The decoupling of global supply chains
    • Currently, China’s market is 3x times larger than the US. The Indian market is teaming up with US companies to move their supply chain out from China to India, for example, Apple. Will the Chinese and Indian Internet outsize the US market so that it is no longer the axis of innovation and technology growth in the next few decades?
    • Do you think that the future of the Internet is going to be “balkanized”: China, India, Europe, US and the rest of the world? 
    • Will the decoupling of supply chains between China and the US change the way the technology sector will evolve in the next few decades?

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Technology Regulation, App Store & Global Decoupling with Benedict Evans
China Internet Report 2020 with Gareth Nicholson09 Aug 202000:43:57

In episode 330, Gareth Nicholson, deputy technology editor on the technology desk from South China Morning Post (SCMP), joined us to discuss the China Internet Report 2020 and its impact to the rest of the world. We discuss the key major trends: the impact of COVID-19 on China tech and how it transform food delivery, the accelerated self-reliance of Chinese companies due to the US and China tensions, the year of 5G for mass adoption in the Chinese domestic market, live streaming and ecommerce, and finally, why the Chinese companies are now moving their US listings back to China. Last but not least, Gareth shared the key trends that he will watch out for in 2021.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Gareth Nicholson, deputy Technology Editor on the Technology desk, South China Morning Post.
    • Since our last conversation, what have you been up to?
  • China Internet Report 2020 by South China Morning Post
    • Now let’s talk about the report. It’s SCMP’s 3rd annual report, what are some of the key sections and themes that the China Internet report has always focused on?
    • As we understand that SCMP has been delivering the China Internet Report every year since 2016, what are the key themes which the report have discussed every year till now?
    • I love how the report starts off with ‘China in a glance’ which provides readers with a general background of the Chinese internet space. The graphic comparisons for the China vs US internet landscapes are helpful. For example, I didn’t know that China has about 3 times the number of internet users at 904M in comparison to US’s almost 300 million (298M). Can you provide us a snapshot on how the Chinese Internet is now compared with respect to the US?
    • Who are now the key players within the Chinese tech ecosystem, as we notice that Baidu has dropped down to number 11? 
    • Trend #1: Impact of COVID-19 to China Tech Sector
      • What is the impact of COVID-19 on China’s tech sector? 
      • How did the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology in China respond to COVID-19 pandemic? with plans along the 5 themes: building a strong infrastructure network, applying digital technology in all sectors, enhancing data security, strengthening tech innovation and optimizing broader industry development?
    • Trend #2: China Accelerated Self-Reliance on Tech
      • With the ongoing tension escalating between the US and China, how is China doing on the path of becoming technologically self-reliant?
      • What are some of China’s major challenges?
      • What is the impact of this move to self-reliance for Huawei and other Chinese companies?
      • Where are the competencies that Chinese tech firms will need to develop to bridge the gap between them and the US?
    • Trend #3: The year of mass adoption for 5G
      • Is this the year for mass adoption for 5G?
      • What will be the impact of 5G for Chinese tech in the next two to three years?
    • Trend #4: Live Streaming's 3rd Phase in China
      • What are the 3 phases of livestream in China and what’s after the 3rd phase?
    • Trend #5: China companies listing back at home (Hong Kong and Shanghai)
      • We are seeing a lot of Chinese companies looking to list in HK or Shanghai. Do you see this a part of the great trend due to the tensions between the US and China? 
      • At the same time, we see accounting scandals for example, Luckin Coffee and TAL education and this leads to more scrutiny to Chinese companies, do you think that more and more chinese companies will delist from the US and move back to China?
    • What topics are covered in the pro-report as compared from the free report?
    • Closing
      • How do our audience find you?

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · China Internet Report 2020 with Gareth Nicholson
Gojek vs Grab in Southeast Asia 2020 Edition with Jon Russell12 Jul 202000:42:56

In episode 329, Jon Russell, editor of The Ken Southeast Asia, joined us in a conversation to discuss the continuing epic rivalry between Gojek and Grab in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. Starting from the perspective of Gojek, we discuss the impact and changes made after the founder's departure and how they are re-organizing to tackle Grab's onslaught in Indonesia and expanding out to other parts of Southeast Asia from Indonesia. With new investments from US tech giants, Facebook and Paypal, we discuss how Gojek is shaping itself to be a worthy rival against Grab backed by SoftBank and Alibaba in Southeast Asia. Last but not least, Jon discuss why the media streaming giants of Southeast Asia, HOOQ & iFlix failed to take on Netflix and the key takeaways for unicorn start-ups in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion:

