Tag: Investment

Tokyo, Japan – Investment and asset management has become the norm for people to grow their money, and more and more young people in Japan are showing interest in these topics and discussing them more frequently with their peers, new research from comprehensive real estate service platform RENOSY shows.

More than 70% of the young people in their 20s interviewed say that they do discuss asset management with their friends while only 30% of the older generation in their 50s discuss it. In addition, around 60% of interviewees in their 20s said that they do not worry about the assets build-up arrangement they are doing for now.

However, around 80% of the people interviewed answered that they feel they do not have enough money to support their lives after retirement relying on pension only.

In terms of the average amount they are willing to spend on investing, the average amount of investment for the younger generation is about ¥50,000 per month, while the older generation responded to an average of ¥150,000 per month.

“Since asset management will become part of the new high school curriculum starting from April 2022, we are expecting to see the younger generation become more cautious and familiar with money,” RENOSY said in a press statement.

In terms of the woes of the respondents in regards to having enough money to support investment after their retirement, the company remarked, “As people tend to live longer nowadays, the issue of finance after retirement will become a more and more serious problem for most people. As a result, we could see from the research result that 87% of the people we interviewed feel anxious about the financial arrangement after retirement.”

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan’s leading telecommunications group Taiwan Mobile announced that it has executed a strategic investment into SoundOn Global, a podcast platform and the only Chinese Language hosting partner of Apple Podcast based in the country.

Andy Huang, CEO of SoundOn Global, commented, “SoundOn Global is committed to connecting the world through audio and we are very excited to be working with Taiwan Mobile to achieve this. We look forward to working closely with Taiwan Mobile on content diversity, marketing, monetization and more, to usher in the golden era of the audio entertainment market.”

SoundOn Global provides consumers with a selection of audio products, namely podcast originals, podcast hosting services, social audio entertainment platforms, podcast players, and 360° audio advertising services. In 2021, the podcast platform acquired Goodnight, the region’s leading social audio service and expanded its audio products beyond podcasts.

MyMusic, Taiwan Mobile’s audio-streaming service subsidiary currently has more than 6 million registered users, where according to its data, 82% listen to both music and podcasts, with  90% of its top programs hosted on SOG. Through the partnership with SOG, the podcast platform’s programs would be added into MyMusic’s audio library, giving MyMusic’s consumers access to listen to a wide selection of audio products. 

Through the collaboration, the number of podcast programs on MyMusic is estimated to grow by 20% and the number of podcast episode listens is estimated to grow by 40%.

Jamie Lin, president of Taiwan Mobile, commented that Taiwan Mobile is committed to bringing the world’s best technology applications and entertainment services to Taiwan’s consumers. The company sees great potential in the global podcast and audio market.

“Since the launch of ‘Podcast Zone’ on MyMusic in 2020, the platform now has more than 1 million episodes which help to drive continuous growth in the number of registered users and number of podcast/music listens. We expect that, through our partnership with SoundOn Global, both platforms will be able to share resources, create synergies, attract more talented creators, and jointly lead the positive development of podcast and audio entertainment industry,” Lin said.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – SK Group, the multi-national manufacturing and service conglomerate company based in South Korea with a market capitalization of U$177b, has announced its commitment to further invest in Malaysia, following its recent investment in the country of over US$700m in 2021. 

According to SK Group, in January 2021, SK Nexilis announced a capital expenditure of US$553m (RM2.3b) to set up a copper foil manufacturing facility in Sabah, which will be part of SK Group’s Electric Vehicle (EV) value chain. Meanwhile, SK Group’s car-sharing subsidiary SoCar Malaysia has recently raised more than US$55m from EastBridge Partners and local conglomerate Sime Darby to fuel its expansion and build an EV platform in Malaysia, with plans to deploy hundreds of EVs in the next five years. 

