Tag: Southeast Asia

Singapore – Financial services company Singlife has recently unveiled their latest brand campaign, designed to inspire and empower individuals across Singapore to embrace the ‘can-do’ spirit on their journey towards financial freedom. 

Singlife’s new campaign via MullenLowe Singapore uses the quintessentially local expression “Caaaaan!” throughout its marketing and communications assets, highlighting the parallels between its brand story and Singapore’s national journey.

This phrase highlighted in the campaign also serves as a reference to Singapore’s spirit of resilience and determination, while simultaneously showcasing Singlife’s commitment to helping Singaporeans achieve their financial goals.

Titled ‘The Dream’, the campaign depicts the aspiration of everyday Singaporeans to retire early with peace of mind, showing a middle-aged couple embarking on an adventurous and relaxing retirement journey with Pierre Png, Singlife’s brand ambassador, showing up  as their ‘dream’ neighbour. The film wraps up with the significance of pursuing one’s dreams, and how Singlife empowers Singaporeans to take the first step in achieving their vision of financial freedom.

‘The Dream’ builds on Singlife’s first campaign ‘The Jugglers’ and will also be rolled out over the next few weeks through an integrated, multi-channel communications strategy, encompassing broadcast, radio, digital, and out-of-home advertising (OOH).

Debra Soon, group head of brand, communications, and marketing at Singlife, said, “Some people have grand dreams, while others have modest ones – all are entirely valid. Whatever your dream, Singlife is here to help you confidently say ‘can’ and achieve it with financial freedom.”

Meanwhile, Paul Soon, chief executive officer, MullenLowe Singapore and China, expressed, “In partnership with Singlife, our goal was to craft a campaign that inspires honest conversations among Singaporeans, instilling in them the confidence and reassurance needed to believe they can pave their own way to financial freedom.”

Singapore – Recommerce company Carousell has announced the launch of its new regional headquarters called ‘Carousell Campus’, which is dedicated to advance recommerce capabilities as part of its goal to make buying and selling secondhand items more trusted and convenient.

Carousell Campus also houses the Group’s first ‘Capabilities Centre’, which brings the group’s brands and subsidiaries into one single location to streamline operations, integrate capabilities for authentication and inspection, as well as allow for more efficient collaboration.

To make peer-to-peer marketplace transactions even safer, the group has also rolled out enhancements to the secure on-platform payment features in its Singapore and Vietnam marketplaces, with plans to continue in more markets starting with Malaysia by end of September.

To increase convenience for everyday Singaporeans selling items they have decluttered, Carousell Singapore will be the first C2C marketplace in Singapore to offer a paperless D2D shipping option to casual sellers. By the end of September, users will only need to write down their tracking number on the parcel, have access to competitive paperless D2D shipping rates, and also skip the hassle of printing out the shipping label for the courier. 

Quek Siu Rui, group CEO and co-founder at Carousell Group, said, “This space marks a coming-of-age for Carousell as a Group. Recommerce means bringing the best things that we know and like from e-commerce and availing it for secondhand products. We have been building up our recommerce business in recent years, and have grown to be the leading recommerce Group in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with tens of millions of monthly active users and 80 million new listings annually.”

He added, “As we take the lead in advocating for recommerce and a circular economy in the region and beyond, we believe in contributing back to the local startup community and cementing Singapore as the region’s prominent startup hub.”

Rui also noted, “Centralising our Singapore-based entities at Carousell Campus has allowed us to strengthen our operations excellence. Our strategic focus on key growth product categories has streamlined our efforts to offer more compelling user value propositions and facilitate more collaboration opportunities to innovate on ways to increase circular economy adoption. This has allowed us to roll out a variety of recommerce programmes and features across multiple platforms and markets this year, providing an e-commerce-like experience. We will continue to invest in growth and technology across our platforms to make buying and selling secondhand items as trusted and convenient as buying brand new items.”

Singapore – Global food delivery company Delivery Hero, has confirmed that there are negotiations regarding the potential sale of its subsidiary brand, foodpanda, within select markets in Southeast Asia. 

In a statement, the company plans to sell its activities under the foodpanda brand in Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand.

