Tag: Southeast Asia

Manila, Philippines – Philippine-based data analytics platform Packworks has officially launched its business intelligence tool ‘Sari IQ’, which provides data analytics on the behaviour and spending habits of consumers who buy their needs in traditional ‘mom-and-pop stores’, known locally as ‘sari-sari’ stores.

The platform launch was announced by Ibba Bernardo, Packworks’ co-founder and chief marketing officer, at the IMMAP DigiCon Valley 2022 held virtually on October 11, 2022.

The Sari IQ dashboard provides real-time and historic information on consumer spending and can be configured to develop an analysis for product types sold in small retail formats. It gives retailers and multinational brands complete visibility into sari-sari stores’ operations, allowing them to extend their slow-moving products and services to a wider pool of customers. Analysis through the platform also helps them come up with data-driven decisions to increase sales of sari-sari store owners by understanding and predicting consumer demand within their area.

Moreover, the platform tracks information from Packworks’ broad network of almost 200,000 sari-sari stores nationwide that use its super app called ‘Super Sari Store’.

“Sari IQ is the trusted, go-to partner for sari-sari stores that empowers businesses to be on top of their brand’s performance and make data-driven decisions every day,” said Andres Montiel, Packworks’ chief data officer.

In Packworks’ latest study, Sari IQ showed that Filipinos tend to care more about their hygiene than their empty stomach as they prioritise buying self-care products such as hair shampoo and conditioner in sari-sari stores located in areas previously battered by natural calamities.

Indonesia – Public relations and content marketing agency Mutant has appointed Tanya Tresnasari, former general manager of Golin and Weber Shandwick, to be its new country manager for Indonesia.

In her new role, Tresnasari will be leading, running, and delivering strategic and results-driven campaigns across PR, content, social media, and branding.

Tresnasari brings more than 20 years of experience in the communications industry, spanning advertising, activation, and public relations. At Golin and Weber Shandwick, she was instrumental in driving cross-practice collaboration and helped to diversify the agency’s roster with key clients, including Sanofi, MSD, Clubhouse, Linktree, Carousell, Shell, and Hyundai, as well as Cathay Pacific, and Singapore Airlines, amongst others. 

Mutant said that expanding to Indonesia was the next logical step for the agency after a successful decade in Singapore and robust growth in Malaysia since its launch in 2019.

Commenting on her appointment, Tresnasari said, “Just as the name suggests, Mutant is constantly evolving. I’m excited to bring the agency’s blended PR, content, social and branding approach and adapt it for clients locally. With the addition of new hires, Mutant Indonesia has already hit the ground running, and I look forward to welcoming and driving real business outcomes for clients.”

Meanwhile, Joseph Barratt, founder and CEO of Mutant, noted, “It’s an exciting time to enter the market, with a differentiated offering that combines PR, content, social media, and branding to help businesses succeed. I can’t think of anyone better than Tanya to lead us through this, and pave the way for Mutant’s next chapter.”

In addition, Gabriela Gunawan also joins Mutant Indonesia as a PR Manager. Previously from Golin Jakarta and Weber Shandwick, Gunawan has worked with a variety of clients, including Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, and SK-II, as well as Mastercard.

Manila, Philippines – Tier One Entertainment, the Philippine-based gaming and esports entertainment company, will be launching its latest incubator programme ‘ALLIANCE’. This aims to gather a curated list of Web3 content creators and train them to be top-notch opinion leaders shaping the future of content creation in the global blockchain and crypto industry.

For this programme, Tier One Entertainment has appointed Tyrone Anthony Bretaña as the head of ALLIANCE. He has worked with some of the biggest brands in fintech and e-commerce for eight years. With an early adopter mentality, Bretaña has the vision to lead the ALLIANCE into becoming a global collective that will drive traffic and mainstream adoption of Web 3 while promoting the values of authenticity, relevance, and legitimacy.

The new programme’s initial list includes professional basketball player Jared Dillinger, holistic wellness coach Chris Tan, gaming content creator Crisostomo ‘Chibiby’ Tan Jr., multimedia creative John Sedano, and DJ and producer Patty Tiu, as well as architect and artist Timi Sky, and filmmaker and entrepreneur Janina Manipol. 

Also joining them are business executives like Block Tides founder Myrtle Ramos, Stock Smarts CEO Marvin Germo, and Tetrix CEO Emman Navalan who have etched their names in the Web3 community.

