Tag: Google

Australia – BMF has announced the appointment of Simone Takasaki in the newly created role of head of creative services and integrated production. 

Takasaki is formerly with Google APAC as the head of production and brand studio, spending three-and-a-half years leading its production offering for its brand studio and nine years at Wieden+Kennedy Portland and Tokyo as a production and operation lead at the creative agency.

In her newly created role, Takasaki will work across BMF and its portfolio of clients to drive efficiency and effectiveness throughout the production process and help the business continue to deliver world-class work. 

Additionally, she will also help bolster the creative agency’s innovation offering, alongside Google APAC’s former head of creative and now BMF’s chief innovation officer, Tara McKenty.

Stephen McArdle, CEO of BMF, shared, “Simone is somewhat of a production unicorn. She has progressive tech and digital production skills as well as extensive experience leading production at a world-class creative agency. Simone’s skillset, ambition, and credibility make her the perfect person to enhance the holistic agency process and further drive our innovation offering alongside our chief innovation officer, Tara McKenty.”

Speaking on her appointment, Takasaki also said, “BMF has an incredibly strong reputation for its creativity, culture, and craft. After four years working in big tech, I couldn’t be more excited to be joining an agency with such a strong reputation in not just its creativity but its effectiveness.” 

Malaysia – Malaysia Airlines and the international technology company Google have formed a partnership to promote Malaysia’s growth as a prime tourism destination while also driving digital advancement in the aviation industry.

Expanding on its commitment to promoting Malaysia as a core hub for international travellers, the dynamic relationship marks Malaysia Airlines’ drive towards digitising its commercial advancement to promote growth and demand from important markets. 

The partnership intends to support continued development and innovation in a number of product areas, such as Google Pay, Google Flights, and AI-driven marketing solutions. They may develop a comprehensive ecosystem with a client experience as the top priority for this endeavour.

The airline also hopes to use creative solutions to propel its growth and marketing tactics, positioning it for major network expansion plans this year, as travel demand is expected to approach pre-pandemic levels.

Malaysia Airlines aims to increase the reach, relevancy, and return on investment of its marketing initiatives in the very competitive travel market by utilising Google’s AI-powered Performance Max. 

Speaking about the partnership, Dersenish Aresandiran, Malaysia Aviation Group (Airlines) chief commercial officer, said, “By harnessing the power of Google’s technology innovation and expertise, we are confident that we can unlock new opportunities, elevate the travel experience, and strengthen Malaysia’s position as a leading tourism hub in the region, aligning with the government’s vision for Visit Malaysia Year 2026 (VMY2026).” 

Meanwhile, Farhan Qureshi, Google Malaysia, Pakistan and Frontier Markets managing director, said, “Malaysia’s tourism sector is poised for significant growth, and Google is committed to supporting Malaysia Airlines in capitalising on this opportunity. By teaming up with Google, Malaysia Airlines intends to harness cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies to enhance its commercial operations, streamline processes and provide tailored experiences to travellers.”

Singapore – Google and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) have officially unveiled the expansion of their augmented reality (AR) guided tour ‘Merli’s Immersive Adventure’ with new iconic landmarks in Singapore.

Powered by Google’s ‘ARCore Geospatial AI’ that can build location-based AR experiences, travellers can now discover and experience more of Singapore’s landmarks virtually at the touch of their fingertips through Merli’s Immersive Adventure.

Merli, Singapore’s tourism mascot, will guide travellers on a tour through six enchanting stops in the popular tourism precincts of Singapore’s Civic District and Chinatown. With just their mobile devices, tourists and residents alike can uncover the country’s historical, cultural, and culinary experience and interact with the nuances of its heritage and modernity.

Tourists and residents alike can now immerse themselves in Singapore’s landmarks and cultural heritage through their mobile devices.

Amongst the new landmarks included in Merli’s Immersive Adventure is Singapore’s first-ever post office, now the iconic Fullerton Hotel, where travellers can send out some virtual postcards to their loved ones.

The expanded map also included the Great Emporium stop, where the life-sized bumboat is brought to life in AR and tourists can learn about the significance of the Singapore River for the city and its people.