The negotiations are currently in their preliminary stages and it is still uncertain and subject to various open points whether this will lead to a definitive agreement. The purchase consideration for the entire transaction is still under negotiation.

Regarding this news, media sources report that it caused shares in foodpanda to lift as much as 13.5%, with Delivery Hero focusing on reaching profitability while maintaining growth as investor confidence in the company started to wane after a pandemic-driven boost.

Just recently last month, Niklas Oestberg, CEO of Delivery Hero, notably said that Asia was the segment where the company saw the most opportunity to invest.

As of current, potential buyers of the business are still unconfirmed and undisclosed by the Delivery Hero Group. However, several news outlets claim to report that tech platform and super app provider Grab could pay the equivalent of as much as a billion euros for the unit.

Singapore – Singaporean parents are increasingly concerned about their child’s safety on the internet, according to Google’s ‘APAC Kids and Families Online Safety Survey’, which mainly reveals that seeing inappropriate content online is the most experienced online safety issue by Singaporean children, with one in two children having encountered it at least once in the past year.

These findings come at a time where children in Singapore are spending more time online than ever before, with four out of five local children now spending one to six hours online daily for education and entertainment.

Notably, data from the survey suggests that the top three types of inappropriate content reported by parents were misinformation at 55.4%, deceptive ads and spam at 50.7%, and violent content at 48.7%.

However the survey also revealed that Singaporean parents are becoming less confident in discussing online safety with their children. This year’s survey found that only 79% of respondents feel confident in engaging their children on this topic, down from 83% last year.

Factors for this decline in confidence may include difficulty of finding age-appropriate and easy-to-understand examples of online safety issues and the rapidly evolving nature of the online world. In addition, nearly half of the parents surveyed said they struggle to find the right time to talk to their children about online safety.

Despite these gaps, more than half of respondents said they are willing to allow their children to spend more time online and expect to change digital rules for their child’s Internet use as they grow older. This also draws concern as parents are faced with the need to develop new rules – sometimes before even putting the fundamentals in place – which makes the online journeys of children increasingly challenging to manage.

Speaking on the results, Norman Ng, regional operations lead, trust & safety global engagement at Google Singapore, said, “Our survey results highlight the urgent need to make online safety a central part of their conversations at home. We understand that each family’s relationship with technology is unique, and we encourage parents to make good use of tools such as Family Link and Be Internet Awesome to aid their digital parenting.”

“As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We remain committed in stepping up our efforts in working collaboratively with industry partners and experts to ensure digital literacy remains more accessible for all,” he added. 

Lastly, the survey also indicated several suggestions and tools that parents can use to a create safer experience online such as age-appropriate content restrictions via Family Link, blurring graphic content through SafeSearch, child-friendly app settings or versions such as Youtube Kids, and online education and safety resources like The library of Digital Safety Resources and the Be Internet Awesome program.

Manila, Philippines – Global technology company SHAREit has announced its appointment of Chay Mondejar-Saputil as country director for the Philippines.

In line with SHAREit’s growing expansion within the ASEAN region, her appointment seeks to shore up the various offerings and business solutions that the company has to offer within the region.

Prior to her appointment, Mondejar-Saputil has more than a decade of knowledge and experience within the industry, having previously been the vertical lead of the ecommerce and retail side of Meta. While in this role, she has been responsible for managing the team across a mixed portfolio of businesses covering multiple industries, as well as driving product development to include the needs of omnichannel retailers in Southeast Asia.

Apart from the aforementioned roles, she was also the primary external representative of Meta and board member at IMMAP (Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines) – the premier organisation for influencing local industry policies on digital marketing, while also being the primary representative at the Philippine Retailers Association.

Karam Malhotra, partner & VP at SHAREit Group, said, “We are extremely excited to announce the appointment of Chay as the Country Director of Philippines, as we continue to expand our offerings into the various ASEAN markets to meet the growing demand from enterprises.”

“Ranging across our full suite of services, from consumer facing technological solutions to addressing the various needs of businesses and enterprises across the region, we believe that Chay will help grow the Philippines market substantially as the country continues to develop their technology infrastructure,” he added. 

