Dear readers,
“What’s your agenda?” That’s the question we sometimes get when we approach someone with a story angle they don’t like.
They wonder if our advertisers or shareholders are pressuring us to pursue certain stories.
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As trite as it sounds, our agenda is to serve our readers. If we do that well, we’ll make money, which helps us serve our readers even better.
Yes, our news sources have agendas. But there’s no secret backroom in which we take direction from shadowy benefactors. It’s up to us to ensure that their agendas don’t cloud our stories.
Our coverage might be biased or skewed in a few instances, but it’s never deliberate. Often, we just happen to receive more adverse intel about a particular company. At other times, it’s a blind spot, and we correct it as soon as possible.
Business journalism is inherently incentuous and rife with potential conflicts of interest. The people and companies we cover could also be our sources, investors, readers, sponsors, and customers.
Even business publications that make all their money from memberships can’t escape that, not when they have big corporate subscribers. And who’s to say a particular journalist isn’t compromised in some way?
In the end, it’s all about the integrity of the publication, the trust it has built with readers, and the strength of its product.
Shopee versus Lazada
Business journalism is ultimately a balancing act, especially when you’re covering duelling businesses like Shopee and Lazada.
From reading FinTwit (financial Twitter) and talking to various people in the internet industry, you’d get a sense of inevitability about Shopee, the leading ecommerce marketplace in Southeast Asia.
But the dust hasn’t settled yet. In Indonesia, ecommerce penetration has soared but remains far behind China. (Moving away from cash on delivery, which is giving couriers headaches, is key to growing the pie.)
In terms of monthly and weekly active users, Lazada isn’t far behind Shopee, though the gap is wider if you look at daily active users, according to estimates. There’s certainly room for a few marketplaces in Southeast Asia to thrive.
Putting Southeast Asia on the tech map
From HungryGoWhere to hungry ghost?
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