Tag: Southeast Asia

Bangkok, Thailand – ​The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), together with the provinces of Chanthaburi, Rayong, and Si Sa Ket, has launched the ‘Amazing Thailand Metaverse: Amazing Durian’ project, a new virtual travel experience specially created to attract a new sector of tourists especially durian lovers, cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and high-disposable income tourists to the country.

The ‘Amazing Thailand Metaverse: Amazing Durian’ uses Web 3.0 technology and the application of digital assets to promote tourism to connect the virtual world and the real world together. It aims to help business operators such as Thailand reopen, and to upgrade technical capabilities in the tourism industry.

TAT said that durian was chosen as the pilot focus for the project due to the fruit’s international fame, and the fact that it is currently durian season in Thailand with Chanthaburi, Rayong, and Si Sa Ket is widely known for their production of the fruit. 

Participating orchards in the project include Suan Arun Burapha and KP Garden in Chanthaburi, Lamai Garden and Suphattra Land Park in Rayong, and Ing Than Park in Si Sa Ket, with more orchards expected to join. These orchards are well-known for producing many different Thai durian varieties, including the popular ones – Monthong and Chanee – and the local ones – volcanic and long lap lae, as well as the durian glycemic index (GI), which will all be available for tourists to explore in the virtual garden.

Moreover, TAT, in cooperation with the participating durian orchards and selected NFT creators, has created the NFT Collection Amazing Durian in Metaverse, for which tourists can purchase and collect within this durian season in Thailand until 31 August 2022. Aside from this special collection, tourists can also enjoy gamification whereby they can use tokens or items to upgrade their avatar’s abilities, and redeem e-vouchers for accommodation, tourism products, and services in the real world.

Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT’s governor, believes that the metaverse is a new era of the digital world, and TAT has identified world trends and consumer behaviour in line with this as an opportunity to increase the competitiveness of the Thai tourism industry. 

“It is an exciting way to resume business as Thailand reopens to foreign tourism in a sustainable manner, which is a key objective of the ‘Visit Thailand Year 2022: Amazing New Chapters’ campaign. Tourists will be encouraged to visit Thailand after enjoying their virtual experience,” said Supasorn.

The new project can be experienced by visiting www.amazingthailandmetaverse.com, where tourists can create their own avatar to explore a virtual durian garden that is designed based on an actual durian orchard without the need for any VR headsets.

Malaysia – ​Malaysian-based telco Telekom Malaysia has appointed Krish Datta, former CEO for JAPAC and the Middle East at global data solution provider BackOffice Associates, to the newly created role of executive vice president of digital services. 

With over 34 years of technology industry experience, Datta has built and led several enterprise technology-based businesses across ASEAN, India, Japan, and Australia, as well as the Middle East. Aside from his role at BackOffice Associates, Datta has also held leadership positions at SAP APAC for over 16 years, where he established the company in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. He also went on to hold the position of president of SAP Southeast Asia, where he is responsible for all aspects of the business from sales, marketing, sales operations, and presales, as well as partner and eco-system, amongst others.

In his new role, Datta will be bringing his deep expertise in building Telekom’s technology businesses, alongside a broad, diverse set of experiences and skills.

Commenting on his appointment, Datta said, “I am excited to join TM, for more than one reason. I love building sustainable tech businesses, and this opportunity to build a technology-focused team offers me the ability to create, from the inside, another reliable TM brand, a new identity for Enterprise Technology along with a scope to help a country I love.”

Meanwhile, Imri Mokhtar, Telekom’s group CEO, shared that in this new role, Datta will deepen their commitment and ability to enable their Enterprise and Public Sector customers’ digital transformation, as they help them improve and accelerate every area of their business with simplicity and confidence.

“Krish at the helm of our new digital services arm marks the start of an exciting new chapter for us. As our customers in the Enterprise and Public Sector space continue to build the future of business, he will help TM realise our opportunities in B2B digital services. I am excited to see what Krish and his team will deliver,” said Mokhtar.

