Cursor hacks its way into Southeast Asia

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In focus

• The coding parties fueling Cursor’s rise in Southeast Asia
• The Asian geniuses behind Big Tech’s AI models
• Tech ecosystem’s response to Nadiem Makarim’s arrest

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Hello reader,

Not many people outside Indonesia know Surabaya, the city I live in. It’s the country’s second biggest city behind Jakarta, but it rarely receives much attention. Surabaya has not made as much buzz as Solo, a smaller city where tech giants like Sea and GoTo have already set up local hubs.

That hasn’t stopped US-based Anysphere from tapping into Surabaya’s budding developer scene for its AI coding tool, Cursor. When freelance developer Aris Setiawan proposed a sponsored meetup, the company quickly agreed and later approved him as Cursor’s official ambassador for the city.

Anysphere raised US$900 million in June at a valuation just shy of US$10 billion. With that kind of money, it could easily run splashy campaigns across Southeast Asia – like what Notion and Manus did to scoop up users. But instead, it relies on scrappy, volunteer-led meetups to increase adoption.

In today’s Top Story, I look at how that approach has taken root in the region, from Surabaya and Singapore to Bangkok and Da Nang. Cursor’s model depends on local energy rather than marketing budgets, and developers seem happy to keep things that way.

Cursor isn’t alone in that regard, and competitors have already started copying the playbook. For the community, that only means more events to learn from and additional opportunities for founders to turn ideas into working products right away.

Still, with a price bump hitting users, the community might face its first real stress test.

Glenn Kaonang, journalist

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Top Story

Inside Cursor’s scrappy plan to win Southeast Asian developers

Cursor’s regular events in Southeast Asia are no longer just community meetups – they’ve become forums where developers reveal real codebases and best practices. Organized by volunteers and backed lightly by Cursor, these gatherings have drawn support from companies like Grab and Agoda.

The model is spreading fast. But whether it can sustain momentum depends on how long communities stay energized amid rising prices, volunteer fatigue, and increasing competition from rivals. For now, the region’s founders say there’s still an upside: Faster paths from idea to prototype, even as getting funded remains a challenge.

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