Speaking on her appointment, Mondejar-Saputil commented, “In this new role, our goal is to expand the multitude of services and solutions SHAREit brings together with Xtend, to help bolster our portfolio of services within the Philippines and the ASEAN region as a whole. We are aiming for remarkable growth in the Philippines market as we seize the opportunities presented by the region’s dynamic business environment.”

Notably, SHAREit’s expansion will be featuring its new brand arm called Xtend, which is a game-changing digital advertising optimization solution dedicated to pioneering Android campaigns.

Singapore – New data shows that Filipino consumers who visit pirate streaming sites are prone to 21.66 times greater risk of malware infections, with a verifiable detection rate of 10%. This was according to the latest study conducted by the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) alongside Dr. Paul Watters of Cyberstronomy.

The report’s findings reveal that when Filipino consumers access pirate torrent sites, the risk of malware infection increases 16.66 times when compared to mainstream platforms. The confirmed infection rate is 18%.

It concluded that a typical user visiting a pirate site faces the threat of infection by ransomware, numerous trojan horses, and other advanced persistent threats (APTs). These infections could occur within 42 seconds on a Windows machine and just 1 minute and 18 seconds on an Android device.

Matt Cheetham, general manager of CAP, said, “Evidence continues to mount that far from being a victimless crime, piracy can victimize consumers.” 

He added, “We look forward to the successful passage of site blocking legislation in the Senate that will allow the Philippines to both protect its consumers from online harm posed by pirate sites and grow its economy.” 

Singapore – Singaporean digital marketing agency MediaOne Business Group has announced that it will be distilling its strategies and services to cater specifically to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore as a recognized Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) accredited vendor, which helps Singaporean companies improve their productivity and automate existing processes through IT solutions and equipment.

The PSG accreditation demonstrates MediaOne’s commitment to helping businesses become profitable, grow, and achieve self-sustainability in terms of marketing and market share in an accelerated time frame.

With a track record of providing double-digit growth in client traffic, reach, and engagement, as well as thousands of search engine ranking improvements and impressive ROI, MediaOne has enabled SMEs to enhance their online presence, reach a broader audience, and increase their revenue streams.

Recognizing the growing importance of social media in the digital landscape, MediaOne has also recently been awarded accreditation to offer social media marketing and social media advertising services to further support businesses in their marketing endeavors.

In addition to its PSG accreditation, MediaOne also encourages SMEs to act swiftly, as support from the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC) grants may see reductions by the middle of next year. By partnering with MediaOne, SMEs can take advantage of PSG-accredited services and SFEC grants to optimize their marketing efforts and drive growth.

Tom Koh, CEO of MediaOne, said, “We are delighted to extend our PSG-accredited services to include social media marketing and advertising. This accreditation is a testament to our dedication to providing top-tier digital marketing solutions. We have witnessed strong and sustained demand for these services, and we are committed to helping SMEs succeed in the ever-evolving digital marketplace.”

Singapore – Ogury, a global personalsed advertising company, has appointed Wilfried Schobeiri as its new chief technology officer. In this role, Schobeiri will work closely with Ogury’s executive team to improve and strengthen the business’s unique technology platform.

In his new role, he will be in charge of the company’s strategic technology vision implementation, improving its cookieless and ID-less solution at an important time in the market. He will be based in Paris, report directly to Ogury CEO Geoffroy Martin, and join the executive committee of the business.

With 20 years of experience in the technology sector, Schobeiri has a track record of managing large-scale, international technology projects and effective product development teams. He was the chief technology officer at Banyan, a fintech and data infrastructure company, before he joined Ogury. Prior to that, he served as senior vice president and chief product officer at Revantage, where he oversaw the creation of the product for Blackstone’s platform for real estate data.

During his time at MediaMath, Schobeiri held the positions of chief technology officer and chief product officer, where he oversaw the company’s global efforts in product strategy and technology development. 

Schobeiri was a board member for the IAB Tech Lab while working for various companies. A key contributor to the creation of the IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework during his tenure, he helped the industry establish a common language for expressing consumer preferences regarding the use of their data for advertising purposes. 

Additionally, he has served as the board chairman for several adtech and data companies, including Ocient, Ergatta, and Truthset. He is still doing this today, continuing to provide his knowledge to help them grow.  