  • Jon Russell (@jonrussell, LinkedIn, Newsletter, Personal Site, The Ken Profile)
    • Since we have last spoken, you have moved out of TechCrunch and now joined The Ken. Can you talk about The Ken and what is your new role there?
  • Grab vs Gojek in 2020
    • Let’s start from Gojek, a lot of things have happened. Their founder and former CEO, Nadiem Makarim has left the company and become a Minister of Education & Culture under President Jokowi’s cabinet in Indonesia. What’s the impact on Gojek after his departure? (Ref: Up for Grab? Gojek after Nadiem Makarim)
    • They have started the expansion to Southeast Asia last year but it has not grown very well. (Ref: Gojek’s stunted SE Asia expansion story), can you talk about their challenges in expanding out of Indonesia while dealing with Grab who is competing in their backyard?
    • That being said, they have been doing well on the fundraising front: Gojek has been invested by Facebook and Paypal (Source: CNBC). 
    • What are the implications to Gojek as Google, Paypal and Facebook are lining up against Grab? (Ref: Facebook, PayPal’s payments play a super app-ortunity for Gojek)
    • The US tech giants are in Indonesia just as the Chinese tech giants, for example, Meituan-Dianping which is a super app entering the market. What can Gojek and Grab learn from Meituan-Dianping? (Ref: The Gojek-Grab SE Asia super app battle with a Meituan twist)
    • What is the impact of COVID-19 on Grab and Gojek?
    • Both Gojek and Grab have done layoffs in the past month. How do you look at the approaches from both companies? (Grab CEO’s memo, Gojek’s layoffs)
    • SoftBank has been taking a hit from Wework and Oyo. What is the downstream impact to Grab based on the current troubles in the Vision Fund?
    • Is the race to dominate Southeast Asia going down to whether Grab or Gojek wins Indonesia and not the other countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia, Singapore)? 
    • What will the key battleground for Grab and Gojek in the coming 2021? 
  • Impact of COVID-19 to Southeast Asia 
    • You have written a lot of media streaming companies similar to Netflix, for example HOOQ from Singapore and iFlix from Malaysia. The COVID-19 pandemic have led to HOOQ being shut down and iFlix being acquired from Tencent. What are the key learnings from HOOQ’s downfall and iFlix’s acquisition? 
    • What are the key takeaways from the COVID pandemic for Southeast Asia? (Ref: 7 takeaways from Covid-time digital winners and losers in Southeast Asia)
  • Closing
    • Can you recommend a book or movie or podcast or anything which recently made an impact to your work and personal life?
    • How do my audience find you? 

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Gojek vs Grab in Southeast Asia 2020 Edition with Jon Russell
Pinduoduo on Social Ecommerce & Agriculture with Xinyi Lim28 Jun 202000:51:15

In episode 328, Lim Xinyi, senior director for corporate development from Pinduoduo, joined us to discuss the social ecommerce company and its impact on agriculture. Starting from the conversation, Xinyi shared her background and how she came to discover and eventually join Pinduoduo. She discuss Pinduoduo's current mission and vision and how the company pioneered social ecommerce in China. Last but not least she shared Pinduoduo's contributions to the agriculture sector in China and how they are helping farmers to get their agricultural produce to the consumers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Lim Xinyi (LinkedIn), Senior Director, Corporate Development at Pinduoduo (@PinduoduoInc, LinkedIn, Medium)
    • How did you start your career?
    • In your career journey, what are the interesting career lessons you can share with our audience.
  • Pinduoduo’s Social E-Commerce Model and its impact in agriculture 
    • Can you briefly introduce us to your company Pinduoduo in China and its mission and vision? 
    • How do you explain Pinduoduo as a social e-commerce company to the audience out there? 
    • Before Pinduoduo came into the scene in 2015, the ecommerce industry led by Alibaba and Jingdong (JD) generated a combined revenue of $433B gross merchandise value (GMV), and within 5 years, it skyrocketed from a startup to 57B company with buying base of 585M generating $144B of GMV (reference from Pinduoduo & the rise of Social E-Commerce by YCombinator) and by 2020, it’s the 2nd largest ecommerce platform in China behind Alibaba. Can you talk about how Pinduoduo pioneered the concept of social shopping in China?
    • What are the features of social shopping that have been introduced by Pinduoduo? (For example, 1/ creating community via team purchase, 2/ Daily Check ins, 3/ Price Chop, 4/ Card program, 5/ mini games and 6/ personalized recommendations referenced in the YC article)
    • What are the misconceptions from the Western world which Pinduoduo has been mis-understood as a company?
    • How does Pinduoduo contribute to the agriculture sector in China? (See reference by Parmesh Shah from World Bank)
    • Why is Pinduoduo well-suited to help farmers and digitize agriculture?
    • What are the benefits for the farmers in China? 
    • How does Duo Duo Farms help to alleviate poverty and create a sustainable future via the team purchase feature in Pinduoduo?
    • Can you elaborate about the Duo Duo Farm project in Yunnan and what are the key learnings there?
    • Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, what have been Pinduoduo’s response to the situation and what you have done to help the farmers to tide over this tough period?
    • What are the key trends you see in the future of social commerce and does this extend beyond agriculture for Pinduoduo?
  • Closing
    • Can you recommend anything (a book, movie or article) which has inspired you recently?
    • How do our audience find you?

