Analyse Asia With Bernard Leong

Simon Kemp, founder and CEO of Kepios joined us in a conversation on the global digital report 2019 and what it has installed for Asia Pacific in 2019. We start with the global trends of the report and zoomed it down to Asia Pacific, with the surprise that growth is still accelerating in the region particularly with India, the rise of Tik Tok by ByteDance and the hard truth that Facebook is not declining. We discuss whether there are new entrants in social media for Asia Pacific and the attitude towards privacy in the region as well.

Graham Brown, founder of Asia Tech Podcast and Pitchdeck Asia TV joined us in a conversation about his current focus in the podcasting and video media business and his thoughts on the recent major announcements that shook the podcasting world and its impact to Asia Pacific. We first dived into his background and how he has decided to go into the podcasting business. We discuss the Asia Tech Podcast and its intended audience, and how he focused on the storytelling aspect of his media business. Last but not least, Graham discuss the general market trends for podcasting in Asia Pacific, and where it will be heading in the next 3-5 years.

Joyce Yang from Global Coin Research joined us in a discussion to review Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally, its rapid rise and current lead in the industry. We began the chronological history of the company and  how the founders Zhao Changpeng and He Yi built up the cryptocurrency exchange from 2017 to now the leading player with 40% of the market share globally. We discuss their current business footprint, their current projects from the stable coin project to the recent announcement of the Binance chain.

James Chau, news anchor and editor at China-US Focus and World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador, joined us to discuss the current China and US relationship. We began with his background as a news anchor with Hong Kong TVB, BBC and CGTN (former CCTV news) and discuss his insights from his recent conversation with former US President Jimmy Carter. We dived deeper into the China and US relationship starting from 1979 and discuss how the escalating trade skirmishes between both countries might push them towards a trade war. Last but not least, we hear his perspectives on the recent detention of Huawei's CFO and the potential implications to world politics upon the calibration of US and China relationship based on the current trade talks. 

Matt Harty, senior vice president of Asia Pacific for The Trade Desk, joined us to discuss the footprint of the programmatic advertising company and the major trends on digital advertising across Asia Pacific. From the start, Matt introduces the concept of programmatic advertising and explains how The Trade Desk works with their customers and expands their business offerings across Asia Pacific. We dived deeper in the importance of brand safety in programmatic advertising, the key trends in digital advertising in Asia Pacific and whether humans or AI should decide what we want to advertise in the future.

Molly Shea, general manager of Asia Pacific from Western Union joined us to discuss the business and distribution footprint of the company across Asia Pacific. We begin the conversation with Molly's career story, and subsequently leading into the discussion on Western Union's focus on digital services and geographic expansion in Asia Pacific. Last but not least, Molly shared her perspectives and thoughts on the current trends in the fintech space, for example, the current super apps trends from China to Asia and how Western Union are experimenting with blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies.  

Matthew Brennan, co-founder of China Channel and host of China Tech Talk, closes the Bytedance trilogy of Toutiao and Douyin with the Bytedance Group. We discuss the mission and vision of the Bytedance Group, an artificial intelligence technology company and where they are after raising US$3B from SoftBank recently. We discuss the product portfolio of Bytedance beyond Toutiao and Douyin, their business model of advertising which drives high profitability and why they are poised to take on Facebook in a global scale.

John Artman, editor in chief from Technode of host of China Tech Talk, joined us in a conversation to discuss three different and interesting stories from China entrepreneurial space and align them in the underlying theme of explaining what numbers and narratives can mean in China. We began with the bike rental startups collapse, followed by the Mafengwo scandal and finally the recent leaked financials from Luckin Coffee into the open. Through the lenses of these three stories, we discuss how we need to understand and adjust our expectations to the future of China's economic growth.

Parag Khanna, futurist, TED speaker and founder of Futuremap, joined us to discuss his book "The Future is Asian". We kick off the conversation on the main themes of the book, and taking the Asian perspective on how we should look at world history. We discuss the geopolitical landscape of Asia, and why China's Belt and Road Initiative will not led to a bi-polar world but will shift the rest of Asia towards independence and have the ability to assert their identity in the next century. Last but not least, Parag shared his advice for those out there who might want to come to Asia and why the future is truly Asian.

Charles Reed Anderson, founder of Charles Reed Anderson and associates joined us to discuss the state of proptech in Asia Pacific. Charles break down the real estate supply chain and discuss the key trends which are disrupting the real estate industry. We discuss how user experience and business model disruption are driving the current innovations in proptech such as Wework and how the traditional real estate players such as CBRE and Jones LaSalle are tackling these challenges ahead. Last but not least, Charles explained why the Asian counterparts in multi-national real estate companies are driving more innovation in proptech as compared to their US and European counterparts.

