All’s fair in love and logistics?

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Hello reader,

I do a lot of refereeing at the flag American football tournaments I play in and the idea of fairness is always at the front of my mind.

There’s nothing worse than feeling like the playing field isn’t even. That’s why I do my best to treat both teams the same way so that no one can say they lost because of me.

But I used the phrase “the idea of fairness” for a reason – because there is no such thing as true fairness. Consciously or subconsciously, all referees have biases one way or the other, but what’s key is striving to stay down the middle.

I think the leaders of Malaysian logistics firms know it’s next to impossible to ensure completely fair competition. But as today’s premium story examines, they do think regulators could work a bit harder to stay in the middle between them and foreign players.

Today we look at:

• Competition heats up in Malaysia’s last-mile delivery sector
• Bukalapak posts a profit on revenue surge
• Other newsy highlights such as Spenmo’s CEO resigning after just a month and fresh funding for a Vietnamese edtech firm.

Premium summary

Last-mile logjam

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Despite surging demand for courier services in Malaysia amid Covid-19 lockdowns last year, the country’s logistics firms suffered heavy losses.

Some local firms have blamed fierce and uneven competition with foreign logistics companies. Politicians have even entered the fray.

• Too many cooks: Charles Brewster, CEO of Pos Malaysia – the country’s national courier – recently outlined problems in the sector to the press. One of the issues he brought up was market saturation – Malaysia has given out 120 licenses for parcel carriers compared to only 30 in Indonesia, a much larger market.
• Cross-pollination: Major ecommerce platforms like Lazada and Shopee have also ventured into the logistics business, muddying the waters further. Logistics players say that the platforms have a competitive advantage via cross-subsidizing from their main business, allowing them to offer free deliveries.
• Battle lines drawn: Competition in the sector is set to heat up further as the government wants the national ecommerce industry to hit 30 packages per capita by 2025. The figure in 2021 was 23.5 after jumping from a mere 7.6 in 2019.

Read more: Battle for Malaysia’s ‘last mile’: Local couriers struggle against foreign players

Cashing in

Love (and funding) in the air

Quick bytes