Merli also uncovers hidden spots like the Peranakan Tile Gallery, a local Chinatown business that sells tiles salvaged from demolished shophouses. Lastly, the tour includes an AR map for popular food spot offers and must-try hawker dishes at Maxwell Food Centre.

Google and STB share a common vision of helping people explore destinations in more than one way. By leveraging Google’s immersive technology, they were able to lower the barriers of entry and provide an AR map that people can use to travel to destinations without having to be physically there.

Simon Ang, STB director for The Collaboratory, said, “STB actively looks for possible tourism use cases in emerging technologies like Extended Reality (XR). We’ll always be open to piloting new technologies to create novel experiences for visitors and are excited to be working with Google to pioneer this movement.”

Merli’s Immersive Adventure can be accessed through the Visit Singapore Travel Guide app. 

Global – Google has announced that it will begin testing its ‘Tracking Protection,’ a new feature that limits cross-site tracking for Chrome users. This is a step in their ‘Privacy Sandbox’ program, which aims to phase out third-party cookies internationally by the second half of 2024, pending resolution of antitrust concerns from the UK’s antitrust and Markets Authority.

In a blog post by Anthony Chavez, vice president for Privacy Sandbox at Google, he notes that for nearly 30 years, third-party cookies have been necessary for the internet environment. While they can be used to monitor people’s online actions, websites have also made use of them to improve other aspects of the online experience, such making logins easier and showing relevant ads.

The company has also stated that they are taking an orderly approach to gradually removing third-party cookies from Chrome by deploying the Privacy Sandbox. New tools have been developed to aid websites in critical use cases, and developers have been given adequate time to adjust to the transition.

The initial release of Tracking Protection begins with a small fraction of Chrome users, allowing developers to test their readiness for a web environment free of third-party cookies.

Participants in the Tracking Protection program are chosen at random, and upon selection, notifications will be received when accessing Chrome on desktop or Android. As a result, while browsing the web, third-party cookies will be automatically disabled by default, limiting the ability to monitor individuals across several websites. 

“Google is dedicated to providing businesses with the resources they need to succeed online while maintaining the free and open access of high-quality content, such as community sites, videos, educational materials, news articles, and other web content types, for improving online privacy. By means of programs like Privacy Sandbox, Tracking Protection, and other features that Chrome has brought to the table, they continually work to make the internet a more private place that is open to all users,” Chavez stated.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As the country strives to enhance training opportunities and digital competitiveness, the Malaysian government has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with global technology company Google. 

This collaborative effort offers businesses of varying sizes to further develop their technological capabilities by employing upskilling programmes, digital infrastructure investments, responsible innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud-first policies. 

In particular, this enables an array of digital learning paths such as Google Cloud, CloudMile and Trainocate. Users who successfully complete these learning paths will earn digital skills badges which can be used for their resumes and an extended 30-day access to more learning paths.

Talking about this collaboration, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said, “This latest commitment by Google, aimed at accelerating local innovation and talent development in the field of AI, will certainly boost the nation’s digital competitiveness, in line with the Madani Economy framework and the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030).”

“The Madani Economy framework aims to increase the size of Malaysia’s economic pie, as well as ensure that all stakeholders – particularly the Malaysian public and small businesses – will enjoy the ensuing socio-economic benefits,” he added.

Ruth Porat, chief financial officer for Alphabet and Google added, “The partnership we are announcing with the government of Malaysia aligns Google’s local mission of advancing Malaysia together with the government’s goal to create a supportive ecosystem for innovation that includes more meaningful and equitable job opportunities.” 

In 2022, the company’s products and programmes supported over 47,900 jobs and also contributed, directly and indirectly, an estimated US$2.8bil in economic benefits to local businesses.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The 8th edition of the e-Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company has noted that domestic demand will drive economic growth in Malaysia with household spending, employment and wages on the rise. It also noted that online travel is growing 49% YoY – fastest of all the digital economy sectors – reaching $4b in gross merchandise value (GMV).

According to the report, Malaysia has the fastest-growing transport and food delivery sector in SEA. The sector grew 16%, boosted by Malaysian commuters’ return to offline activities and the continued preference for food delivery. 

