Restructuring Tech in Asia for the future

Dear Tech in Asia Readers, Community, and Friends,

Today is a difficult day. Following some difficult townhalls that began in May, we’ve had to make hard decisions about the future direction of Tech in Asia. In the spirit of transparency that we strive for, both internally and with you, our community, I want to share these changes directly.

The media landscape is constantly evolving. As part of a recent business review, we re-evaluated our plans to ensure a sustainable future and sharpened our focus on TIA International.

After careful consideration, we saw that some of our initiatives either don’t align with these more focused strategic goals or haven’t gotten the traction we hoped for. As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to sunset Tech in Asia Indonesia, our local language product on 15 July 2025 (note: If you’re an ID+ subscriber, you’ll automatically be upgraded to our international plan).

It’s important to clarify that Tech in Asia is not pulling out of Indonesia. We are still fully committed to covering and supporting Indonesia’s vibrant tech ecosystem, and we’ll maintain our operations and team members in Indonesia to support this, including hosting our annual events. What’s changing is our decision to discontinue the local language publication to streamline our focus.

The current economic climate has also added more pressure in recent years. While we’ve made changes and tried new ideas where possible, our current cost structure isn’t sustainable. These tough but necessary decisions are meant to give Tech in Asia a stronger path forward.

This move is not a reflection of our team’s talent or dedication, especially our colleagues in Indonesia. Their work has been remarkable, and we’re proud of everything they’ve achieved.

In addition to discontinuing our Indonesian local language product, we’ve streamlined other teams to align with our new focus. In total, around 18% of our team has been affected.

As I’ve written before, there’s no such thing as a perfect layoff. It’s a painful process, no matter how thoughtfully approached. It’s like cutting off an arm to save the body. You know it’s necessary, but the act and the healing are deeply challenging.

We will treat our departing colleagues with respect and support. They have each received personal communication from Maria (our COO) or myself, followed by individual conversations. We are providing severance packages that meet local requirements, and offering support to help them in their transition, including allowing them to keep their laptops.

To our colleagues who are leaving: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your passion, dedication, and contributions have been invaluable to Tech in Asia. This is not the outcome any of us wished for, and I’m truly sorry. We wish you nothing but the best in your next chapters and are here to support you in any way we can with your job search.

To our team members who are staying: I know this is a hard moment. It’s never easy to lose colleagues and friends. We’ve held an all hands to walk through the changes, answer your questions, and talk about what comes next. I’ll continue to keep communication open and transparent as we move forward.

These moments are the toughest part of leadership. The responsibility weighs heavily. But we make these decisions, however difficult, with the aim of ensuring Tech in Asia can continue to serve our community, adapt to the changing world, and thrive in the long term.

The pain of this week must count towards building a stronger, more focused Tech in Asia.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Willis