Tag: Southeast Asia

Singapore – Media company Verizon Media has announced the promotion of former director of content Simon Wheeler as the company’s senior director of content, therefore ramping up the company’s remit in Southeast Asia and India following the success of its Australian-based media brands.

Through his new role, Wheeler will be responsible for editorial strategy in English-language regions including Australia, India, and Southeast Asia. Editorial teams in India and across Southeast Asia will now report to Wheeler under the new structure. 

Prior to his new role, Wheeler has led the editorial strategy in Australia, managing teams to deliver quality content, diversify audiences, and achieve substantial growth. 

According to the company, Australian monthly active users across its editorial brands Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Lifestyle, Yahoo News and Yahoo Sport grew by 8% last year, and logged-in users increasing by 7%.

Commenting on his promotion, Wheeler said, “This is a really exciting time for Verizon Media as we band together with international teams to deliver quality content for our audiences across the wider APAC region. 2020 presented difficult and unexpected challenges for all but we overcame and adapted to interact with our audiences in new ways. I’m excited to be taking on this new role and working closer with our regional counterparts.”

Meanwhile, Marie-Hélène Savard, vice president and head of international consumer at Verizon Media, commented, “We’re thrilled to announce Simon’s promotion to this new role. Having proven success in diversifying and growing audiences over the past few years in Australia, we’re excited to see his expertise in play across the wider region. This new structure will better align our editorial strategy across wider APAC and enable our editorial teams to continue to deliver fantastic content and results for our audiences.” 

Singapore – E-commerce platform Lazada hosted today its inaugural ‘Lazada Forward Women Awards’ 2021 in Singapore, to honor six outstanding women across the Southeast Asia region, who were thought to have formed new paths through the e-commerce space and have showcased resilience and innovation in their journeys as entrepreneurs. 

The event was live-streamed to viewers in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam on the Lazada LazLive channel. It featured guest performers like Malaysia’s rap darling, Zamaera, and Singapore’s very own funny woman, Sharul Channa in celebration of International Women’s Month.

The inaugural Lazada Forward Women Awards 2021 comprise three award categories, namely the Creative Seller Award, Enterprising Seller Award, and Inspiring Seller Award. 

Among the first-six award recipients are Singapore’s Anne Ong of Anne’s Secret Recipes and Vietnam’s Pham Thi Xuan Hong of PinkShopGiayDep, where both took the ;’Creative Seller Award’.

Meanwhile, Philippines’ Georgianna Carlos of Fetch and Thailand’s Lalilla Thamnita of AggieHome earned the ‘Enterprising Seller Award’.

And lastly, for the ‘Inspiring Seller Award’, Indonesia’s Hanna Suhardi of Shopping Shoes and Malaysia’s Annie Chia of NLWK Florist won.

During the awards ceremony, Chun Li, the chief executive officer of Lazada Group, commented that he is honored to be around inspirational women today. 

“You found interesting and unique ways to leverage the Lazada platform to not only establish your online business but also to engage customers and build a niche following while uplifting the lives around you. Lazada is proud to be your partner and have the opportunity to be part of your successful journey,” said Chun Li.

As part of the Awards presentation ceremony, he also joined in a lively discussion moderated by Virginia Tan, the founding partner of Teja Ventures and co-founder of She Loves Tech, with panelist Ayesha Khanna, the CEO of Addo.ai, on the topic of ‘Growing Women Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia: Current Challenges and Opportunities’.

SEA – In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), Twitter has announced its new #SheInspiresMe campaign across Southeast Asia, which aims to highlight women’s inspiring voices on the social media platform, featuring leaders in business to entrepreneurs, mothers, daughters, partners, and friends.

The #SheInspiresMe campaign has partnered with more than 40 creators from different countries in the SEA region, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. 

The said creators will make a personal #SheInspiresMe video tweet in which they share about the women that inspire them, and why, and will be tagging three other people to spread the campaign across the platform. This series of videos will be tweeted from 8 to 19 March on Twitter. 

There will be 40 creators across the SEA region. Participants from Indonesia include Cheryl Tanzil (@CherylTanzil), Febriana Firdaus (@febrofirdaus), as well as Laily Fitry (@MahameruLee), among others. 

From the Philippines, Catriona Gray (@catrionaelisa), Dr. Gia Sison (@giasison), Inka Magnaye (@inkamagnaye), and Joyce Pring (@joycepring), and many more will also participate in the campaign.

Meanwhile, participants from Singapore include Cheryl Allison (@cherzinga), Preeti Nair (@plspreeti) as well as female communities and organizations like AWARE Singapore (@awarenews), among others.