It also added that even though foot traffic in malls has recovered to pre-pandemic levels and the food and beverage industry is experiencing an uptick, Malaysian consumers have held onto the digital habits that make their lives easier, such as food delivery and e-commerce. 

Meanwhile, e-commerce growth is flattening after growing 4% between 2021 and 2022 from pandemic-driven growth, but it remains Malaysia’s biggest digital economy sector at $13b, accounting for 57% of the total GMV. E-commerce is seeing high adoption in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. 

However, there is a persistent gap between demand and supply in other areas of Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia, which presents an opportunity for e-commerce players to expand in those areas.

In terms of digital financial services (DFS) adoption, the irreversible offline-to-online behavior shift continues to drive growth in DFS adoption, and cash is no longer king with QR codes and other forms of digital payments becoming ubiquitous. Digital payments are the biggest value driver within the DFS categories in Malaysia – $165b GTV in 2023 – boosted by the government’s support for digital payments adoption and distributing benefits to lower-income communities through e-wallets. This has placed Malaysia as the 2nd biggest digital payment market in SEA in 2023.

It also noted that digital wealth grew 61% YoY – fastest of all the DFS categories – and is expected to be the second largest DFS sector in Malaysia by 2030. The increasing interest towards digital wealth presents a lucrative opportunity for established financial services institutions to retain high-net-worth customers. 

As the competition between DFS players intensifies, pure-play fintechs have extended their lending services to the underbanked segment, while established financial services institutions have been quick to shift their large existing customer bases to digitalised services. 

Lastly, Malaysia has seen good progress on digital inclusion, making inroads into rural areas to bridge connectivity gaps. The percentage of households with internet access saw an increase from 76% to 97% for urban and 49% to 89% for rural, within the time frame of 2015 – 2022. However, consumers outside of metro areas are at risk of facing a widening digital economic divide when it comes to digital participation – active involvement in the digital economy through consumption of products or services across sectors. 

Samuele Saini, country director at Google Malaysia, said, “Malaysia’s GMV is projected to reach between $45b and $70b by 2030 and we’ve seen how the resurgence of tourism along with Malaysian consumers’ sticky digital behaviours in e-commerce and food delivery can contribute to this economic growth. With Malaysia making good progress in bridging connectivity gaps, addressing the digital participation beyond metro areas can prove to be a key in unlocking the next wave of growth.”

Meanwhile, Willy Chang, partner at Bain & Company, commented, “t is remarkable that both Southeast Asia’s digital economy GMV and revenue continued their double-digit growth momentum, with revenue breaking the $100B mark in 2023. This shows the resilience of the Southeast Asian digital economy and that the key players are making progress towards more healthy unit economics and sustainable business models. Despite external headwinds and some return to in-person dining and shopping, we are optimistic that the overall digital economy will continue to grow in the longer run.”

Singapore – Google has rolled out an enhanced real-time scanning feature for its malware protection and detection service, Play Protect, to detect potentially harmful apps during installs.

In this new update, Google Play Protect will recommend a real-time app scan when installing apps that have never been scanned before to help detect emerging threats.

The real-time scanning at the code level will combat novel malicious apps. Through this new scanning feature, Google will be able to extract important signals from the app and send them to the Play Protect backend infrastructure for a code-level evaluation.

After a real-time analysis, users will get a result prompting them if the app looks safe to install or if it is potentially harmful. This will help better protect users against malicious polymorphic apps that leverage various methods, such as AI, to be altered to avoid detection.

Google’s security protections and machine learning algorithms learn from all apps submitted to the company for review. With this, the company can identify thousands of signals and compare app behaviours.

The enhanced feature adds to the already multi-layered defence approach present in Android, which keeps users safe from mobile malware and unwanted software with its built-in proactive and advanced user protections like Google Play Protect, ongoing security updates, app permission controls, safe browsing, and more. 

Google Play Protect has started to roll out to all Android devices with Google Play services in select countries, starting with India, and will expand to all regions in the coming months.

Manila, Philippines – Google Philippines, in its ongoing commitment to build a ‘Digital Philippines’, has announced the availability of no-cost generative AI skills development courses, the ‘Google for AI Startups Cloud Program’, and three new Google Career Certificates.

