Beauty is in the cart of the shopper

Welcome to Tech in Asia’s Sunday newsletter, your weekend brief on the biggest moves in Asia’s tech and startup world. Not on the mailing list? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com.

In focus

• Eileen C. Ang on why the lipstick effect might linger
• Beauty is commerce-deep in Southeast Asia
• The state of tech jobs: Have layoffs become a feature, not a bug?

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Hello reader,

Makeup has been around for at least 6,000 years – the ancient Egyptians wore elaborate facepaint as a marker of wealth to please the gods. For modern humans, we have the “lipstick effect”: People buy small treats like artisanal coffee, trendy gadgets, or high-end cosmetics during economic downturns, replacing big purchases they can’t afford like houses, cars, and holidays.

Whether you’re in an economic slump depends on your geography, but since there are wars going on and layoffs in various industries have become a regular occurrence, it’s difficult to feel like everything’s coming up roses.

So it’s no surprise to me that beauty commerce is thriving. If buying your own home is out of reach, at least you can look good while you’re toiling to get there.

French beauty giant L’Oreal recently posted a 6.7% quarterly sales growth – the fastest in two years. Closer to home, our landscape map shows how beauty commerce is glowing up in Southeast Asia, driven by rising disposable income as well as a young and internet-savvy population.

More local brands have cropped up, and more consumers are discovering and purchasing products not just on brand sites and marketplaces but also through livestreams and influencer content.

The lipstick effect originally assumed that people would make larger purchases again as soon as the economy recovers. But the question is, when will it bounce back?

Another seemingly temporary trend is job cuts in the tech industry. Previously, it was the funding winter driving the retrenchments.

But in the last two years, AI seems to have taken over the reins – at least, that’s what our layoff tracker shows. VC firm Iterative, one of the latest companies we added to the list, recently announced layoffs as part of an AI-fueled restructuring.

Since we regularly update our tracker, we can’t help but wonder: Who will be wielding the ax next, and how many will fall?

At the risk of sounding pithy, humans are highly adaptive species – we’re built for survival. Evolve or die sounds dire, but that’s exactly why we’re still around and the dinosaurs aren’t. Probably.

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