Analyse Asia With Bernard Leong

In episode 329, Jon Russell, editor of The Ken Southeast Asia, joined us in a conversation to discuss the continuing epic rivalry between Gojek and Grab in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. Starting from the perspective of Gojek, we discuss the impact and changes made after the founder's departure and how they are re-organizing to tackle Grab's onslaught in Indonesia and expanding out to other parts of Southeast Asia from Indonesia. With new investments from US tech giants, Facebook and Paypal, we discuss how Gojek is shaping itself to be a worthy rival against Grab backed by SoftBank and Alibaba in Southeast Asia. Last but not least, Jon discuss why the media streaming giants of Southeast Asia, HOOQ & iFlix failed to take on Netflix and the key takeaways for unicorn start-ups in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion: Jon Russell (@jonrussell, LinkedIn, Newsletter, Personal Site, The Ken Profile) Since we have last spoken, you have moved out of TechC

In episode 328, Lim Xinyi, senior director for corporate development from Pinduoduo, joined us to discuss the social ecommerce company and its impact on agriculture. Starting from the conversation, Xinyi shared her background and how she came to discover and eventually join Pinduoduo. She discuss Pinduoduo's current mission and vision and how the company pioneered social ecommerce in China. Last but not least she shared Pinduoduo's contributions to the agriculture sector in China and how they are helping farmers to get their agricultural produce to the consumers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Lim Xinyi (LinkedIn), Senior Director, Corporate Development at Pinduoduo (@PinduoduoInc, LinkedIn, Medium) How did you start your career? In your career journey, what are the interesting career lessons you can share with our audience. Pinduoduo’s Social E-Commerce Model and its impact in agriculture  Can you briefly

In episode 327, Geoffrey Cain, author of "Samsung Rising" joins us in a two parts conversation on his journey across Asia as a journalist and author and discuss the backstory of his new book behind the Samsung Group and how it rise to be the most powerful Chaebol (large family-owned business conglomerate) in Korea. In the second part of the conversation, Geoffrey discuss Samsung's complicated relationship with Apple as both a supplier and competitor and how their arrogance and hierarchical culture led to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. He reveals why he did not include the story of Lee Boo-jin, the daughter of Lee Kun Hee who is often tapped as a potential successor to the Samsung Group and why it is unlikely that there will be a female leader to helm the Samsung Group. Last but not least, Geoffrey offered his perspectives on how Samsung is responsible for exporting culture out of Korea to the rest of the world, particularly the movie Parasite and his thoughts on whether there is a future for another Samsun

In episode 326, Geoffrey Cain, author of "Samsung Rising" joins us in a two parts conversation on his journey across Asia as a journalist and author and discuss the backstory of his new book behind the Samsung Group and how it rise to be the most powerful Chaebol (large family-owned business conglomerate) in Korea. In the first part of the conversation, Geoffrey discuss the inspiration and the main themes behind "Samsung Rising", and shares the origin story of Samsung and how they went from an agriculture business to a global technology giant today along with Apple and Huawei by a family owned enterprise spanning three generations. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Geoffrey Cain, author of “Samsung Rising”, and also regular commentator on The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Time & The New Republic and former correspondent in The Economist (Website, @geoffrey_cain, LinkedIn) [0:26] How did you start your career? [0:55] What have you learned from cove

In episode 325, Tim Culpan from Bloomberg joined us to dissect the most important deal that rocked the Asian business and technology landscape with Facebook investing 5.7B into Reliance Jio. We began the conversation with Tim to set the context behind the deal and what both Facebook & Reliance Jio Platforms stand to gain from this partnership and their ambitions to win the market with a super app concept that is now popular in China & Southeast Asia. Tim also examined the implications to what it means for the Chinese technology giants from Alibaba to Xiaomi in India and the US technology giants such as Google and Amazon. Last but not least, Tim discuss the recent debacles which SoftBank faced with their investments and whether there is a silver lining for the Vision Fund. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Tim Culpan (@tculpan, Linkedin, Bloomberg), Columnist at Bloomberg [0:29] Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [1:23]

