OJK’s draft regulations may kill innovation; ShopeePay hits reeling rivals

Dear readers,

As the year comes to a close, it’s customary to reflect on how one’s life is going.

One of the many things I’ve been pondering is how to make this newsletter worth your time. I’ve definitely gotten some good feedback, but that still leaves tens of thousands of unheard voices. So do drop me a note at terence@techinasia.com if you have any ideas!

Anyway, for this week, I’ll be trying something different by giving you a peek into the thinking behind some of our stories, as well as what we’ve been up to.

OJK faces resistance

An important story we published last week was the news about an uproar among Indonesian online lenders over draft OJK regulations.

Someone tipped us off about the story, and we debated on whether to go ahead with it.

In the end, we felt this was worth digging into because its implementation, in its current state, may raise the barrier for upstart online lenders.

It’s not the first time we’ve penetrated the opaque inner workings of OJK, Indonesia’s financial services authority.

We’ve previously written about the unhappiness over its alleged lack of transparency and the profiteering behavior among some of its appointed vendors.

Regulators do play an important role in balancing the interests of innovators and the rights of consumers. We hope our coverage is helping in some way.

ShopeePay strikes

Another notable story we released was how Shopee’s sleeping giant ShopeePay took off while its rivals were fighting fire.

Sea, Shopee’s parent company, is Southeast Asia’s most valuable internet company, and any move it makes is bound to make waves.

Photo credit: Shopee

In a way, understanding Sea is key to understanding the region itself.

We’d like to think that we have the best coverage of the company out of any media entity, both in terms of breadth and depth. That comes with experience and our laser focus on Asian tech.

One thing that hit me was how Sea has a “join late, win later” approach. In other words, it waits for rivals to educate the market on a new idea first, and then swoops in to reap the rewards.

That approach has paid off for Shopee, and seems to be paying off for ShopeePay as well.

Growing our team

It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since we launched our subscription program.

In the early days of our efforts, we said we would reinvest the money we make toward better journalism.

That’s something we’ve been working hard on. Since June this year, we’ve brought on six new colleagues to fill writing, editing, and graphic design roles.

Outside of the editorial team, my colleagues have been making a concerted push toward creating original content.

We’ve gone back to making videos and have launched a series of educational workshops that you’ll want to pay for. Our podcast efforts are also ongoing.

But we believe we can do better. Consider subscribing to us to support our efforts in providing you the best coverage possible.

I can’t wait to share more about what we have in store. But I’ll save that for another day.

Have a great week ahead!

Cheers,

Terence Lee
Editor-in-Chief