And finally, joining the campaign from Thailand are Amanda Chalisa Obdam (@amanda_obdam), Danupha Kanateerakul (@millimdk), and 4EVE (@4eveOfficial), among others.

Users are also invited to join in Twitter’s #SheInspiresMe campaign by simply creating a video tweet of up to 2:20 minutes in length, sharing positive stories about inspiring women with the hashtag #SheInspiresMe. Participants should also tag three other app users and Twitter’s official accounts – @TwitterID, @TwitterPH, @TwitterSG, and @TwitterThailand.

Furthermore, Twitter has launched a special emoji to celebrate IWD, which will be available throughout the month of March. The emoji is actuated when people tweet with the hashtags #InternationalWomensDay, #WomensDay, #WeAreWomen, #ActForEqual, #IWD2021, #IWD, and #GenerationEquality.

Singapore – Singapore’s femtech start-up Fig Health has appointed Nadya Davies, former Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s (CWT) marketing and communication manager, as its new chief marketing officer, effective this month.

Fig Health is a VC-backed healthcare start-up in Singapore that aims to revolutionize outdated practices and improve women’s healthcare. The company seeks to empower women to understand and manage their health, taking a patient-centric approach and offering the opportunity for health-conscious women to be the experts on their own bodies. 

Davies will be leading the marketing strategy for customer acquisition, retention, engagement, and branding, with responsibility for the full marketing spectrum – from big picture ideation and positioning of the brand down to purchase funnel analytics and building a social media following. 

Prior to her new position, Davies is a marketing communications expert with more than 13 years of local, regional, and global experience across both B2B and B2C. After spending years in PR agencies, including communications agency AKA Asia in Singapore, she transitioned in-house to the global business travel agency CWT, expanding her remit to customer acquisition through digital and content marketing, as well as employee and client communications. 

Commenting on her appointment, Davies believes that Fig Health will bring “massive” impact on the way women manage their own health issues. 

“Having experienced the highs and lows of trying to conceive myself, I know first-hand the importance (both for your physical and mental health) of having information about what’s going on inside your body and finding an action plan to help you achieve your goals. I’m so excited to be part of the team that is going to make this journey easier for women,” said Davies.

Davies will report directly to CEO and Co-Founder Maria Wang-Faulkner. She said that Davies will be a strong addition to their leadership team at a time when the business is fast-tracking to the next stage of growth.

“Her experience in the market, expertise in growing a customer-base, and personal passion for our mission will help us build on our strong foundations and create a meaningful brand and community of users,” said Wang-Faulkner.

Singapore – As the pandemic forced businesses to shift to online, retail company FJ Benjamin (FJB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with e-commerce platform Lazada Singapore to boost its brands’ online-offline (O2O) retail experience e. The partnership aims to optimize regional online sales, as well as to expand and develop new FJB brands, to eventually integrate brick-and-mortar and virtual stores.

The signed MOU will see Lazada managing the full online ecosystem of FJB brands, developing new tailor-made solutions to deliver an excellent omnichannel customer experience for FJB brands in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The parties will also discuss with brand principals the opportunities for e-commerce in markets where Lazada has a presence, such as Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. 

Besides operating principal branded sites, it is also intended to host certain brands on LazMall as well as other regional sites, subject to principal approvals.

Group CEO of FJ Benjamin, Nash Benjamin, commented that the retail company has been strategizing and planning its omnichannel business model for some time now.

“This partnership with Lazada is intended to get us to where we want to be much faster and in a more cost-efficient manner. This will combine our respective capabilities to strengthen customer experience across brick and mortar and virtual channels,” said Benjamin.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Lazada Singapore, James Chang said that they are thrilled to be part of a new chapter with FJ Benjamin, valuing their trust in Lazada. Chang further shared that lifestyle, fashion and beauty are important pillars in their e-commerce plans and shoppers can now look forward to seeing more well-known brands and labels on their platform, for an integrated shopping experience.

“In the last year, Lazada has supported many businesses that adopted a multichannel approach to set up stores online and we know that our expertise in the e-commerce space will benefit and contribute to the success of a renowned brand like FJ Benjamin, and look forward to seeing positive results with them,” added Chang.

Last year’s lockdown forced FJB stores in Southeast Asia to close down, which led the company to turn to e-commerce. It has ramped up its online presence from one brand, the cult British fashion label Superdry, to almost all its brands including Guess, La Senza, Casio, Rebecca Minkoff, Pretty Ballerinas, Airfree, and Dr. Barbara Sturm. Some of the brands managed by FJB are already available on Lazada’s premiere shopping platform, Lazmall, such as La Senza, Pretty Ballerinas, and Petunia Pickle Bottom.