In episode 324, Rui Ma, co-host of Tech Buzz China podcast and a trusted voice on China Tech joined us on a conversation to dive deeper on the anonymous report that unveiled Luckin Coffee's recent debacle. We start with a quick history of Luckin Coffee with Rui Ma breaking down the backstory on how Luckin Coffee's alleged fraud came to light and the impact after the fallout. Rui Ma dived deeper beyond the original story with an analysis of the anonymous report entitled "Luckin Coffee: Fraud + Fundamentally Broken Business". Last but not least, she discussed the implications of Luckin Coffee's debacle and how investigative reporting and corporate activism will impact the public listings of Chinese companies in the US. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Rui Ma, Creator & Host of Tech Buzz China podcast by Pandaily produced by SupChina (LinkedIn, @ruima) [0:26] Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [0:30] Luckin Coffee Debacle [1:

In episode 323, Charles Reed Anderson, our long time guest of the show and host of TechBurst Asia joins us to discuss his latest venture, SparkLabs Connex, a new accelerator program for smart city technologies under the SparkLabs Group. Before diving deep into the new venture, Charles discuss the challenges of smart city rankings and how they did not reflect the reality of what is happening on the ground. Then he began to discuss the rationale of SparkLabs Connex and why it is time to start an accelerator program specifically on smart city technologies. Last but not least, he break down how the global program works, offered his perspectives on what types of entrepreneurs he would seek to fund and address how SparkLabs Connex will operate in a COVID-19 world. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Charles Anderson (@CRASingapore, LinkedIn), founder of Charles Reed Anderson and Associates, host of TechBurst Asia (iTunes, Spotify, @techburstasia) and now g

In episode 322, Rui Ma from Techbuzz China joined us to discuss Bilibili in China and discuss how the video site has grown from a niche community of anime lovers to its now proclaimed "Youtube of China". Starting from the origin story, Rui Ma traced the backstory in how Bilibili came to be and how the site has diversified their monetisation revenues from esports, ecommerce to advertising. Last but not least, she discuss how Bilibili balances its current growth strategy against the patience of the community behind after going public. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Rui Ma, Founder of Euzen Labs and Host of TechBuzz podcast by Pandaily produced by SupChina & Extra Buzz Newsletter (LinkedIn, @ruima) [0:28] Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [0:31] Bilibili in China [1:19] Can you talk about the origin story of Bilibili and how it has become a platform for fans who are experts in certain niches such as anime in China? [1:40]

In episode 321, Gareth Nicholson and Sarah Dai from South China Morning Post discuss the recently launched China AI Report 2020. In the interview, Gareth and Sarah share the key themes and intended audience for the report and offered their perspectives to how artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved in China. We examine the key drivers behind the growth of AI in China and how China is solving the talent pipeline given it's an evolving technology and what we should expect in the next few years. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Gareth Nicholson, (LinkedIn) senior news editor on the Technology desk and Sarah Dai (@sarah_dai, Linkedin), senior reporter from South China Morning Post (SCMP) Can you talk about your roles in SCMP and what do you do? China AI Report 2020 by South China Morning Post What are the key themes for the report? Who is the intended audience for the report? What key drivers are behind the growth of AI in China?  If we look at the

In this episode, Carol Yin and guest host Deng Yuying, CEO of Esevel continues their conversation on the COVID-19 coronavirus and examines its impact from China to Asia Pacific. They discuss the latest updates on how the coronavirus has now spread to Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran and US, while examining how different industries from tourism, airlines ,ecommerce, pharmaceutical and health supplies are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Last but not least, they analyzed the short, middle and long term impact of the virus and break down the different scenarios on where this may lead in the upcoming months in 2020. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Carol Yin (@carolyujiayin, LinkedIn), Host of Analyse Asia and guest host Deng Yuying, CEO of Esevel (@yuyingdeng, LinkedIn) [0:55] The Wuhan Coronavirus and its impact to Asia Pacific Part 2 [1:00] What has been the recent updates in China with respect to the COVID-19 virus? [1:07] Since our last conversation,