“As a company that has multi-millions in following in the Web2 space, our role is to be able to help bring the attention and the traffic and help contribute to the mainstream adaptation of Web3. We are confident that our future plans for Web3 will help bring a new generation of users to the exciting space,” said Tryke Gutierrez, CEO of Tier One Entertainment. 

Previously, Tier One Entertainment conducted its influencer programs such as AMPLFY, ARDENT, and ASCEND, which elevated the video game streaming careers of SB19’s Josh Cullen, Filipino actress Sharlene San Pedro, and streamer and content creator Khenji Saito. It also launched The Gaming House with ABS-CBN, a reality show featuring gaming personalities, the first of its kind in Asia. This is on top of managing athletes under Blacklist International, a world champion in mobile esports.

Singapore – Digital brand agency Bonsey Jaden has welcomed Daniel Loo as its new regional executive creative director for Southeast Asia, and brings with him over twenty years of experience that followed the industry shift from traditional to digital media.

He has previously led creative teams in some of the top international advertising agencies in Malaysia including Ogilvy, McCann and Hakuhodo. A copywriter at his core, Loo has also acted as the regional head of copy at Grab—at a time when the company was changing rapidly—giving him a necessary cross-cultural perspective on what drives the coming waves of new businesses.

Speaking on his appointment, Loo said, “I was really drawn to Bonsey Jaden’s adaptable and very flexible culture because one thing I’ve learned over the past two decades is there are no clear-cut solutions, especially now; the digital space has expanded and changed so much.” 

He added, “I’ve always been interested in the way advertising evolves, so it’s been both fascinating and daunting to witness that change, but it’s also taught me that these so-called ‘soft skills’—being resilient, being curious, being able to wrap your head around the experiences of others—are objectively far more valuable than society would have us believe.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Posavac, co-founder and CEO at Bonsey Jaden, commented, “I consider us very fortunate to have connected with Daniel Loo at the right time. It’s not often you come across talent with such depth and breadth of experience, who also knows when and how to bend or break a rule if it’s just going to work. I feel that Daniel’s work speaks for itself, and we are excited about him joining our leadership team and heading up one of our largest teams in the business.”

Loo’s appointment follows the recent appointments at Bonsey Jaden, including Marvin Duval as new head of strategy and Sherwin Kukreja as new head of social media. Bonsey Jaden has primary investment from the CUE Group, and more recently the two companies have collaborated in launching a data-driven solution targeted at the retail industry.

Singapore – Southeast Asian property technology company PropertyGuru has announced its new brand repositioning that is centred around guidance to everyone in the property journey – including property seekers, sellers, agents, developers, banks, valuers, and city planners.

The new brand positioning–‘Where every step of your journey will be guided by Guru’–reflects PropertyGuru’s vision to be a trusted advisor. It echoes the Group’s mission to help property seekers, sellers and owners make confident property decisions, beyond ‘property search’.

PropertyGuru also introduced a new enterprise brand, ‘PropertyGuru For Business’ as it doubles down on innovative solutions that will guide its property enterprise partners to achieve their business goals. ‘PropertyGuru For Business’ unifies PropertyGuru’s business-to-business (B2B) offerings and is designed to guide enterprise clients such as property developers, agencies, banks, valuers, and policy/city planners. 

Other proprietary solutions including PropertyGuru Finance, DataSense, ValueNet, FastKey and event solutions, PropertyGuru For Business will deliver synergies by leveraging data and technology, to help all enterprise clients tap into new growth opportunities and optimise efficiency. 

Hari V. Krishnan, chief executive officer and managing director at PropertyGuru Group, said, “As Southeast Asia’s market leader, the Group is acting upon the responsibility of helping everyone in their property journey make more confident decisions. We will be the infrastructure through which anyone seeking or selling property can make confident property decisions because every interaction is upheld by principles that create trust between users.” 

He added, “That infrastructure is the ‘Property Trust Platform’. We are introducing data solutions that bring transparency, use our innovations in technology to deliver efficiency and digitise property buying and selling, as we guide all our stakeholders on their property journey.”

Meanwhile, Remona Duquesne, director of brand at PropertyGuru Group, added, “Our brand repositioning reflects a strategic pivot into the Group’s new phase of growth outlining our value proposition that the Group offers, beyond search. We want to be right there at every step of the property journey, providing guidance in a market that is filled with complexity, mistrust, and anxiety. We will be that guide.” 

