Check out our new commentary newsletter format

Last week, we debuted a new weekly commentary email (reproduced below) to replace our Friday daily recap email.

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Dear readers,

Starting this week, we will be doing this weekly commentaries email to replace our Friday daily recap email. Some of you might notice that previously we wrote personal notes/commentaries at the start of the email and you liked/disliked it.

We got the feedback we wanted and thought a weekly, slightly longer-form commentary-style email might be more interesting for you. Anyways, please email newsletter@techinasia.com if you have feedback or story leads for us to chase.

In other news, we are working to visualize and help you make sense of the “relationship data” we possess in our company database.

If you’d like to hear directly from us, please send an email to newsletter@techinasia.com.

Thank you! 🙏

– Willis and Terence, Tech in Asia

Stories with commentaries

Stories that are trending on Tech in Asia.

1. A bubble tea drink session that got us a story

It’s awesome to see a successful Singaporean flying the flag high in China. At the time of publication, Teo’s net worth is roughly S$1.05 billion (US$784 million). Of course, stock prices are volatile, and some say the Star Market, which Espressif is listed on, is in a bubble.

And yet, his company has been profitable for the last couple of years. Teo didn’t want to comment but we will keep trying. There’s so much we could learn from his experience. Fun fact: We learned about this story via a bubble drink session. And yeah, we paid for the drinks.

2. Super apps = bad UX?

It’s worth a read. The super app concept is nice and sexy. But it can be frustrating to use. As the author said aptly, “It’s difficult to try to do so many things and still be able to provide the best and consistent user experience across all products and services.”

Of course, just because it doesn’t work for me it doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t work for you, Indonesia, or Southeast Asia. It comes down to, I think, how invested you are in the Grab ecosystem. A superapp is great if you use many of its features. Not so much if you just want to book a ride.

3. Gojek and Grab battle in Indonesia

Grab is set to invest US$2 billion into Indonesia over a five-year period with capital from SoftBank. That’s huge. Most people think it’s the end for Gojek but capital is just one important part of the winning formula. (Or am I being naive?) Either way, this ride-hailing battle is going to be a very useful case study for future entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia.

And we have a lot to thank Gojek and Grab for as they made Southeast Asia known to the world and built up the needed logistics network for companies like Fore Coffee and Kopi Kenangan to thrive in.

Another interesting footnote is how Indonesia’s President Jokowi called Grab “Indonesia’s 5th unicorn”. This is surely a coup considering it’s a foreign company battling against local favorite Gojek.

4. E-wallet war in Indonesia

Not the best week for Gojek as a study claimed that Ovo is the top e-wallet. Most users, I heard, installed both or more and use them depending on the available promotions. With 37 e-wallet operators in Indonesia, consolidation is not only inevitable but necessary.

5. The M17 story brings us smiles

Old but gold. We’ve been getting constant praise about how well-reported this was. And this certainly brings a smile to us and our readers 🙂

A tip for startup PR: Authenticity and transparency can work really well when you’re telling your story.

6. There’s a chatbot for that

It’s the rise of chatbots. There are chatbots for hotels, finance, and hospitality and tourism. More impressively, they are either profitable and/or at least have an impressive list of clientele.

7. The fall of a unicorn

We are very sad to hear news of Tink Labs’ shutdown this week. Here’s our in-depth report months ago that detailed the troubles and internal issues the ex-unicorn was facing.

Companies to watch

In our humble opinion and/or from what we heard on the streets, these are the startups to look out for. If you have companies to throw our way, please reply to newsletter@techinasia.com.

1. YouTrip – Some of us at Tech in Asia really enjoy using it. Generally, it has good UX. The unit economics seem OK at the surface – Every US$100, YouTrip pockets US$2. If YouTrip has a million transaction as it claims, that’s $2M in revenue assuming the average transaction value is $100.

2. Mirxes – It’s a biotech company working on cancer prevention. We learned that it is raising US$100 million at nearly US$1 billion valuation.

3. Paymongo – Founder Francis Plaza has gone through so much in the school of hard knocks. So it feels like Paymongo will have a better chance at success. Definitely a backable founder and team, it seems.

4. Sorabel – It’s a company that’s not playing the discount game and growing sustainably. We learned that it’s on track to be profitable and that’s a good thing. We need more companies operating more sustainably to set alternative good examples for future entrepreneurs.

5. Gush – It’s such a simple yet meaningful company that’s working on sustainable paints that purify the air, not poison it. It is one of those products we “interact” or see every day but don’t think much about.

(PS: We are looking for sponsors to do a documentary series on the tech and startup ecosystem in Korea, India, Thailand, and Vietnam. You can see some of our previous work here, here, and here. Hit newsletter@techinasia.com if you’d like to help us make it a reality.)

Like this format? Do register for a free Tech in Asia account to get our weekly commentaries. If you already have an account but somehow unsubscribed, you can head here to resubscribe to our mailing list.