The press release shared that under the terms of the MOU, both FJB and Lazada will, within 90 days, work on a detailed action plan and a definitive agreement to move the partnership forward.

Singapore – In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), TikTok in Singapore has announced that it will be hosting a series of exclusive live stream sessions, featuring an all-women lineup of inspiring entrepreneurs of homegrown brands in the country.

The event, which will uncover different stories of female entrepreneurs and business owners, aims to showcase “women’s voices, strength, and creativity.” The event will be streamed live on the TikTok app from 4 to 10 March 2021.

There will be a total of six speakers. Among the hosts will be Felicia, the founder of Oyo Beauty, who will share her philosophy behind creating handmade beauty products. Founder of Whoaa!, Apphia, will also join the live stream series to talk about the journey of her brand’s humble beginnings. Meanwhile, musician-actor-filmmaker Annette will also be gracing the event to show viewers the ropes of telling tales through music, film and even comedy. Felicia’s will be on 6 March at 8:00 p.m., Apphia’s on 7 March at 8:00 p.m, while Annette’s live stream will be on 10 March at 9:00 p.m, all in Singapore Time. 

TikTok believes that the app has been a great platform for women around the world to entertain, inspire, educate, motivate, and use their voices for change. With initiatives like #WhenWomenWin, the app encourages the community to empower more women “to own their voice, rise up and make positive steps” towards achieving gender equality.

Singapore – As the majority of people rely on financial support during the pandemic, Singapore-headquartered fintech convertCASH has launched, in an aim to support middle to middle low-class communities in stretching their monthly financial deadlines and to provide greater ease in financial management.

The app handles users’ monthly car and home installments and stretches them for up to 45 days without any interest. The platform carries a ‘We pay for your first’ feature, which lets the user schedule his car or home installment payment, earn and redeem loyalty points, as well as receive extra money when introducing the app to a friend.

Co-Founder of convertCASH Jason Bak commented that monthly fixed bills commitment has become stressful to everyone.

“It is interest-free and no borrowing with instant approval. The users must have credit cards as security while using convertCASH’s ‘Pay for you First’ benefit. They also have to fill in the details of the recipient on the app and the installment will be made within one working day. They can then pay back to the credit card up to 45 days later,” said Bak.

The maximum transaction amount that can be made via convertCASH is US$5000 (RM20,000.00). To date, it has recorded an average amount of US$123786 (RM500,000) transacted via the convertCASH platform.

ConvertCASH is growing across Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and the ASEAN region, as it targets to achieve one million registered car users in Malaysia and 200 million registered car users globally.

The fintech platform also plans to expand in Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippines during the second quarter of 2021; while the expansion in Japan, Korea, and China are eyed by 2022.

The app is available on IOS, Android, and Huawei.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The global pandemic has significantly affected air travel and with restrictions still in effect, Malaysia Airlines has decided to bring its inflight cabin experience to its customers’ doorsteps, making the exclusive premium inflight products available at the airlines’ flagship e-retail store Temptations.

The airline’s flagship e-retail store offers customers the flexibility to shop for Malaysian Hospitality (MH) merchandise and duty-free items from the comfort of their homes, with delivery of products available around the world.

Through Temptations, the airline’s patrons can now purchase exclusive pajamas set, amenity kit and duvet, that were only available onboard to its premium passengers.

Malaysia Airlines’ exclusive inflight products includes the Business Suite amenity kit, which is made in partnership with London-based handcrafted luxury leather goods brand, Aspinal, and is available for sale at RM99. It contains an impressive array of travel essentials, such as PAYOT’s skin and body range that includes the Lip Balm and the luxe Hand and Body Lotion.

Meanwhile, its dual-tone Business Class duvet is priced at RM110. It is made from a blend of cotton and polyester featuring the airline’s iconic Wau Bulan, a snuggle buddy for customers during travel. The airline will also be bringing to Temptations its premium and limited-edition Business Suite Pajamas Set at RM119. The set comes with a zip-up top, pants, eye mask, as well as socks, and slippers packed in a reusable tote bag.

Group Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer of Malaysia Airlines Lau Yin May commented that they are delighted to offer their exclusive Malaysia Airlines’ Business Suite and Business Class merchandise online in the pursuit of bringing the Malaysian Hospitality experience closer to the customers.