Furthermore, SK Group has announced a strategic investment of up to US$100m into Malaysia’s fintech BigPay in August 2021, which is a testament to the ability of Malaysian fintech companies to grow not just domestically, but also regionally and become a major player in SEA. The fintech has plans to catalyze intra-regional trade between Malaysian SMEs and the region, by initially leveraging the connectivity and network of AirAsia, combined with its logistics arm, Teleport. SK Group has also announced that it will be joining the BigPay consortium to apply for the upcoming digital banking license in Malaysia.

Jung Kyu Kim, SK Group’s chief representative for Malaysia, said, “We are confident that SK’s experience in financial tech services will contribute to the successful digital bank ecosystem in Malaysia and further growth into the ASEAN region.”

SK Group said that as it expands rapidly into new industries globally especially in sectors benefiting the environment and human health, SK Group is looking forward to more investment opportunities in Malaysia. In particular, SK Group is keen to explore with like-minded partners in the growing sectors of EV, digitalization, and environment.

Singapore – With the global community growing more and more digital by the day, CUE Group, the digital technology group that boosts the digital development of enterprises, industries, and governments by using innovative technologies such as big data and AI, has announced an investment in digital brand agency Bonsey Jaden Group, further enhancing their expansion across Asia and the United States. 

Bonsey Jaden specializes in partnering with clients to develop world-class digital brand experiences with a focus on building #Powerbrands, having worked with global names such as Cetaphil, Microsoft, and Starbucks, as well as Singapore Tourism Board, and Facebook. It has a presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, as well as Vietnam, and Australia.

The partnership aims to open up opportunities to help brands reach new levels of success and profitability by combining the strategic, creative, and media expertise of Bonsey Jaden with CUE Group’s wealth of technological know-how enables stronger support and increased innovation for the brands.

Moreover, CUE Group will be taking its place as Bonsey Jaden’s majority shareholder while keeping the leadership and management structure of the agency unchanged, making it easier for both groups to become industry leaders in the rapidly progressing world of digital branding. 

Shi Kan, CUE Group’s CEO, commented, “This partnership is very exciting with opportunities appearing all over the world, this relationship will be mutually beneficial and will grow our portfolios in the digital technology realm together.” 

Meanwhile, Daniel Posavac, the group CEO of Bonsey Jaden, shared that the ambition and vision of CUE Group are both really exciting, and complement the roadmap they have been developing for Bonsey Jaden’s future.

“We look forward to working together with CUE Group to integrate our products and services, while further expanding our ability to add value to more clients and partners across a greater number of markets,” said Posavac.

Singapore – As part of its vision to be one of the leading digital career platforms in the Asia-Pacific, tech company SEEK that owns recruitment marketplace platforms JobStreet and JobsDB, has announced investment amounting to US$48m to JobKorea, a South Korea-based online recruitment platform.

The investment entails SEEK having a 10% stake of JobKorea, as well as having Peter Bithos, CEO of SEEK, to join JobKorea’s board.

For Bithos, said investment partnership is a big win not only for SEEK and JobKorea, but more importantly for all jobseekers and employers in Asia, adding that with JobKorea, they can now touch the lives of an additional 25 million jobseekers and 5 million employers in one of the largest economies in the world.

“Through this investment, we look forward to helping JobKorea with our market-leading insights into big data, how to leverage AI, and our commercial and technical experience building the leading jobs and career marketplaces across APAC. We also look forward to learning from JobKorea as it continues to build on its leadership in one of Asia’s most dynamic, sophisticated markets,” he said.

This investment will provide an opportunity for SEEK to add value to JobKorea’s market-leading position, while SEEK focuses on its operations, fast-tracking its ongoing transformation and growth of its existing Asia businesses. SEEK’s digital teams continue to make major inroads in building products and solutions driven by AI and market data, which combined with SEEK’s deep local insights and resources in each location, differentiate it from other international players.

Meanwhile for JobKorea, this partnership will provide an opportunity to leverage SEEK’s experienced management team and their significant expertise in operating global online employment and human capital management platforms.