Moreover, Google Cloud is also supporting more seed to early stage startups (Series A startups) in the Philippines who use AI as the core technology to develop products or solutions. 

Through the ‘Google for AI Startups Cloud Program’, startups now have the opportunity to access much-needed cloud credits of up to US$350k over two years. The program provides access to AI experts, training, resources and networking opportunities.

In addition, Google has added three additional courses–’Business Intelligence’, ‘Advanced Data Analytics’, and ‘Cybersecurity’–to its Google Career Certificates program. These certificates are professional credentials that help enable people from all backgrounds to earn job-ready skills in high-growth digital fields such as IT Support, UX Design, E-commerce and Digital Marketing.

Bernadette Nacario, country director at Google Philippines, said, “Google is a committed partner of the country in helping build a Digital Philippines. Through our technology, skilling programs, and partnerships, we will continue to help unleash the potential of the digital economy and empower the workforce of the future.”

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Ian Dy, Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary for Connectivity, Cybersecurity, and Upskilling; commented, “Upskilling is so important for realizing career aspirations and improving lives. Programs like the Google Career Certificates and Google’s no-cost AI skilling courses will empower the country’s workforce to thrive in the digital economy. We are grateful to Google for its commitment to helping us build a Digital Philippines.”

Australia – Digital ad verification and fraud prevention platform TrafficGuard, has launched its Performance Max (PMax) Channel Solution to provide robust safeguards for businesses that rely on Google’s Performance Max in their digital marketing strategies.

This solution allows TrafficGuard to detect and categorize invalid traffic, generated by Google’s Performance Max AI wrongly recognising the ‘positive’ signals from illegitimate traffic, and optimizing towards these ‘users’.

Furthermore, It customizes exclusion lists tailored to each customer needs and subsequently guides Google’s Performance Max AI to avoid engaging with these undesirable elements, including low-value clickers and bad actors. 

This strategic approach not only safeguards businesses from illegitimate traffic but also influences the AI to focus on elevating the presence of higher-value, authentic users, resulting to an increased return on ad spend as budget is optimized to target more genuine people, valuable insights so users can spot trends and optimize digital media channels accordingly, and time and resources saved with automated invalid traffic and fraud protections.

TrafficGuard’s Pmax channel solution also provides a Data Collection Filter, which enables businesses to mitigate their exposure to unwanted data collection, which is critical in the prevention of the inadvertent collection of children’s data by businesses utilizing PMax and ensures businesses comply with local data privacy and child protection legislation.

Mathew Ratty, CEO of TrafficGuard, said, “We launched our Pmax Channel solution to give marketers greater visibility and control over their Performance Max campaigns. It provides in- depth reporting analysis, audience targeting solutions, and invalid traffic filters that enables marketers to maximize ROI, safeguard their campaigns and make informed decisions.”

“At the same time, they can influence the PMax algorithm to ensure the data it optimizes towards is as close to your target audience as possible. This enables businesses to prevent the negative effects of the black box algorithm, as they can influence it to their advantage,” he added. 

Meanwhile, Elie Shuggi, chief product officer at TrafficGuard, mentioned, “This solution addresses a crucial need within our marketing community. Trusting black box algorithms has become increasingly challenging, and we believe TrafficGuard’s PMax solution offers the protection they seek.” 

Singapore – Integral Ad Science (IAS) has introduced brand safety and suitability measurement to its total media quality for Google Video Partners (GVP) offering.

This development allows advertisers to confidently display their video ads on publisher websites and mobile apps outside of YouTube.

IAS will provide transparency at the app and URL levels, delivering valuable third-party affirmation that video ads running on GVP are displayed alongside brand-safe and suitable content.

In a statement, IAS Chief Commercial Officer Yannis Dosios emphasised the importance of brand safety and suitability measurement in helping marketers protect their brands and optimize their campaign investments.

Meanwhile, Marvin Renaud, director of global video solutions at Google, expressed his excitement about expanding their partnership with IAS which will offer advertisers additional reassurance regarding the placement of google video partners’ ads on content that aligns with their brand safety standards.

The integration of IAS’s brand safety and suitability measurement with GVP will give advertisers greater control and confidence in video ad placements, leading to more effective campaigns across diverse publisher websites and mobile apps.