Hanoi, Vietnam – Local bank VPBank in Vietnam has announced that it was permitted to go through with the acquisition of OPES Insurance, aimed at expanding its business lines to non-life and health insurance, paired with its current life insurance business collaborated with AIA Vietnam. This announcement was held during the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Hanoi last 29 April.

Through the meeting, VPBank also shared that it will be contributing VND20t towards its securities arm of ASC – a subsidiary obtained earlier in the year, to tap into the investment banking and wealth management segments.

Moreover, the bank will be lifting its foreign ownership limit to 30% of the chartered capital to accommodate the private placement to the foreign investor accordingly. The proceeds obtained from the share issuance will be utilised to enhance VPBank’s financial and management capabilities, in order to extend the operation scale of the bank to serve growing credit demand.

Singapore – Video streaming platform YouTube has partnered with comedy brand Ministry of Funny to launch a series of workshops, aimed at helping interfaith groups and religious organisations create quality online content and meaningful discourse around the emerging issues of online extremism and hate. 

Titled ‘Tribe Talkin’: How to Start Conversations on Difficult Topics’, the first part of this collaboration will consist of a series of three 6-hour workshops. Participants from various interfaith groups will learn to strategise, plan, and execute impactful content using comprehensive training materials. They will also learn the basics of video production, data analytics, and best practices for channel optimisation and sustained engagement on YouTube. 

These action-oriented workshops are part of an ongoing collaboration between YouTube and the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth (MCCY) to counter violent extremism on online platforms, and were announced with Minister of State Alvin Tan as the Guest-of-Honour in attendance. At the end of the workshops, religious and interfaith groups will be better equipped with the knowledge and confidence to address such sensitive issues online.

Ben King, Google’s country managing director for Singapore, shared that with increased accessibility to content creation, more voices are finding their way onto online platforms, including those of bad actors, and with this, it is crucial that the platform empower interfaith and religious community builders to step up and strengthen their social fabric with helpful content. 

“As part of our responsibility efforts, YouTube has invested in policies, products and people to protect the YouTube community while preserving its positive impact. This collaboration with the Ministry of Funny and local YouTube creators with the support of MCCY continues our longstanding efforts to amplify positive voices against threat vectors in this region,” said King.

Meanwhile, Terence Chia, co-founder of Ministry of Funny, said that the brand has been creating comedy content addressing sensitive topics like stereotypes, religion, and online extremist behaviour for over a decade now, and while it has managed to reach a large audience via its YouTube channel as well as its Yah Lah BUT podcast, it is also important that it enables more local voices to join the conversation and raise awareness on such critical topics.

“This partnership with YouTube is in line with our mission to give back to the community, and we are excited to work with other local creators to empower a new generation of content creators on YouTube,” added Chia.

In the final session, participants will use their learnings to develop a video concept pitch, where the winning group will bag a $10,000 grant, which will be equally shared amongst the four organisations they represent. Additionally, each of these four organisations will also receive a short-term mentorship led by YouTube content creators, Our Grandfather Story, The Daily Ketchup Podcast, itsclarityco, and Overthink, to help expand their content creation efforts for their respective organisations.

Alvin Tan, minister of state for MCCY and Ministry of Trade and Industry, also commented, “Today’s workshop by Google and Ministry of Funny shows us how we can use tech to create content and conversations that build trust and understanding amongst our many communities in Singapore.”

Hong Kong – Local-based omni-channel chat commerce solution provider Omnichat has raised US$1.8m in its pre-A round funding, which will be used to expand its business to Southeast Asia.

The funding will finance Omnichat to further expand the business to SEA markets. The first stop will be Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The company will scale its partnership network through collaborating with more SEA smart commerce platforms on solutions integration.

Alan Chan, founder and CEO at Omnichat, said, “We will also invest more capital to bolster technology and product development on our all-in-one messaging platform, especially the remarketing and ‘chat and buy’ features, realising our mission of converting visitors to customers through chat.”

Omnichat facilitates companies to centralise customers’ chats from different instant messaging channels including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, LINE and website live chat, etc. into a single platform for efficiency enhancement. It also comprises an OMO (online-merge-offline) sales sector which pairs with revenue tracking across online and offline channels, contributing the revenue recognition and multi-shop management of brands.