“We are delighted to have a partnership with SEEK, a company with a wealth of experience in the global online employment market. We believe that this relationship will be an opportunity for JobKorea to make a quantum leap to the next level. With competition becoming ever fiercer to hire talented people such as good managers, developers or tech specialists, JobKorea will move toward a global HR platform that connects the Korean employment marketplace internationally,” said Yoon Byung-joon, CEO at JobKorea.

At present, 90% of JobKorea is owned by Affinity Equity Partners (AEP), a global private equity player and the largest in Korea. AEP acquired 100% of JobKorea back in May 2021.

SEEK in Asia has also seen some corporate moves as well recently, with the appointment of former HOOQ marketing head Jane Cruz-Walker as its chief marketing officer.

Singapore – Data and artificial intelligence (AI) company ADA has announced that it has received a new strategic investment from Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank, amounting to US$60m in funding.

ADA aims that with this investment, they can continue on the development of AI models, with primary focus on precision targeting for the marketing industry; invest in content analytics and automation of content creation; and also create data platforms to deliver consumer insights, predict consumer mindset, and help business decisioning.

The strategic investment will entitle SoftBank to a 23.07% shareholding of ADA, establishing ADA’s valuation at US$260m.

“The post-COVID-19 norm is a ‘digital-first’ economy, which ADA has been successfully building towards. We are very excited to welcome SoftBank Corp. as a valuable partner in our next phase of growth. The capital and business alliance with SoftBank Corp. will further propel ADA’s analytics, data, and AI digital marketing solutions for the benefit of our customers across the region,” according to Srinivas Gattamneni, CEO at ADA.

Meanwhile, Daichi Nozaki, vice president and head of the enterprise business unit’s global business division at SoftBank believes that their investment in ADA will help reshape the digital marketing and data landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.

“This move is part of our ‘Beyond Carrier’ growth strategy as we seek to expand beyond the traditional telecommunications business; and by combining our diversified solutions and technologies with ADA’s expertise in the area of analytics, data, and AI digital marketing, we expect we can both generate significant synergies,” Nozaki said.

ADA has recently been expanding its data and AI-oriented services across Asia Pacific, such as launching its martech service, an end-to-end e-commerce service, and its partnership with Insider for data-led enterprise marketing endeavors.

“We welcome the investments by SoftBank Corp., which brings tremendous growth opportunities for ADA. It also marks a significant milestone, especially with Southeast Asia’s digital market poised to potentially become one of the world’s top five digital economies. The investment from SoftBank Corp. is recognition of ADA as the vehicle to capture the ensuing growth,” Mohd Khairil Abdullah, chairman at ADA, concluded.

Singapore – Global creative agency AnalogFolk has announced its recent investment to Untold Fable, a newly-launched global content production company founded by entrepreneur Kate Tancred, who also serves as Untold Fable’s CEO.

AnalogFolk Group will become a majority shareholder of Untold Fable, and it will be running its specialist brands – AnalogFolk, Untold Fable and Serum (UK) – as stand-alone businesses.

Through the investment, Untold Fable will offer clients the added value of tapping into on-demand digital agency services from AnalogFolk. This joint offering is designed to provide one entry point for clients into the creativity and efficiencies of a tech-powered production offering and the strategic precision of on demand creative digital agency services.

Untold Fable was founded on a greater need for video and audio content across entertainment and advertising, to which the company aims to cater to by creating a platform that houses studios, sound designers, sound engineers, composers and voice talent from around the world, assisting brands with their audio identity while communicating with consumers via one of the fastest-growing ad formats in the world.

Furthermore, Untold Fable allows brands, publishers and agencies to also have the option to measure their diversity and inclusion (D&I) statistics across their productions throughout the year, empowering them to put the issue front and center by giving them the data when it comes time to commission talent. 

According to data from branding and design company IMPACT, 70% of consumers have shared a brand’s video, with 52% saying watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions. About 72% of businesses, meanwhile, stated video has improved their conversion rate. 

