Letter to readers: Struggles at Zilingo, Oyo, and Leflair

Dear readers,

We often talk about corporations getting disrupted by startups. Amid the pandemic, startups themselves are facing disruption.

Last week, Zilingo said it had let go another 12% of its workforce. Our Indonesia journalist Putra Muskita looked behind the scenes to see how the fashion ecommerce “soonicorn” has been trying to cope and found that Zilingo has been diversifying into fast-moving consumer goods and personal protective equipment. It’s a challenging maneuver, though.

Photo credit: Zilingo

Next, our Singapore journalist Joseph Gan teased out the lessons from the fall of luxury e-tailer Leflair, which had found itself running out of money as WeWorkGate struck. Our story recounts how the founder attempted to save his company, and what he would’ve done differently if given the chance.

We also caught up with Oyo Indonesia to get a sense of how it’s pivoting and dealing with pushback from workers and hotels. It remains in a challenging period: Hotel bookings may be recovering but they’re still far from ideal, our Tech in Asia Indonesia counterparts uncovered.

On the brighter side, Singapore journalist Melissa Goh looked at how HR tech firms are taking advantage of the rise of remote working. Glints, for example, is seeing more demand for offshore job placements. Even in Japan, many companies now see remote working as the default setup. “Such a move was previously unimaginable,” says Toyofumi Miura, CEO of Tokyo-based employee analytics startup Laboratik.

It seems the world at large is still fumbling in the dark. We’re seeing unprecedented economic disruption and behavioral change on a massive scale. As we gaze into the crystal ball, I wonder how much more the world will change, and how it will stay the same. What lessons will we learn with regard to seizing opportunities amid rapid change?

Even as we keep asking these questions, we’ll continue to cover how businesses are grappling with the fallout from the pandemic. Do subscribe to us if you like our work.

See you next week.

Cheers,

Terence
Chief Editor