Speaking about his appointment, Schobeiri said, “I’m excited to join Ogury because we are one of the few adtech companies that have fully embraced the technical shifts in the privacy landscape. A true precursor of change, Ogury anticipated market needs to provide advertisers with performance and relevance without collecting personal data, and I’m proud to be a part of that.”

Meanwhile, Martin commented, “We are thrilled to welcome a prominent industry and technology expert such as Wil to Ogury. His experience and knowledge, which lie at the intersection of RTB and privacy while also building and scaling high-performing teams, make him the perfect fit for us.”

Singapore – SoftServe, a provider of IT consulting and digital services, launches its Generative AI Lab with the objective of assisting businesses in achieving concrete business results through the application of Generative AI solutions.

Through research and development of generative models in numerous AI applications, the newly established lab strengthens SoftServe’s AI/ML knowledge. It is supported by a team of professionals committed to improving the potential of Generative AI, spanning from initial discovery to practical integration.

The SoftServe Generative AI Lab will support research and development projects in a variety of areas, including model improvement, domain adaptation, multimodal Generative AI, cost-performance enhancements, operational management (LLMOps), and other facets. Its goal is to combine various technologies and methodologies within these focus areas to create spanning a range of industries.

The expertise and resources developed in the lab will be incorporated into realistic business scenarios by matching these research priorities with the requirements and plans of SoftServe’s clients for efficient implementation.

Alex Chubay, SoftServe’s chief technology officer, said, “Unlike other areas with more developed and mature best practices, Generative AI stands out with its novelty and emergent properties unveiling not just technological innovations, but also groundbreaking use cases that may redefine business strategies.” 

He remarked, “The pace of innovation here is staggering, often overwhelming businesses with new advancements released weekly. This is where the Generative AI Lab shines. It’s not just a hub for rapid experimentation, value discovery, and solution engineering with the latest techniques and technologies. It’s a conduit for channeling this explosive innovation directly to our clients.”

Meanwhile, Iurii Milovanov, SoftServe’s AVP of AI & Data Science, commented, “To move forward, we must be strategic about implementation. This is where a pragmatic approach becomes critical to proving these once-hypothetical possibilities can make real impacts across various business functions and industries.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – A significant channel partnership has been announced by TenMax, an AI Martech company with its headquarters in Taiwan, and Infobip, a global cloud communications platform.

Through this partnership, marketing automation and digital transformation solutions will be made available to the Indonesian market.

TenMax was chosen by Infobip as a partner due to their experienced local engineering team and a track record of working with clients like Gojek. Gojek’s Gojek Ads Network (GoGAN), a comprehensive digital advertising solution, was supported by TenMax’s AI engineering.

TenMax Indonesia (TMI), a Jakarta-based subsidiary of TenMax, will offer its clients in Indonesia the full range of omnichannel messaging channels, tools, and solutions for customer engagement offered by Infobip. TMI will also provide customised implementation and service support on a local level.

With a focus on the unique requirements of its preeminent small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), Indonesia is a crucial market for Infobip. SMEs accounted for 97% of domestic employment in 2020 and nearly 56% of Indonesia’s business investment.

Furthermore, Indonesia is a developing, tech-savvy market distinguished by a young population. The digital native Gen Z in Indonesia, which makes up 52% of its 270 million people, spends 8.5 hours per day on their smartphones, 2 hours longer than the APAC average.

Jeremy Lin, general manager of TMI, said, “Infobip’s solutions help lower the barriers to marketing automation, which we believe is crucial to addressing the customer retention challenges faced by Indonesian SMEs.” 

He added, “They often have extensive customer lists but struggle to retain customers due to a lack of access to the right tools. Infobip is the perfect match for the Indonesia market, and we are thrilled to partner together.”

Meanwhile, George Ni, regional director of partnerships and alliances, APAC at Infobip, expressed, “We are delighted about our partnership with TMI and the opportunities it presents for Indonesian businesses. TMI’s deep understanding of the local market combined with Infobip’s powerful solutions will provide businesses with the essential tools needed to enhance customer experiences.” 

Ni added, “Together, we are well-positioned to make a positive difference that builds strong customer relationships in Indonesia.”