After a long hiatus, in Episode 319, our host Carol Yin takes the seat to discuss the recent COVID-19 coronavirus and examine the impact of the pandemic to the rest of Asia Pacific and globally in two part series. In the first part of the series, together with the guest host, Yuying Deng, Carol related her experience living through the challenging times in China before and after the COVID-19 virus broke out. We discuss the origins of the virus, the measures in how the Chinese government are dealing with the outbreak, the outpour of grief from the Chinese over Dr Li Wenliang's death and broke down the major misconceptions perpetuated by media outlets. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Carol Yin (@carolyujiayin, LinkedIn), Host of Analyse Asia and guest host Deng Yuying, CEO of Altizen (@yuyingdeng, LinkedIn) The COVID-19 Coronavirus (WHO site) and its impact to Asia Pacific (Reference: Nikkei Asia Review) A view of how the pandemic with the COVID-19

Shai Oster, the Asia Bureau Chief from The Information reviews the year of 2019 on how the technology giants in China and SoftBank have fared and offers his annual predictions to what will be happening in 2020. Shai reviewed his 2018 predictions and ranked how each of them have gone for 2019. In addition, he offered his perspectives on how Huawei and ByteDance will face constant challenges in their overseas expansion and whether SoftBank will raise their 2nd fund and the downstream impact from their debacle with Wework trickling down to Oyo, Didi and Grab in 2020. Last but not least, Shai throws forward what he thinks will happen in 2020. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Shai Oster (@beijingscribe, LinkedIn, TheInformation Profile), Asia Bureau Chief in The Information  So since your last appearance on the show, what have you been up to? 2018 predictions  Didi to IPO in end 2019. ByteDance will continue to grow and fight Facebook in Southeast Asi

Simon Kemp, founder and CEO of Kepios joined us to discuss the recent Digital 2019 Q4 Global StatShot Report and share the major observations in how Asia Pacific has shifted social media from the west to the east. Starting from the report, Simon shares the key major observations including Asia's rising, Tik Tok vs Facebook and how 5G will shape mobile and social media in 2020. Last but not least, Simon offers his predictions on the digital world as he looks forward to 2020. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Simon Kemp (@eskimon, LinkedIn), Founder & CEO of Kepios We met during the live show in Singapore and many thanks for coming on as one of our three mysterious guests on the show. Since our last conversation, what have you been up to?  Shift to the East: We Are Social Q4 Report and Q4 2019 StatShot Report. Reference: The DataReportal library of free reports What are the key major trends that you have observed globally and then specificall

Rebecca Fannin, author of "Tech Titans of China" and founder of Silicon Dragon Ventures joined us for a conversation to discuss her new book and offered her perspectives on how China will reshape the world with their breed of tech giants: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and many more. Rebecca began with the story of her career and how she came to cover Chinese technology companies from its earliest days. She discussed the major themes of her new book, and how the current trade tensions will shape China's path in the technology space and why we need to start thinking of China as originators of technology rather than the misconceptions that they are copycats. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Rebecca Fannin (@rfannin, LinkedIn), Author of “Tech Titans of China” and Founder of Silicon Dragon Ventures [0:16] As a young person who also works for a media company, I must ask, how did you start your career? [0:32] What advice would you give to young people lookin

James Hull from Hullx and co-host of China Tech Investor podcast joined us in a discussion on whether we should replace Baidu with Bytedance in the BAT China. Starting with the question, James dived deep into the business structures of Baidu and Bytedance and examined whether Baidu has lost their edge as one of the three tech giants of China. In the same conversation, James offered his perspectives on how Bytedance will replace Baidu in the future. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): James Hull (@jameshullx, LinkedIn), Co-host of China Tech Investor podcast and Founder of Hullx [0:21] Since you have last appeared on the podcast, what have you been up to? [0:50] Should we replace Baidu with Bytedance in the BAT? [0:56] BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) & TMD (Toutiao, Meituan-dianping, Didi)  Let’s start with Baidu. How has Baidu performed as a public company for the past decade? [2:08] What are the key businesses of Baidu? (iQiyi is spun off as

