SEA’s wide beauty palette

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In focus

• Southeast Asian beauty holds its ground against global players
• ​​VC Iterative goes all-in on AI
• Grab takes majority share in Superbank

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Hello reader,

Whenever my wife talks about makeup, I’m usually unfamiliar with the brands she’s seeing hype about online. I know the big global names like Maybelline, which my mother defaulted to using when I was a kid, but that’s about it.

So when doing research for this edition’s featured story, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of local beauty brands across the region.

The barriers to building a direct-to-consumer beauty brand have been torn down by social commerce platforms like TikTok Shop. For a small player, the platform takes care of product discovery and sales, streamlining the purchasing process.

QingGui Huang, co-founder and CEO of Thai beauty retailer Konvy, said in a recent interview that TikTok Shop had garnered a “significant share” of Indonesia’s beauty market just two years after the platform’s merger with Tokopedia.

But for Insignia Ventures’ Paulo Joquino, offline stores are still a necessity for beauty brands, as they provide a premium feel for users.

This puts beauty players in a balancing act between onboarding users through influencers and setting up brick-and-mortar locations to retain them.

Also in this edition, my colleague Duc reports on Iterative’s strategy shift. The Singapore-based VC has made some tough decisions as part of its pivot toward AI, including laying off seven team members.

Miguel Cordon, journalist

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Top Stories

1️⃣ The key players behind SEA’s beauty market glow-up

On top of competing with Western giants like Maybelline, Southeast Asian beauty brands have had to fend off Chinese competitors.

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