“We will see a strong recovery” after Covid-19, just like SARS

Dear readers,

Travel startups are among the hardest hit by Covid-19, which has spurred governments around the world to restrict movements across borders in an effort to control the pandemic. But companies in this sector are also the most optimistic.

“We will see a strong recovery,” Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, tells Tech in Asia. “After SARS was under control, we saw double or triple the demand coming back very strongly. We cannot really isolate one country anymore. We believe countries can strategically ease travel restrictions, limiting the spread of the virus while allowing the flow of business once again.”

Adapting quickly to the fast-deteriorating business environment will be key for startups to survive. Sun and James Liang, the Shanghai-based firm’s chairman, will forego their salaries, while its senior management will voluntarily take pay cuts of up to 50%. The proposed annual merit increase for Trip.com’s frontline service staff will be processed as planned, while raises for other employees will be temporarily put on hold until the situation improves.

Myanmar-based Flymya has taken more drastic steps, retrenching one-third of its 200-strong headcount. At the same time, the company is taking steps to scale down its user acquisition efforts and focusing on improving on its code base and processes as demand for travel across the country drops.

In Indonesia, hospitality startup Airy is planning to enhance the quality of its properties and adopting new technologies as business slows during this crisis. That’s a necessary step for the company, which has aggressively expanded its network of budget hotels across the archipelago over the last five years.

Let’s remain optimistic that governments will eventually succeed in managing the further spread of this deadly disease.

For now, tougher action is needed. In Singapore, schools and offices will be shut down for a month until May 4. The government is also rolling out additional measures to help businesses and consumers cope with the economic fallout of Covid-19.

While most of us stay at home, take the time to enjoy reading the rest of our premium content from last week:

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• How Grab’s super-app advantage is reconfiguring insurance for the masses

Rising startups

• Southeast Asia’s top-fund startups (2010-2019)
• Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in Singapore
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• Despite Covid-19, shared-ride aggregator Via raises funds at a $2.3b valuation
• Tiger Global becomes stakeholder in Bytedance, joining SoftBank and Sequoia
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• Lending startup Fairbanc gets Sampoerna backing for Indonesia push
• Indonesian agritech firm TaniHub secures $17m in series A+ money

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I’ll speak to you again next week.

In the meantime, stay home, be healthy, and keep safe!

Cheers,

Jonathan
Editor-in-Chief