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Pinduoduo on Social Ecommerce & Agriculture with Xinyi Lim
Samsung Rising Part Two with Geoffrey Cain13 Jun 202000:34:51

In episode 327, Geoffrey Cain, author of "Samsung Rising" joins us in a two parts conversation on his journey across Asia as a journalist and author and discuss the backstory of his new book behind the Samsung Group and how it rise to be the most powerful Chaebol (large family-owned business conglomerate) in Korea. In the second part of the conversation, Geoffrey discuss Samsung's complicated relationship with Apple as both a supplier and competitor and how their arrogance and hierarchical culture led to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. He reveals why he did not include the story of Lee Boo-jin, the daughter of Lee Kun Hee who is often tapped as a potential successor to the Samsung Group and why it is unlikely that there will be a female leader to helm the Samsung Group. Last but not least, Geoffrey offered his perspectives on how Samsung is responsible for exporting culture out of Korea to the rest of the world, particularly the movie Parasite and his thoughts on whether there is a future for another Samsung-like Group emerging in another market out there. 

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Geoffrey Cain, author of “Samsung Rising”, and also regular commentator on The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Time & The New Republic and former correspondent in The Economist (Website, @geoffrey_cain, LinkedIn)
  • Samsung Rising (Random House, Amazon, Apple Books) [0:30]
    • What are your perspectives on Samsung’s dual relationship with Apple, as a supplier of solid state drives and OLED screens for the iPhone while competing with their flagship phones, the Galaxy series phones? [0:34]
    • Samsung Galaxy note 7 fiasco is well covered in the press. In your view in covering that story, what lessons have Samsung learned from that disaster that almost ended their smartphone dominance? [3:56]
    • What are the fundamental flaws that are in Samsung that are not functioning in today's world? [8:06]
    • The battles within the Lee family for the succession to Samsung's empire. [11:28]
    • Comments on Lee Boo-jin, the sister of Jay Lee as a potential successor to the Samsung Group, and why it is not included in the book "Samsung Rising"
    • Samsung's family connection with the Oscar best movie in 2020 "Parasite" [22:24]
    • Do you think that the success that Samsung has attained after 80 years of work can be replicated in other countries today?  [27:40]
  • Closing
    • Do you have any recommendation of a book, movie, podcast or anything which have inspired you recently? [32:25]
      • Geoffrey's recommendations: Joe Studwell "How Asia Works", James Fallows "China Airborne".
    • Where do our audience find you? [33:45]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Samsung Rising Part Two with Geoffrey Cain
Samsung Rising Part One with Geoffrey Cain06 Jun 202000:54:36