She added, “The brand repositioning sees a new narrative that better reflects our evolution. We will also enhance the experiences created across all platforms, from our offline presence to website, apps, and social platforms.”

Malaysia – Car e-commerce platform Carsome has started its workforce reduction across all operations in SEA. The move will impact a number of employees, who will receive their full severance package and extended health benefits until the end of the year, as per Carsome.

In a report made by Tech Wire Asia, Carsome stated that it will now be focusing on enhancing productivity by aligning resources with contributions to the bottom line and enforcing stricter performance management, which is part of employee base optimisation.

Moreover, the same report said that the layoffs follow Carsome’s announcement of its group-wide accelerated profitability plan to achieve its target of positive EBITDA within the next few quarters. 

In a statement, Carsome said, “This plan includes accelerating its integration with the newly-acquired iCar and WapCar ecosystem of companies, as well as employee base optimization, and automation of processes to further increase group efficiency.”

Vietnam – Vietnam-based digital bank Timo has announced two new key leadership appointments. These include Henry Nguyen, the new executive chairman, and Jonas Eichhorst, the new CEO and will retain his position on the board of directors. 

As executive chairman, Nguyen will continue on working on strategy and planning, as well as regulatory and external relations, including partnerships and strategic alliances. In addition to Timo, Nguyen also serves as chairman of Phoenix Holdings, whose portfolio holdings include strategic partners of Timo, including VietCredit and Kredivo, Viet Capital Securities, and Viet Capital Bank.

Meanwhile, in Eichhorst’s new leadership role, he will continue to work closely with Nguyen and the senior leadership team at Timo. Over the past 15 years, Eichhorst has supported the development of a wide range of high-scale products and businesses across various emerging markets. Having first joined Timo’s Board in 2020, he took on the CFO position in 2021 before now being promoted to CEO.

Timo said that the change also marks the two-year milestone of Timo’s relaunch of service under its long-term partnership with Viet Capital Bank.

Commenting on his appointment, Nguyen said, “While my work at Timo will remain unchanged and uninterrupted, I am extremely excited about Jonas’ promotion to CEO. It reflects all of the hard work and leadership he has exhibited at Timo so far while also expressing the potent and high expectations we all have for him.”

Meanwhile, Eichhorst said, “Timo has had an incredible journey since its founding seven years ago to become the most trusted digital banking brand in Vietnam. We have a unique opportunity to really set the benchmark for digital banking in a market that is quickly developing. Ultimately, our customer’s success in moving, managing, growing, accessing and protecting their money drives our success.”

Singapore – Regional e-commerce platform Shopee has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with non-profit organisation Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) to combat the sale of counterfeit pharmaceutical products online.

The MOU affirms both Shopee and PSI’s commitment and dedication to protecting public health against counterfeit medicines and is part of Shopee’s increased efforts to tackle counterfeits on its platform.

The MOU was signed virtually by Terence Pang, chief operating officer at Shopee; and Todd Ratcliffe, president and chief executive officer at the Pharmaceutical Security Institute. 

Under this partnership, Shopee and PSI will collaborate closely on initiatives for both sellers and shoppers. This includes educational programmes and the sharing of industry best practices to inform sellers, as well as awareness campaigns to protect shoppers.

Pang said, “Shopee looks forward to partnering with the PSI as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure a safe and trusted marketplace environment for brands and shoppers to transact. The safety of our shoppers is our priority and we are always looking for ways to enhance our platform and better protect users. This includes partnerships with leading organisations such as the PSI, which allows us to tap on industry knowledge and best practices to strengthen our current measures against counterfeits, and allow users to shop with greater confidence.”

Meanwhile, Ratcliffe commented, “The PSI is pleased to partner with Shopee in our ongoing journey of protecting public health. Recently, we have noticed an increase in the number of seizures of counterfeit pharmaceutical products, the result of bad actors taking advantage of easing pandemic restrictions and new opportunities. It is important for the PSI to work closely with key e-commerce platforms like Shopee to increase public education and awareness on counterfeit medicines to protect consumers. Together with Shopee, the PSI looks forward to rolling out new initiatives that make e-commerce a safe and secure way to shop.”

The MoU is part of Shopee’s increasing efforts to make e-commerce safer for its community of sellers, shoppers and partners, by collaborating with key stakeholders including industry associations and government bodies to collectively combat counterfeit goods.