Joyce Yang, founder of Global Coin Research, joined us in a conversation about the Asian cryptocurrency market in Asia with our new host, Carol Yin. Joyce and Carol discussed the recent publication by Global Coin Research (GCR) "The Small Handbook to Asia Cryptocurrency: On local ecosystems, trends & regulations" and identified the key important trends and currents in the Asian market, specifically China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Singapore.  Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Joyce Yang (@JoyceInNYC , LinkedIn), Founder of Global Coin Research [0:40] Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [1:03] The Small Handbook to Asia Cryptocurrency: On local ecosystems, trends & regulations published by Global Coin Research (GCR) [4:56] Joyce discuss the GCR's new advisory & venture fund.  How did you and your team in GCR put the handbook together? [5:08] Who are the intended audience? [8:14] What are the main themes

Fresh out of the studio, Chua Kee Lock, CEO of Vertex Holdings and managing partner of Vertex Ventures, Southeast Asia & India joined us in a conversation together with guest host Charles Reed Anderson of TechBurst Asia podcast about the venture capital firm and its footprint across Southeast Asia globally. We start with Kee Lock's story and how he eventually become a venture capitalist. Following on, Kee Lock discuss Vertex Holdings and Vertex Ventures and how the fund assembles and helps their portfolio of high growth startups such as Grab in the region. Last but not least, Kee Lock discuss the evolution of venture capital in Southeast Asia and India and where it is leading. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Chua Kee Lock,  CEO of Vertex Holdings & Managing Partner of Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India ( LinkedIn) [0:25] How did you start your career? [0:36] In your career journey, what are the words of wisdom you can share with my

Steve Melhuish, co-founder of PropertyGuru and partner from Wavemaker VC, shares the lessons of his journey from an entrepreneur with PropertyGuru to now a partner in a venture capital firm. Steve started with the backstory behind on how he founded PropertyGuru and shared the lessons in scaling up the company across Southeast Asia and explained the thinking process and execution behind his transition out of the CEO role in the company. Subsequently, Steve discuss his current gig with Wavemaker VC, and the key traits in companies and founders which he invests on and his current thoughts on the proptech space. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Steve Melhuish, co-founder of PropertyGuru and partner in Wavemaker VC (LinkedIn) [0:12] How did you start your career? [0:30] In your career journey, what are the most interesting lessons that you can share with my audience? [5:07] PropertyGuru [10:17] Can you talk about the backstory when you founded Proper

Grace Park, co-founder & president of DocDoc joined us in a conversation about leadership and regional expansion of DocDoc in Asia. Grace started the conversation, narrating her background as a military officer with the US army and how she moved subsequently from a military career into a business executive in notable healthcare companies. Grace shared the backstory behind the founding of DocDoc as a leading patient intelligence company from her perspective and offered her perspectives in how she utilized her experience to expand DocDoc regionally across Asia. Last but not least, Grace offered her thoughts on leadership and the importance of how to lead teams to success in different settings. Editor's note: This interview was conducted in June 2019, and recently DocDoc has raised their series B funding of US$13M. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Grace Park (Facebook, LinkedIn), co-founder & President of DocDoc [0:19] How did you start you

In episode 310, Justin Hall, partner from Golden Gate Ventures joined us in a conversation to discuss the state of venture capital in Southeast Asia. Justin shared his career journey in how he progressed from an associate to a partner within one of the well-known venture capital firms in Southeast Asia and explained what he has learned over the years from working with startup founders and companies. From there, Justin extended the conversation to offer his perspectives to how the infrastructure has evolved and the importance of exits for startups in Southeast Asia. Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included): Justin Hall, partner in Golden Gate Ventures (@JVinnyHall, LinkedIn) [0:15] How did you start your career? [0:46] Does the Kauffman program help you in advancing your venture capital career? [2:30] Prominent alumni in Kauffman Fellowship within Southeast Asia [3:15] In your career journey, what are the interesting life lessons you can share with my audie