Sign up for the Daily Newsletter, sent exclusively to our Premium subscribers. We break down the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community. Get the newsletter in your inbox everyday with a Premium subscription. Additionally, we’re commemorating International Women’s Day this week on Tech in Asia. You can find the great content around the occasion here.
Hello reader,
You have to hand it to Mark Zuckerberg. When the Facebook founder chose to rename the company’s parent firm to Meta Platforms to build an alternate digital world known as the metaverse, he was mercilessly criticized.
He was considered just another middle-aged tech billionaire chasing a childhood dream, similar to what Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk did with space rockets.
And yet his timing was impeccable. While Wall Street has been fanning the hype, Southeast Asia has witnessed the quiet rise of metaverse builder RFox. The bootstrapped startup, which was launched right before the crypto boom, plans to create localized metaverses in the region.
In today’s big story, my colleague Nikita decodes the metaverse possibilities through RFox.
Today we look at:
- A Southeast Asian startup that has a well-stocked arsenal in the race to build metaverses
- A record number of investments flowing into one of Asia’s fast-emerging sectors
- Other newsy highlights such as Grab’s latest quarterly results, and a Singapore-based social investment platform’s expansion plans.
P.S.: Tech in Asia is celebrating International Women’s Day this week with lots of great content on the site – keep an eye out for it!
Premium summary
The future is here
Image credit: Timmy Loen
RFox founder Ben Fairbank describes his version of a metaverse as a big box with hooks, where anyone can plug any application or blockchain into the box.
While the Vietnam-headquartered company has been flying under the radar all this while, it may step into the limelight once it launches an immersive retail and entertainment-centric metaverse to the public sometime in the middle of the year.
RFox also has a well-stocked arsenal in the battle to build metaverses, where 25% of people will fancy spending at least one hour a day for work, shopping, education, social, or entertainment purposes.
Fleshing out alternative proteins
Fighting the changing face of fraud
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
