Has Asia’s tech scene caught up to the West’s?

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Hi readers,

After I brought up the HBO series Band of Brothers in a newsletter I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I found myself jonesing for a rewatch. So I did, hitting pause on my maiden journey through the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime to do so.

Moving from one show to the other was a cultural whiplash – one is based on the experiences of real-life American World War 2 veterans, while the other is about supernatural fights between the good and evil users of “Stands,” which are visual manifestations of life energy. Most of these Stands and their users are also inexplicably named after Western bands and musicians.

(I know, it’s a trip. I highly recommend it.)

But comparisons between the West and the East don’t just start or end at the TV shows they release. In today’s featured premium article, we take a visual look at how Asia’s tech titans – and their contributions to their home markets – measure up against their Western counterparts.

Today we look at,

• East vs. West: Tech giants edition
• The US$20 million fund that has been made available to build the Solana blockchain ecosystem
• Other newsy highlights such as Gojek receiving US$300 million and the imminent debut of Clubhouse on Android phones

PREMIUM SUMMARY

Are the tech giants of the East now equal to the West’s?

In a word: No. Just five out of the world’s top 20 tech giants by market capitalization come from Asia, so while the region has grown in the last decade, it’s still playing catch-up with the West.

• Giants’ valuation: When comparing the combined valuation of Asia’s top 10 largest technology firms with the West’s, the latter is 3x that of the former.
• Market impact: Western players account for a large contribution to the economies they operate in – roughly 2.5x higher than the contribution of Asia’s top tech companies to their local markets.
• Growth rates: Between 2016 to 2020, the collective valuation of the top 10 Asian tech giants grew at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 22.7%. This still lags behind Western players who are growing at a CAGR of 28%.

Read more: How do Asia’s tech giants stack up against their Western peers?

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