“Everyone from all walks of life who miss flying with us will now have a chance to re-create their flying experience with our best cabin merchandise at home. Rest assured that these items are all new and ready stocks. We hope that by making these signature items available, our customers can reminisce their happy memories of flying with us as we look forward to welcoming them on board for their Fly Malaysia experience again soon,” said Lau.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Now that vaccination efforts are fast developing in the region, AirAsia has readied itself to welcome travelers with open arms when travel restrictions further ease with the launch of ASEAN Unlimited, a new product that would offer unlimited travel as well as free e-commerce delivery on its Asean super app for Malaysia-based AirAsia BIG members. 

The users can enjoy unlimited flights to destinations within Malaysia, which include Alor Setar, Langkawi, Penang, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor Bahru. They can also opt to travel around ASEAN countries – Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.

By purchasing ASEAN Unlimited, consumers can also enjoy unlimited free delivery for every order made on AirAsia Shop, Fresh, and Food, which is available until 26 March 2022 for deliveries in the Klang Valley with more locations in the future.

The pass is priced at RM599 and is available to purchase on airasia.com/deals or the airasia ASEAN super app from 3 March (1000hrs MYT) to 7 March 2021 (2359h MYT). BigPay users will enjoy RM50 off their purchase when they pay with BigPay until 5 March 2021.

AirAsia has also extended the travel period of its previous AirAsia Unlimited Pass Cuti-Cuti Malaysia from 31 March to 30 June 2021. Launched in June 2020, the AirAsia Unlimited Pass Cuti-Cuti Malaysia, which costs RM399, allows pass holders to redeem unlimited flights (flight code AK) within Malaysia.

Furthermore, the AirAsia X Unlimited Pass and AirAsia Unlimited Pass Cuti-Cuti Malaysia pass holders are also entitled to Unlimited Free Delivery on airasia shop, food, and fresh until 30 June 2021.

CEO of AirAsia Group Tony Fernandes commented that they have always been a disruptor and this time they are taking another unprecedented step to launch ASEAN Unlimited, as Airasia has expanded into a super app, offering much more than just travel products, e-commerce, and fintech products. AirAsia has received many positive responses and support on their new offerings, and they want to continue providing value to the customers.

“With positive developments on COVID-19 vaccination across the region, we are revving up our engines to ensure a smooth take-off when travel returns. As part of our preparations to welcome the recovery of air travel in the region and to further stimulate the local economy, we hope that this product can also catalyze as the ASEAN tourism industry gears itself for a post-Covid revival,” said Fernandes.

Meanwhile, the CEO of airasia.com Karen Chan said that they are thrilled by the highly positive response when Airasia Unlimited’s buy-now-travel-later pass was introduced in 2020.

“This time, we are offering even greater value to our customers by allowing ASEAN Unlimited pass-holders to redeem unlimited flights both domestically within Malaysia and internationally across ASEAN (when borders reopen on flight code AK) for future travel from 17 March 2021 up to 26 March 2022, subject to availability of flights. Aside from flights, pass-holders will also have unlimited access to free delivery services across the airasia shop, airasia food, and airasia fresh. Delivery is currently available within the Klang Valley with upcoming expansion into more cities across Malaysia,” added Chan.

Singapore – HiDoc, a healthcare technology start-up in Singapore that provides web-based and mobile app solutions, has officially launched community platform Nectar, which is an app dedicated to women’s health and wellness.

Nectar is a web-based application that carries an ‘Ask the Expert’ function, enabling users to receive answers to health and wellness-related queries. 

HiDoc said Nectar was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic when HiDoc Co-Founders Dr. Christina Low and Carolyn Goh noticed a rising trend on the HiDoc platform. During the circuit breaker period in Singapore in particular, which is the country’s stay-at-home order in April of last year, HiDoc saw a significant spike in the number of teleconsultations and inquiries from the women’s community. 

“We want to empower women with the right knowledge to achieve optimal health through self and preventive care. Nectar aims to catalyze the formation of a community, backed by experts focused on supporting women in their health and wellness journey. It is a place for ladies to comfortably share their experiences and walk their life journey together,” said Dr. Low.

Users of the app will have access to a huge amount of health and wellness content curated specifically to their profile. They can expect weekly articles on key healthcare topics written specifically for each member. Furthermore, users will have exclusive access to health webinars to keep them informed of prevailing health issues for women. Through the app, they will also be able to access personalized health and wellness plans designed for them.

Goh shared that HiDoc is already building up the platform to include machine learning algorithms to show relevant content and conversations that are based on the various data points that members have input in the platform.

“Nectar is an online community platform that HiDoc has created for women. We built Nectar to foster a trusted and safe haven for women to learn more about their wellbeing from experts and other women sharing their experiences,” said Goh.

Following the initial soft launch in January, Nectar has currently accumulated 3,000 downloads.