Letter to readers: Ecommerce logistics heat up in Vietnam

Dear readers,

Ecommerce in Vietnam has grown this year, with both Shopee’s and Lazada’s active users almost doubling in the country, according to some estimates.

But as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. It’s not just marketplaces that benefit from a rise in online shopping – so do the services that are built around them.

Temasek-backed Scommerce is set to have its day in the sun. But it faces plenty of rivals in the country, including Sea-owned Giaohangtietkiem.

GHN is a brand under Scommerce / Photo credit: Scommerce

Meanwhile, in Singapore, which isn’t exactly a huge ecommerce market, the government seems ready to change the narrative. Gone are the grants of yesteryear for internet startups; it’s all about propping up “deep tech” now.

Deep tech is a term that covers a broad area. Case in point: Last week, we profiled self-professed deep tech firm Hope Technik, a startup with an Elon Musk-like penchant for inventing things.

What stands out about the firm is its wide repertoire, which ranges from robots to sensors to vehicles. It’s set to launch two more business units next year, and we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on those.

In writing the Hope Technik piece, one of the sources of information we relied on was VentureCap Insights, a ‘Bloomberg for startups’ that aims to fight false funding data. It essentially pulls data from public filings and packages it into an easy-to-use interface. Plenty of investors are using the platform, and so are we.

Rounding up the week, we released the finale to our trilogy on Singtel’s innovation efforts, and what stood out to me was the bit about how some employees had defied early rejection to launch Gomo, an all-digital mobile plan that went on to do better than anyone expected.

The Gomo mascot / Image credit: Singtel

Singtel also happens to be locking in on a digital banking license via a joint venture with Grab. The latter has been rapidly launching more and more products in a bid to diversify and improve its bottom-line.

Grab’s anti-fraud foray, if it plays its cards right, could become its AWS. For a young firm to go into so many business lines speaks something about its ambitions. And while not all of them will succeed, it just needs to find a couple of heavy-hitters for its efforts to be worthwhile.