Chan added, “Marketing automation through chatbots and integration of different touchpoints are becoming increasingly important to deliver a seamless shopping experience to consumers.”

Kula Lumpur, Malaysia – Financial wellbeing platform Payd has announced that it has raised USD 1.7 million (RM7.5 million) in a seed funding round to expand its Southeast Asian operations, fuelling the growth of the region’s financial tech market. The round was led by IFS Capital Limited, The Hive Southeast Asia, Delight Capital, and Antler.

Payd aims to build a mobile financial wellness platform for employees in Southeast Asia. In order to achieve this, the company plans to use the money it has set aside to promote its brand, expand its workforce in order to speed up product development, and introduce new products and services in the near future. Additionally, ‘angel investors’ participated in the funding round.

Commenting on the funding, Justin Kong, co-founder and CEO of Payd, shared, “This funding exercise is a watershed moment for Payd. We are grateful for our partners’ trust and confidence as we continue to build and launch Payd. In the long run, we hope to be a platform that eases the financial worries of the Malaysian workforce, helping build a better engagement between employers and employees.”

To date, Payd has garnered over 20,000 employee sign-ups, and has witnessed an increase in enrollment rates of up to 25%. This mirrors the consistent success of the brand since its inception, Payd has been experiencing a growth of 120 to 180% month-on-month since July 2021, as more Malaysian businesses are now choosing to provide earned wage access (EWA) benefits to their employees.

Renchun Zeng, chief executive officer of IFS Capital Limited, said that they are excited for the opportunity to invest in Payd and deliver EWA solutions to the Southeast Asian market. 

“Large and middle-market corporations can consider a well-structured EWA program as an integral pillar of the employee benefits framework. By empowering financial well-being of their employees, it can positively impact worker productivity, promote retention, and reduce absenteeism, resolving some of employers’ biggest pain points. This service is in line with IFS Capital’s goal of empowering businesses with access to capital through simple and affordable solutions,” Zeng said.

Manila, Philippines – Conversational AI platform Haptik has partnered with MDI NOVARE, the Philippine-based information, and communications technology solutions provider, aimed at facilitating the widespread use and value of AI chatbots for businesses in the Philippines.

The partnership will benefit Haptik by having a strong local partner to improve and solve customer experience (CX) challenges in the Philippines market. Through this, Haptik and MDI NOVARE will jointly transform customer experience across sales, customer support, and co-marketing, as well as sales enablement, and training with AI-powered virtual assistants.

With MDI NOVARE’s vast regional presence and industry experience in the Philippines, the partnership will also strive to help businesses automate customer support, boost lead generation, generate revenue, and at the same time deliver uninterrupted and delightful CX across every channel using Haptik’s cutting-edge AI/ML NLP technology.

Anila Rao, Haptik’s vice president and business head for APAC, shared that with the launch of their conversational partner program a few quarters back, their focus in APAC countries has been mainly to look for strategic partners who can add value and help elevate customer experiences for their clients through Haptik’s AI chatbots and enterprise CX platform.

“Thanks to MDI NOVARE’s presence, scale, and strong reputation of over 30 years in the Philippines region, it did not take us long to decide, collaborate and jolt this strategic agreement together. With Haptik’s industry-leading virtual assistants and chatbots built using the best NLP architecture, we feel it’s a great win not only for MDI NOVARE and Haptik but also for businesses in the Philippines,” said Rao.

Meanwhile, Allan So, MDI NOVARE’s chief commercial officer, commented, “We are happy to team up with Haptik to bring AI solutions to more businesses in the Philippines. Growing our footprint in AI with best-in-class partners like Haptik is part of our mission to be the National Champion in Technology as we bring the power of AI chatbots to deliver next-level Customer Experience.”

Singapore – Singapore-based contactless payment platform EZ-Link has partnered with global payment technology company Mastercard to launch its ‘Pay by Wallet’, a digital wallet product that leverages Mastercard’s ‘Pay by Account’ technology for making contactless and e-commerce payments including recurring payments at Mastercard accepting merchants globally.

