Letter to readers: Alibaba tends gardens. Tencent plants forests.

Dear readers,

Chinese giant Alibaba is like a gardener. It seeks control over its well-manicured domain, ensuring every part fits into a larger whole. The company’s vice-chairman Joe Tsai likens its strategy to a game of Go: The aim is to put the pieces in place to surround an opponent.

Its rival Tencent is more like a tree planter: It seeks out fertile soil, sows the seeds, and lets nature do the work.

Last week, we delved into how Tencent grew its forest that is WeChat by plowing capital into and securing partnerships with China’s next big startups.

Photo credit: 123RF

Why does this matter to you? It’s all interconnected: Regions and industries are not isolated, and ideas spread from one place to another all the time.

Take Southeast Asia’s Sea Group, which is backed by Tencent, as an example. It has thrived under its investor’s laissez-faire approach, turning into a US$120 billion gorilla. Sea Group could now emulate that light touch with its new US$1 billion fund.

Companies the world over are also adding their own twist to the “super app” concept originated by Tencent.

ComfortDelGro, Singapore’s largest taxi operator, is one of them. After years of watching Grab steal the thunder and propel itself into the big leagues, the transportation firm is now ready to go big with its own “everyday app” offering. We analyze if it still has a shot.

A couple other trends caught our attention. We looked at how China’s Robinhoods, Moomoo and Tiger Brokers, are prying young traders away from Singapore’s old-school brokerages. It’s a tale we’ve heard before: These startups are attracting users by offering lower rates than ever before. But there’s always a catch.

We also examined why a few ex-Carousell and Fave executives raised $36.5 million to join a global ecommerce roll-up frenzy. Essentially, the game plan is to use cheap loans to buy up ecommerce companies, combine them together to make them as efficient as possible, and then pay off the debt and earn a nice profit. While startups are inevitably trying to replicate this idea in Southeast Asia, it’s a plan whose execution is never as straightforward.

Finally, we updated our popular piece that maps the hidden Grab and Gojek mafia in Southeast Asia, based on new information we got through the grapevine.

For insightful coverage of Southeast Asia and its connections with the rest of the world, do subscribe to Tech in Asia.

Best regards,