“It is the first community-based production model to be built with diversity at its heart, promising to ensure the makeup of the network reflects the world we live in as well as launching technology features that make connecting with traditionally underrepresented talent from the creative industry much more accessible to clients,” the company said in a press statement.

With the existing footprint of AnalogFolk globally, Untold Fable will offer clients on-the-ground teams in London, New York, Sydney, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Singapore from day one. 

“I spent the last 10 years driving the efficiencies and creativity of a tech powered production offering. Untold Fable expands on that model by connecting clients with a curated network of diverse, award-winning talent and layering over digital creative services from one of the most celebrated independent digital agencies in the world. Combining these offerings enables us to produce audio and video content in a way that the industry is yet to experience,” Tancred said.

Meanwhile, for AnalogFolk founder and chief client officer Bill Brock, their recent investment in Untold Fable speaks to the agency’s mission of using “digital to make the analog world better.”

“With the launch of Untold Fable, we not only diversify the group’s offering, we break exciting new ground on this enduring mission. We’re leveraging the power of technology to make it easier than ever before for brands and publishers to work with a more diverse talent pool,” Brock stated.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Technology group Gojek has announced its investment to technology-based Bank Jago as part of a strategic partnership for Indonesia’s accelerated financial inclusion.

Within the partnership, Gojek and Bank Jago aim to bring digital banking closer to users through Gojek’s payment platform GoPay. Users can now open a Bank Jago account and manage it through the Gojek app. The partnership will also act as a model through which Gojek will go on to partner with other banking institutions to support them in reaching more customers.

For Gojek CEO Andre Soelistyo, the newly-forged partnership is a strategic move to get banks working for the superapp, hence leveraging Gojek’s purpose to be an accessible financial platform for Indonesians.

“Our partnership with Jago marks the latest milestone in our drive to reduce daily friction for users and improve their lives through technology. It is a key part of our strategy and will underpin the growth and sustainability of our business in the long term. Jago’s tech-based banking solutions will supercharge Gojek’s ecosystem offerings and facilitate access to banking services for the mass market, thereby supporting our common vision to accelerate financial inclusion in Indonesia,” Soelistyo stated.

The investment, made through Gojek’s financial and investment arm, would mean that 22% of Bank Jago will be held by Gojek.

On the other hand, Bank Jago’s president director Kharim Siregar, expressed high hopes for the new partnership, as it complements the Bank’s broad expertise to Indonesian financial needs.

“We believe that this strategic collaboration – between a tech-based bank like Bank Jago and a Super App like Gojek – is the first of its kind in Indonesia and Southeast Asia and represents a new way to spur growth in digital economies. As a bank designed with an open API, we will go on to work with multiple digital ecosystems to reach a wider audience and drive our aspiration to enhance the finances of millions of people through digital financial solutions,” said Siregar.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Tech giant Microsoft and Indonesian e-commerce platform Bukalapak have announced a new strategic partnership to reshape the e-commerce scene in the country.

Within the parameters of the partnership, Microsoft will invest for Bukalapak, while the local e-commerce platform will make sure it will use Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform. Furthermore, the recently-forged partnership would also mean solving the digital gap in the country and training Bukalapak merchants and employees for much-needed digital skills in the e-commerce scene.

The partnership agreement, attended by Haris-Izmee, President Director of Microsoft Indonesia (center) and Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of Bukalapak (right). The agreeement is witnessed virtually also by Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations (background left). (Photo Courtesy of Microsoft News)

“This partnership signals a deep collaboration with Microsoft on an array of technology projects that will transform the technology-driven commerce solutions and operations solution and operations in Indonesia,” said Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of Bukalapak. 

Haris Izmee, President Director of Microsoft Indonesia also commented, “Through this partnership, merchants and consumers will have more efficient and reliable buying and selling experiences, which in turn, creates business resilience and helps accelerate growth in the Indonesian digital economy.”

The recent partnership is in line with Bukalapak’s mission of broadening Indonesia’s awareness of the digital world by providing services such as financial services, payment options, and credit services.