A deep dive into the state of Asia’s startups

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Hello readers,

Merry Christmas to you and yours! The festive season is here, and while my celebrations this year are looking a little different, I’m still really excited. Instead of our annual huge family party, we’re splitting up into smaller satellite gatherings and opening presents together via Zoom, and in place of the usual turkey, my mother is considering having seafood as the centerpiece for this year’s spread.

2020 has been all about change and adaptation – and Asia’s startups weren’t spared by the tide of transformation that the year has brought. In our annual State of Asian Startups survey, we found out how this year has been for the region’s startup scene.

Today we look at:

• How Asia’s startups have fared in a year of unprecedented challenges
• How mobile marketing firm InMobi is making content accessible in regional languages
• Other newsy highlights such as how the Philippines’ digital banking framework has sparked interest and Kuaishou’s plans for an IPO

PREMIUM SUMMARY

Here’s how Asia’s startups fared in 2020

Last year, we conducted our inaugural State of Asian Startups survey in a bid to find out more about the region’s startup ecosystem. This year, we did it again, gathering responses from founders and employees in startups across the region to see how they’ve been holding up in what has been a rollercoaster of a year.

We got 11 great insights from the survey, along with some very detailed charts, so here’s a taste:

• The future of work: Covid-19 launched the world’s largest work-from-home experiment, and it’s definitely changed how we envision work and the workplace. Among our respondents, 83.2% feel that the workplace of the future is likely to be a hybrid one, where employees would have greater flexibility to move between home and the office – which raises the question of what offices of the future will look like.
• A tired bunch: Startup employees reported feeling as if they’d been working longer hours in 2020, even though there was no significant shift in the actual number of hours they worked. Blurred boundaries between work and the home, thanks to work-from-home policies, as well as an inability to “switch off” from work, are the likely causes.
• Single and not ready to mingle: Discrimination based on marital status saw a 12.1% increase this year, with singlehood being the unfavored status. We’re not 100% on this, but we suspect it could be linked to working from home as a result of the pandemic. Perhaps single employees felt that they’ve had to pick up the slack for their colleagues with children, who may have been less productive due to childcare responsibilities?

Find out more: State of Asian Startups 2020

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

More than a fleeting Glance