The introduction of ‘Pay by Wallet’ aims to empower more consumers across all walks of life to access digital payment capabilities in line with their needs and participate in the digital economy.

By activating ‘Pay by Wallet’, users can now use their EZ-Link Wallet to make online and in-store contactless payments at over 80 million Mastercard merchants worldwide. This means that they can use ‘Pay by Wallet’ to shop online, as well as manage subscriptions for services like Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, gym membership, and ride-hailing, amongst others. Users will also be able to add ‘Pay by Wallet’ to Google Pay1to make contactless mobile payments for both retail and transit transactions.

Moreover, users can earn EZ-Link Rewards points with every transaction and redeem them for benefits from over 200 merchants on the EZ-Link Rewards platform, which ranges from F&B, retail, and motoring, amongst others. They will also be entitled to exclusive offers across Mastercard’s Priceless Specials, a curated list of offers that cut across key passion pillars of eat, play, shop, and stay.

Nicholas Lee, EZ-Link’s CEO, shared that as consumers’ lifestyles continue to evolve with increasing digitalisation, they want to transform alongside them to serve their everyday needs, and with ‘Pay by Wallet’, they will be able to empower consumers with greater flexibility and convenience when making domestic and cross border payments digitally.

“At EZ-Link, we have built a strong anchor in transportation, and will continue to build on that success by steadily penetrating the digital marketplace to enable more inclusive digital payment services for Singaporeans,” said Lee.

Meanwhile, Deborah Heng, Mastercard’s country manager for Singapore, commented that they are delighted to partner EZ-Link to power the growth of the digital payments ecosystem in Singapore.

“With the value of digital wallet transactions expected to grow, this innovative Pay by Account technology is timely and will allow EZ-Link to expand its reach by offering five million users the ability to transact anywhere and anytime, leveraging Mastercard’s comprehensive global acceptance,” said Heng.

As part of the launch, EZ-Link is offering a sign-up bonus to the first 20,000 users who activate Pay by Wallet on their EZ-Link App. They will receive S$5 credit upon sign-up, and an additional S$5 cashback on their first spend5. This campaign runs until 31 July 2022. During the same period, users who pay with EZ-Link Pay by Wallet will automatically be enrolled in a lucky draw, and stand to win prizes including 2D1N staycation packages at Resorts World Sentosa and Universal Studios.

Vietnam – Digital assets exchange CoinW has announced its expansion to Vietnam. Through this, the company will be bringing more than 10 million USDT rewards to its Vietnamese users, which can be obtained from the activities of doing registrations, friend invitations, and transactions.

CoinW said that it has also launched a Vietnamese language package version to make transactions more convenient for Vietnamese users. Moreover, the Vietnamese Dong (VND) OTC transaction feature will also be opened soon, enabling users to use VND to exchange cryptocurrencies on the platform.

Mingguo Bai, CoinW’s CEO, shared that in recent years, a large number of encrypted projects and technical teams, such as Axie Infinity and Coin98, have emerged in the global encryption industry. 

“It is a great pleasure to bring the products and services to Vietnam. CoinW will provide a safe, stable, and fast cryptocurrency channel for local cryptocurrency users, and ensure the security of user transactions in multiple dimensions,” said Bai.

Singapore – Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation, has expanded its business to Vietnam, with the opening of an office in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-2022.

The expansion in Vietnam reflects Thoughtworks’ wider effort to geographically diversify its business and meet service demand from clients in SEA and Australia. It also aims to increase the company’s ability to hire from this skilled, diverse talent base and welcoming business environment.

Through this, Thoughtworks will be creating new jobs, developing local talent, and building thought leadership on digital transformation, cloud, platforms, data and artificial intelligence, and customer experience, as well as product and design.

Wen Shun Wong, Thoughtworks’ managing director for SEA, shared that this expansion will provide wider collaboration potential between their clients, partners, and employees, and strengthen the availability and supply of premium services for their clients in APAC. 

“This strategic move will also allow us to leverage a new community of talent who will help us further innovate and deliver extraordinary impact for our clients,” said Wong.