In episode 326, Geoffrey Cain, author of "Samsung Rising" joins us in a two parts conversation on his journey across Asia as a journalist and author and discuss the backstory of his new book behind the Samsung Group and how it rise to be the most powerful Chaebol (large family-owned business conglomerate) in Korea. In the first part of the conversation, Geoffrey discuss the inspiration and the main themes behind "Samsung Rising", and shares the origin story of Samsung and how they went from an agriculture business to a global technology giant today along with Apple and Huawei by a family owned enterprise spanning three generations.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Geoffrey Cain, author of “Samsung Rising”, and also regular commentator on The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Time & The New Republic and former correspondent in The Economist (Website, @geoffrey_cain, LinkedIn) [0:26]
    • How did you start your career? [0:55]
    • What have you learned from covering North & South Korea, China and Cambodia in your career journey? [8:35]
    • In your career journey, what are the key lessons you can share with the younger audience? [10:55]
    • Comments on how the history of Samsung aligns with the story of South Korea's rise as one of the top economies in Asia.
  • Samsung Rising (Random House, Amazon, Apple Books) [15:45]
    • What is the inspiration behind writing the book “Samsung Rising”? [16:20]
    • Who are the intended audience of the book? [20:32]
    • If you will to summarize the key takeaways of the book, what would they be so that you can spark their interest to learn more? [22:22]
    • Can you talk about the origins of Samsung and what type of businesses that the family behind the company have grown from a small trading company  to modern technology giant today? [25:05]
    • What does Chaebol means in South Korea? [33:05]
    • The family behind Samsung have gone through three generations: the founder Lee Byung-chul (or B.C Lee in short), Lee Kun-hee and recently to Jay Lee. Can you talk about how each leader has been different and what their contributions to Samsung have been? [36:50]
    • Can Jay Lee step up for Samsung as his father and grandfather have in the past? [49:04]
    • Jay Lee's investments in Silicon Valley and how he is thinking about Samsung's future given that the environment is currently becoming more complex with US protectionism. [52:00]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · Samsung Rising Part One with Geoffrey Cain
Why Facebook invest in Reliance Jio Platforms with Tim Culpan16 May 202000:39:19

In episode 325, Tim Culpan from Bloomberg joined us to dissect the most important deal that rocked the Asian business and technology landscape with Facebook investing 5.7B into Reliance Jio. We began the conversation with Tim to set the context behind the deal and what both Facebook & Reliance Jio Platforms stand to gain from this partnership and their ambitions to win the market with a super app concept that is now popular in China & Southeast Asia. Tim also examined the implications to what it means for the Chinese technology giants from Alibaba to Xiaomi in India and the US technology giants such as Google and Amazon. Last but not least, Tim discuss the recent debacles which SoftBank faced with their investments and whether there is a silver lining for the Vision Fund.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Tim Culpan (@tculpan, Linkedin, Bloomberg), Columnist at Bloomberg [0:29]
    • Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [1:23]
  • Facebook investment in Reliance Jio and its impact on India [2:39]
    • Ref: Facebook and Ambani Can Be Happy Together by Tim Culpan and Why Facebook is betting big in India by Ravi Agrawal (Source: Foreign Policy)
    • To start, Facebook has invested $5.7 billion for a 9.99% stake in India’s Reliance Jio Platforms, a three-and-a-half-year-old subsidiary of the nation’s most valued firm, Reliance Industries, and the biggest telecom operator in the country with more than 370 million subscribers and valued Jio at a pre-money valuation of $65.95 billion, makes Facebook the largest minority shareholder in the Indian telecom network.
    • To help our audience to start the conversation, what does the telco Reliance Jio do and why they are influential in the India telco market? (Note: Mukesh Ambani is the richest tycoon in India - see AA episode 264 with James Crabtree who profiled him and his family in the book “The Billionaire Raj”)
    • What is Jio Platforms and Mukesh Ambani, the person behind Jio Platforms and his ownership of Reliance Industries, the largest Indian conglomerate. [4:38]
    • Why did Facebook invest in Jio? [6:58]
    • How will Facebook extend its influence of its platform (and we include Whatsapp and Instagram) across India through this investment in Reliance Jio? [8:33]
    • How would this partnership between Facebook and Reliance Jio Platforms help the small and medium businesses and jumpstart their Jio Mart initiative? [10:51]
    • Does Jio Mart will built or be built into the super app under Whatsapp based on this alliance? [13:25]
    • What does this alliance between Facebook and Reliance mean for the China tech giants (Bytedance, Alibaba via Paytm, Xiaomi and Tencent) in Indian market? [15:00]
    • Will Google and Amazon consider the same path now that Facebook did the investment? [18:10]
    • What does Reliance Jio gain from the alliance with Facebook in India? [19:51]
    • How will ecommerce or the mobile landscape change in India with this alliance? [21:25]
    • What does this mean for China and US tech giants entering into India which is becoming more protectionist in the past two years? [22:44]
  • Will SoftBank’s Vision Fund fail in the end? [25:31]
  • Closing  [37:01]
    • Any book or stuff to recommend? [37:19]
      • Tim's recommendations: dance music in the 1980s, 1990s & 2000s and Youtube
    • Where can our audience find you? [38:01]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