Singapore – Online travel agency Booking.com was revealed as the best-perceived travel brand amongst responsible travellers in Singapore with 21.3 scores, according to market research company YouGov.

The report also found that the fellow travel booking platforms Agoda with 18.7 scores, Expedia with 17.6 scores, and Klook with 17.6 scores were closely behind the top spot.

Meanwhile, hospitality companies Shangri-La and Marriott ranked fifth and sixth, with consideration scores of 17.0 and 15.3 respectively. This was followed by online travel agency Trip.com with 14.2 scores, accommodation booking platform Hotels.com with 14.0 scores, and Airbnb with 13.5 scores. And lastly, the Luxury hotel Grand Hyatt rounded off the top ten with a consideration score of 12.8.

“The YouGov Travel Brand Rankings 2022 is aimed at understanding how travel brands differentiate in the eyes of responsible travellers – defined as those who self-identify as being wellness-focused, culturally minded, and caring about environmental impact. The rankings spotlight the brands that score higher in terms of consideration amongst this audience group, based on YouGov BrandIndex Consideration scores from July 2021 to June 2022,” said YouGov.

Manila, Philippines – Top industry players in the Philippines including, Globe, GMA Network, Cignal TV, KROMA Entertainment, and Smart Communications have joined hands with the Asia Video Industry Association’s (AVIA) Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) to announce the formation of the Video Coalition of the Philippines (VCP).

The VCP aims to push for stronger intellectual property protection in the country that will protect both original content and users, as well as promote the Philippines’ creative and media industries, not only in the Philippines but around the world.

VCP convenors will also be building on the momentum of the presentation of the proposed Revised Intellectual Property Code in the Philippines’ 19th Congress in July and the recent Protection of Online Content Summit held on September 2 in Manila. House Bill No. 0799, filed by Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, aims to update the Philippines’ patent application system and make it ‘more attuned to the digital age’. It also ‘provides for technologies and media that were not anticipated’ at the time the intellectual property code was enacted.

Moreover, proposed revisions give regulators greater authority to combat IP violations, including the power to issue ‘permanent blocking orders, takedown orders, cease-and-desist, or disable access orders’ against websites, service providers, and online platforms, including social media. The current IP code does not cover electronic or online content in its definition of pirated goods and lacks clear provisions that would allow for efficient and effective site blocking, and other interventions against online IP violations.

Matt Cheetham, CAP’s general manager, said, “With the presentation of Bill No. 0799, ‘An Act Establishing for the Revised Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines’ to the House, the Philippines has a golden opportunity to not only update and future proof its intellectual property regime, but to act as a launching pad for intellectual property to protect consumers and advance the overall Philippine economy.” 

Cheetham further noted CAP’s recent YouGov survey showed Philippine consumers believe a government regulation for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block pirated content would be the most effective measure to reduce piracy in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Anton Bonifacio, Globe’s chief information security officer, said, “Revising the Intellectual Property Code will go a long way in protecting Filipino consumers from the dangers that lurk in pirate sites and improving cybersecurity in the country, especially as Filipinos now rely heavily on digital platforms.”

Jil Go, KROMA’s head of broadcast and publishing, noted, “Upholding intellectual property rights in the Philippines enables the creative industry to grow and thrive. KROMA, through the Video Coalition of the Philippines, is committed to collaborating with stakeholders to ensure that this is observed, for the industry’s success and sustainability.”

Joseph T. Francia, GMA International’s first vice president and head of operations, said, “GMA’s participation in the Video Coalition of the Philippines presents an opportunity to further strengthen our existing anti-piracy initiatives by working with other players in the industry to push for the implementation of site blocking mechanisms and help protect our viewers and GMA content against unauthorised uploaders.”

Pointing to the impact of site blocking in Indonesia, where traffic to pirate sites has dropped by more than 75% since the government implemented their rolling site blocking procedures in 2019, Cheetham further noted, “The effectiveness of site blocking is backed up by CAP’s most recent YouGov consumer surveys in which more than 50% of Indonesian consumers say that they have stopped or rarely access pirate services as a result of the highly efficient and effective blocking measures in place there.”

“Perhaps, more importantly, 76% of Indonesian consumers say they are accessing more legal content and pirating less, and 26% have subscribed to legitimate sources as a result of illegal streaming sites being blocked. Blocking as an educational tool may also be evident in 95% of Indonesian consumers agreeing that online piracy does have negative consequences – the highest in the region,” said Cheetham.