Who’s winning the Southeast Asian tech race? (#StartupAsia preview)

A few years ago, when one spoke of tech in Southeast Asia, Singapore dominated the discussion. Now, it is the turn of the developing markets of the region to bask in the limelight.

There are big opportunities in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia. More and more people are leapfrogging into the mobile internet, skipping desktop devices. Sales of smartphones are climbing. Startups are the new cool as the risk-averse culture is changing. And investors and entrepreneurs have started to look more seriously at the region in the past few years.

Currently, in Southeast Asia, there are local, regional and global players in news, gaming, online retail, rentals, travel, and transportation. Indigenous startups lead ticketing, auto, community, and local discovery. Verticals like deals, communications and search are already saturated in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam with leaders like Metrodeal, Ensogo, Hotdeal, Groupon, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Google.

A recent internet opportunity map of the region showed that a lot of categories like payments, dining, travel, education, and dating are in their infancy, and therefore, ripe for plucking. Startup superstars like Indonesia’s Tokopedia which recently raised US$100 million in funding from SoftBank and Sequoia Capital, Thailand’s HotelQuickly after a US$4.4 million funding round from Japan’s Gree , and Malaysia’s GrabTaxi are inspiring copycats in the region and elsewhere.

Acquisitions are also picking up steam. Recently, Tech in Asia compiled a detailed cheatsheet of acquisitions covering Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand.

As the world looks at Southeast Asia with new eyes, comparisons become important: How does one country fare against another? Who among the eleven countries are transforming the fastest? Who is stumbling, and on what? Take smartphone penetration for instance. The Philippines is the lowest of all the countries in Southeast Asia at 15 percent. It is 80 percent in Malaysia, 49 percent in Thailand, and 23 percent in Indonesia. What are the major bottlenecks stifling growth in these countries? These are questions vital to both entrepreneurs and investors.

Paul Rivera, founder and CEO of Kalibrr, Tuan M. Pham, founder and CEO of Topica Edtech Group, Bikesh Lakhmichand, founder of 1337 Ventures, and Patai Padungtin, principal/evangelist of Builk will be dealing with these onstage at Startup Asia Jakarta 2014.

The discussion on November 26, day one of our event, is something you won’t want to miss if you’re looking to get a deeper understanding of tech in Southeast Asian markets.

Join us at Startup Asia Jakarta on November 26 and 27. You can use LATEBIRD10 for a 10 percent discount while registering. The code is valid until November 14, and this where you can sign up.

See: GrabTaxi is one of Southeast Asia’s hottest startups. Here’s how it’s kicking ass