Don't Ignore Asia Tech with Catherine Shu20 Mar 202400:50:51
"When I wrote about it, in addition to assuming that all Asia tech companies, particularly in China, were copycats of Western companies, I think there are also a lot of misperceptions about how easy it is to enter a market, especially when they're an Asian market, especially when there are incumbent players already. For example, Uber failed. Basically, they failed. That's a harsh word, but they failed in both China and Southeast Asia, where they were acquired by Didi in China and Grab in Southeast Asia. And then Facebook really fell flat on its face with a lot of markets with free basics, it undermined Net Neutrality and also assumed that consumers just because maybe they had to be price conscious, were willing to access only a handful of sites as opposed to having access to a free Internet. I think people also underestimate the influence that Asia has had in other parts of the world." - Catherine Shu

Fresh out of the studio, Catherine Shu reflects on her 12 years at TechCrunch, chronicling the evolution of Asian tech from China to India. She highlights the rise of Chinese apps such as WeChat and TikTok's global impact and the shifting international views on Chinese tech. She explores India's rising tech scene, South Korea's startup growth with the rise of Coupang and Southeast Asia's expanding tech influence, with a focus on Grab. Shu offers her advice for journalists covering Asia's dynamic tech landscape and articulating what great looks like for Asia Tech in the future.

Fresh out of the studio, Catherine Shu reflects on her 12 years at TechCrunch, chronicling the evolution of Asian tech from China to India. She highlights the rise of Chinese apps such as WeChat and TikTok's global impact and the shifting international views on Chinese tech. She explores India's rising tech scene, South Korea's startup growth with the rise of Coupang and Southeast Asia's expanding tech influence, with a focus on Grab. Shu offers her advice for journalists covering Asia's dynamic tech landscape and articulating what great looks like for Asia Tech in the future.

Audio Episode Highlights:
[0:40] Quote of the Day #QOTD by Catherine Shu.
[1:38] Introduction: Catherine Shu, former senior reporter for TechCrunch.
[2:50] Her thoughts on the TechCrunch recent layoff.
[5:04] Catherine’s future plans.
[6:34] Catherine shares lessons from her career journey.
[8:07] Inspiration behind her last article on TechCrunch: Don’t Ignore Asia Tech.
[9:30] Western Perceptions Change on Asia Tech over the decade.
[11:02] Early misconceptions about Asia Tech in the West.
[12:44] Evolution of Asia Tech from Catherine’s perspective.
[15:14] Tech Coverage in Taiwan.
[17:17] The one thing about Asia tech Catherine knows but very few do.
[19:41] Why China succeeded with WeChat as the super app.
[23:26] The rise in TikTok globally for Chinese Tech.
[26:40] Perspectives on TikTok recent potential ban.
[27:26] What the West learned from the super app revolution in China.
[28:52] Why China was caught flatfooted with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in AI.
[30:14] The future of Chinese startups.
[34:01] How the Indian tech market evolved over the past decade.
[35:58] South Korean Startup Ecosystem.
[39:00] Is there really a Southeast Asia tech story?
[42:34] Advice for future correspondents covering Asia Tech.
[44:32] What does great look like for Asia Tech?
[46:30] Closing.

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig

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The Anonymous Report that brought down Luckin Coffee with Rui Ma25 Apr 202000:39:50