Matthew Brennan from China Channel joins us to discuss the coffee wars in China between the upstart, Luckin Coffee and Starbucks Cafe. We discuss the origins of the company and the strong management team led by Jenny Qian which brought the startup to its current stage. We discuss how Chinese consumers are now using Luckin Coffee and why they are different and poised to give Starbucks a ride of their lives in China. Last but not least, we discuss the coffee wars in China as part of the proxy war between Alibaba and Tencent and why it will likely to catapult Luckin Coffee outside China for regional expansion.

Shai Oster, Asia Bureau Chief from The Information, joins us to conclude the state of China and SoftBank in 2018 and offer his predictions in 2019. We discussed the five major events: one, ByteDance's success with Douyin (or Tik Tok) globally and the upcoming war with Facebook; two, the SoftBank Vision Fund and its impact to startups and venture capital globally; three, pending trade war between US and China with a short discussion on Google's Project Dragonfly; four, the large merger and acquisitions in China and last but not least, the bearish market happening now for China technology giants. We end with Shai's five predictions on China next year and what it will mean for the rest of the world.

Arnaud Bonzom, co-founder of Map of the Money joined us to review the state of Southeast Asia in 2018. We started with the conversation on the movers and shakers in the ecosystem with Grab's acquisition of Uber Southeast Asia and its quest to be the super app with Go-Jek standing in her way. We discussed how the startup ecosystems in Southeast Asia have evolved, with the venture capital firms raising their 2nd or 3rd rounds and family funds who are set to join in the fray. We discuss how the market in Southeast Asia is shifting in each country and the upcoming unicorns to watch in 2019.

Elliott Zaagman, co-host of China Tech Investor podcast, joined us to discuss how to understand Chinese technology companies as an investor. We discussed the theme and intended audience for his current podcast, and dived deep into how we can value the technology giants in China from Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent to the recent upstarts such as Pinduoduo and Xiaomi. Elliott laid out the deep misconceptions on Chinese technology companies and provided a different perspective to how they are vertically integrated companies with different products and services contrast to their western counterparts.

Jessica Lessin, CEO and founder of The Information joined us in a conversation to discuss the news media site and its current focus in Asia. Jessica began the conversation on why she was inspired to set up The Information, and offer the vision and mission of her company. Continuing the conversation, she shared her perspectives on growing a media business, the cultural differences and innovation between US and Asia technology companies and why a good product is not enough for a company to be great. Last but not least, she discuss where The Information will go and relay her thoughts on the future of media companies.

Federico Ast, co-founder and CEO of Kleros joined us in a conversation on how to do an ICO, and the story behind his blockchain project, Kleros. He shared the backstory in how he put together a global team to build a blockchain dispute resolution layer, the decision process in doing an ICO and at the same time, explain how to engage a cryptocurrency exchange to list the token for his project. Last but not least, Federico shared his impressions on his recent trip in Asia and offered his perspectives to whether Asia is leading the blockchain space globally.

Dr Wolfgang Baier, group CEO of Luxasia Group joined us in a conversation to discuss the corporate transformation of the company and its current business footprint across Asia Pacific. Wolfgang shared his background as a consultant in McKinsey from Europe till his former role as Singpost CEO and narrate the backstory how he brought Alibaba Group to invest into Singpost. He also discuss the current trends of ecommerce, logistics and retail across Asia and shared how young millennials are valuable and can help in any company transformation.

Shai Oster, Asia Bureau Chief from The Information joins us in a conversation on why Chinese technology companies are frantically going IPO this year and what it means for the Chinese market and the rest of the world. We begin our conversation with the upcoming subscriber event from the Information in Asia on Nov 12,  the recent news on the prominent Google mafia in China and the state of Chinese electric cars market. Shai shared his thoughts on why Chinese technology companies are now rushing to take themselves public and how the recent trade war coupled with the recent dumping of technology stocks may change their calculus in the short term.  

Santitarn Sathirathai, group chief economist of the SEA group joined us in a conversation to discuss the key digital trends that drive the growth of Southeast Asia. We began the conversation with the SEA Group and their current mission, vision and coverage across the region, and discuss their key products: Garena, Shopee and Airpay. Continuing our conversation, Santitarn offered his perspectives on the major digital trends specifically on ecommerce in Southeast Asia and the development of super app, and how the current escalating trade tensions between China and US will influence where the major economies within Southeast Asia will be heading in the future.

Charles Reed Anderson, founder of Charles Reed Anderson and Associates joined us to discuss the surprises that emerge from the IoT industry in Asia Pacific. We discussed why China has emerged the surprise winner of leading the IoT deployment race and whether it will lead the rest of the world in IoT technologies. In the same conversation, we dived into the current status of 5G across Asia Pacific, specifically in Japan with what Rakuten and Softbank are thinking about MVNO, and last but not least, we also discussed how the new SIMs technology are going to disrupt the telcos in the near future.