In episode 324, Rui Ma, co-host of Tech Buzz China podcast and a trusted voice on China Tech joined us on a conversation to dive deeper on the anonymous report that unveiled Luckin Coffee's recent debacle. We start with a quick history of Luckin Coffee with Rui Ma breaking down the backstory on how Luckin Coffee's alleged fraud came to light and the impact after the fallout. Rui Ma dived deeper beyond the original story with an analysis of the anonymous report entitled "Luckin Coffee: Fraud + Fundamentally Broken Business". Last but not least, she discussed the implications of Luckin Coffee's debacle and how investigative reporting and corporate activism will impact the public listings of Chinese companies in the US.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Rui Ma, Creator & Host of Tech Buzz China podcast by Pandaily produced by SupChina (LinkedIn, @ruima) [0:26]
    • Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [0:30]
  • Luckin Coffee Debacle [1:36]
    • Disclaimer: The information provided here by our host and guest are not here to encourage buying or selling any equities mentioned here and investing is strictly our audience’s own responsibility. So, please do your homework. 
    • Origins of Luckin Coffee has been covered by Matthew Brennan in Episode 279 and it was starting to challenge Starbucks Cafe in China two years back.
    • Highly recommended: Rui Ma and Ying Ying Lu in Techbuzz China Episode 65 (Extra Buzz Special): Luckin’s luck ran out
    • To help our audience, Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡) started off with the on demand delivery model and did not have physical stores similar to Starbucks. Then it started scaling up by burning investment cash and building physical stores. The investors came from a variety of sources (according to CB Insights): venture capital (JOY Capital), asset management fund (BlackRock), private equity (Centurium Capital), China International Capital Corporation or CICC (investment bank) and GIC (the sovereign wealth fund in Singapore).  
    • Let’s start from today and work backwards to what happened that led to alleged fraud of Luckin Coffee being announced by the company.
      • How was alleged fraud for Luckin Coffee come to public attention? (Source: Luckin Coffee’s filing of 6K) [3:04]
      • What was the alleged fraud about and how much has been uncovered? [4:23]
      • Who are the people behind the alleged fraud? [5:27]
      • What is the impact given the announcement of the alleged fraud by Luckin Coffee, from stock crashing to customers rushing to claim their coffee? (Source: SCMP) [7:08]
      • Luckin Coffee has been a strange story in China. What is the business model that led to them going public? [9:11]
    • The Anonymous Report titled “Luckin Coffee: Fraud + Fundamentally Broken Business” [11:40]
      • Citing the Extra Buzz Newsletter #7: “The report was very extensive 89 pages, utilized 92 full time, 1418 part time staff on the ground who recorded 11,000 hours of video, which is almost 3 years worth of store days covering 620 stores in 38 different cities.”
      • Basically, it is this report that fanned the flames for Luckin Coffee in their present state. However, there’s a lot of confusion of who did the report, for example, 燃财经 Rancaijing and Muddy Waters leeched off from the report (and somehow Western Media mistakenly attributed to them). So, the first question, what are the key facts behind the report? [12:24]
      • The report have two interesting parts titled “The Fraud” and “The Fundamentally Broken Business Model”. Let start from the first part “The Fraud”, what are the key smoking gun evidence and red flags cited that led to the alleged fraud claim in the report? 
      • What are the business model flaws cited in the report that claims that Luckin Coffee has the fundamentally business model? [15:16]
      • Let’s zero in to one key red flag from the “Fraud” section: “Number of items per store per day inflated by 69% in 2019 3Q and 88% in 2019 4Q, supported by 11,260 hours of store traffic video”, can you explain how the report presents its investigation and use the numbers to get to the conclusion? [18:44]
      • The anonymous report took a very strong look at the unit economics of Luckin Coffee (Business Flaw #3) at page 78: what are the key arguments from the report that establish that Luckin Coffee is not able to be profitable? [20:40]
      • With such a construction of an elaborate report and this entire episode can be turned into a “Billions” TV series episode (by Showtime), the $1m dollar question: who is behind the report and what is their motivation behind it? [24:06]
    • Aftermath 
      • Who benefits from the entire Luckin Coffee’s debacle? [25:44]
        • The hedge funds
        • Starbucks in China, given that 30% of their revenues came from China before Luckin’s entrance to challenge them. 
      • One interesting consequence of this Luckin Coffee episode, is the quality of investigative reporting for corporate fraud in China. The anonymous report took a lot of effort in constructing the actual picture by people going undercover to find out the actual numbers. We notice that this is getting better whenever each scandal pops up in the market. Does that mean that we will see more of these exposes? [27:16]
      • What are your first thoughts when the report was first released into the public? [30:00]
      • Do you think that how Chinese companies should do to dispel myths or being challenged about their businesses? [31:48]
      • What do you think that the US investor learn from this episode? [33:30]
      • Do you think that the English and US media have reported the Luckin Coffee narrative properly? [35:47]
    • Closing [37:52]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin).  Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

analyseasia · The Anonymous Report that brought down Luckin Coffee with Rui Ma
SparkLabs Connex with Charles Reed Anderson12 Apr 202000:34:50

In episode 323, Charles Reed Anderson, our long time guest of the show and host of TechBurst Asia joins us to discuss his latest venture, SparkLabs Connex, a new accelerator program for smart city technologies under the SparkLabs Group. Before diving deep into the new venture, Charles discuss the challenges of smart city rankings and how they did not reflect the reality of what is happening on the ground. Then he began to discuss the rationale of SparkLabs Connex and why it is time to start an accelerator program specifically on smart city technologies. Last but not least, he break down how the global program works, offered his perspectives on what types of entrepreneurs he would seek to fund and address how SparkLabs Connex will operate in a COVID-19 world.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Charles Anderson (@CRASingapore, LinkedIn), founder of Charles Reed Anderson and Associates, host of TechBurst Asia (iTunes, Spotify, @techburstasia) and now general partner for SparkLabs Connex. [0:24]
    • What have you been up to since we last spoke? [1:10]
    • You have recently written an article about smart city rankings and why the rankings do not reflect reality. Can you talk about why this is the case? [1:40] 
  • SparkLabs Connex [5:45]
    • Can you briefly introduce your new venture SparkLabs Connex from the SparkLabs Group? (Source: TechCrunch) [6:00]
    • There are already a lot of incubators and accelerators across different geographies, but very few have succeeded. Why do you think that this is the time to start another one? [7:57]
    • What are the industry verticals or technologies that SparkLabs Connex is looking into? (5G, IoT, Smart Cities)? [9:15]
    • How does the model work for SparkLabs Connex and how does it work with the ecosystem, for example, partners? [10:50]
    • Why are the vendors willing to work with you as many accelerators have been building partnerships across industries? [13:44]
    • How does SparkLabs Connex work for entrepreneurs? [15:05]
    • What are the traits of startup founders that you will seek to invest in? [17:05]
    • What are the types of technologies which you will specifically look into as you invest in the space? [22:00]
    • Omate: elderly care watch from Shenzhen and expand in France [22:40]
    • Can you share the stories of early applicants into the program? [24:40]
    • Can you share the geographical profiles of startups in SparkLabs Connex and whether there are preferences over some geographies? [25:40]
    • Are there any additional things which you want the applicants to know? [27:40]
    • Given the recent coronavirus outbreak, do you think that it will slow down the growth of IoT and 5G in the market? [28:25]
    • How about technologies in IoT and 5G which might have come up during the COVID-19 outbreak? [29:55]
    • Press releases:
  • Closing [32:30]
    • Charles recommendations: Parag Khanna's "The Future is Asian"
    • Where can we find him?

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin).  Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

BiliBili in China with Rui Ma29 Mar 202000:29:54

In episode 322, Rui Ma from Techbuzz China joined us to discuss Bilibili in China and discuss how the video site has grown from a niche community of anime lovers to its now proclaimed "Youtube of China". Starting from the origin story, Rui Ma traced the backstory in how Bilibili came to be and how the site has diversified their monetisation revenues from esports, ecommerce to advertising. Last but not least, she discuss how Bilibili balances its current growth strategy against the patience of the community behind after going public.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Rui Ma, Founder of Euzen Labs and Host of TechBuzz podcast by Pandaily produced by SupChina & Extra Buzz Newsletter (LinkedIn, @ruima) [0:28]
    • Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [0:31]
  • Bilibili in China [1:19]
    • Can you talk about the origin story of Bilibili and how it has become a platform for fans who are experts in certain niches such as anime in China? [1:40]
    • Who are the founders of Bilibili? [5:08]
    • What are the monetization models for Bilibili? [7:55]
    • How much that Bilibili has ventured into e-sports after acquisition of an e-sports team? [10:24]
    • What are the major similarities & differences between Bilibili and Youtube?[12:50]
    • User experience on Bilibili - bullet comments [15:44]
    • Most popular phrases that come from bullet comments in 2019 - AWSL [17:30]
    • Can you describe how users actually register and get themselves memberships on the Bilibili? How is this different from public social networks out there such as Facebook, Wechat?  [18:45]
    • What are the interesting partnerships that Bilibili has done so far for example, New Year Gala with Xinhua Agency and ecommerce with Taobao (Alibaba)? [21:02]
    • Do you think that the Bilibili model can be exported to the US, India or Southeast Asia? Are there already examples of similar models out there? [22:55]
    • The balance between growth and user community interests in Bilibili [26:30]
    • Other references: Check out Techbuzz China's Episode 57: Bilibili - The YouTube of China?
  • Closing [28:30]
    • Anything if you want to recommend that inspire you recently? [28:35]
    • How do my audience find you? [29:01]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted and produced by Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin) and originally created by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin).  Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

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