Starting this week, we are highlighting the most popular (articles with highest views) contributors from this week along with some other good reads from our community.
To join this hall of fame, pen down your honest thoughts on the ecosystem or share your journey with our readers via the e27 Contributor Programme. Take note, we are running specials on anything to do with foodtech, sustainability, climate change and the planet.
Read on to know how to best use AI for marketing, social commerce tips all the way from China, and the drone red dot in SEA.
The rise of Indonesia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem in the word of ex-GoPay CEO Aldi Haryopratomo by Jackie Carmel Managing Director at Endeavor Catalyst
“Following in the footsteps of SEA Group — currently the only Southeast Asian tech company listed on a US exchange — we predict at least two to three Indonesian tech companies will seek to go public in the US within the next 12 months, including the first dual-listing IPOs between the US and Indonesia.
That “something big” is underway in Indonesia’s tech ecosystem is not surprising, but it is a remarkably different reality than only ten years ago.
One entrepreneur who has been there every step of Indonesia’s tech transformation is Aldi Haryopratomo, who was among the first Endeavor entrepreneurs in Indonesia.
Haryopratomo built his first startup Mapan in 2009. In 2017, Mapan was acquired by Gojek, where he became the CEO of GoPay, and built Indonesia’s leading fintech unicorn. Aldi left GoPay earlier this year, and is now on sabbatical mentoring a new breed of entrepreneurs. We had a chance to talk to him about his experiences.”
Edutech in SEA is ripe for acceleration. This is why they can help build a more inclusive society by Prerna A Jhunjhunwala, founder of Creative Galileo
“There is a significant untapped opportunity for e-learning products and services to deliver quality learning programmes to traditionally underserved communities. This potential is gradually being realised with US$480 million in venture capital funding allocated to Southeast Asian edutech startups in the last five years– consisting of 200 individual investments.
With a keen interest in making education as accessible as possible, especially in the foundational years, I launched Creative Galileo in July 2020, amidst COVID-19 pandemic. Creative Galileo is an e-learning app that melds education and entertainment to provide personalised learning experiences for children from three to eight years of age.
Our aim is to leverage technology to place an emphasis on personalised needs, inquiry-based learning methods and experiential activities, resulting in a fun, interactive curriculum.”
Emerging tech and trends
Need of the hour: How cloud-based call centres will equip startups in a post-pandemic world by Kristen Pimpini, Country Director, ANZ Twilio Inc
“Contact centres have been particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Organisations of all sizes and from most industries were required to shift their on-premises call centre operations to work-from-home environments.
This was accompanied by unprecedented spikes in customer enquiries, creating extra pressure on contact centre operators.
The experience of the contact centre sector during COVID-19 is instructive for startup founders looking to keep open lines of communication with their customers and stakeholders as they scale.
The same tools that allowed large contact centres to pivot and adapt during a global crisis can be employed by startup founders to build versatile and resilient customer communications platforms.”
A drone-eye view: How Red Dot Drone is realising Singapore’s dream to become a smart nation by Deon Tan, outreach executive at Block71 Singapore
“The Ministry of Transport is also currently in the process of drawing up safety regulations to designate drone-flying spaces for the enjoyment of local drone enthusiasts. In our ongoing fight against dengue, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has been deploying drones to inspect roof gutters in dengue red zones.
In 2017, 300 drones took to the sky on Singapore’s birthday and put up a spectacular light display with just a click of a button. At BLOCK71 Singapore, Red Dot Drone (RDD), a drone software technology startup, is taking the technology further by combining the power of artificial intelligence with drones to deliver advanced services in data visualisation and creative filming.
This month, I spoke with Akira Hirakawa, a native Japanese drone expert and co-founder of RDD, to discuss his start-up’s upcoming plans for this revolutionary new space in a niche market.”
Why business leaders need to understand 5G to harness its full potential by ST Liew, VP at Qualcomm Technologies Inc
“Singapore has made strategic investments in digitalisation such as its recent announcement of the new Emerging Technology Programme and Digital Leaders Programme, emphasising the need to commercialise innovations and adopt digital solutions.
These new programmes, coupled with the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) recent announcement of a S$30 million (US$22 million) fund to accelerate 5G’s adoption and commercialisation, offer a positive step towards business adoption and implementation of the new wireless standard.
However, based on a recent survey that Qualcomm conducted, many business leaders in Singapore must seek to better understand the benefits of 5G and how to maximise this new wireless standard across industries. Understanding the role of 5G is crucial as it has broad implications to how the technology is going to be adopted.”
How interoperability between private and public players will accelerate the CBDC Race by Sky Guo, CEO and cofounder of Cypherium
“Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) are one of the most important developments in the digital currency space and the future of finance.
As they are backed by the central banks of their respective countries, they will have much more credibility than existing stable coins, increasing the likelihood of digital currencies reaching mass adoption. Central banks around the world are now working on piloting and developing their CBDCs.
There are a number of reasons why CBDCs are being regarded as a top priority for central banks.
However, several infrastructure systems will be required to prevent money laundering, such as the ability to track funds and identify users that perform these transactions (KYC infrastructure), privacy protection (a balance must be struck in terms of how much access governments have to citizen information).
Only the most advanced countries have the data centres and processors to perform this at this current time.”
Marketing and customer experience
3 AI-driven digital marketing strategies your startup needs right now by David Fairfull, CEO and cofounder, Metigy
“Thanks to the democratisation of software, artificial intelligence tools have a key role in levelling the playing field, helping small businesses reduce manual work, automate processes and improve efficiencies.
The results speak for themselves, with 52 per cent of marketers experiencing an increase in sales, and another 51 per cent noticing an increase in customer retention since introducing AI capabilities into the ecosystem, according to a Forbes report.
Knowing how to best integrate AI into your digital marketing strategy can feel overwhelming, yet it’s a far more seamless process than many realise. Here, we share how SMEs can use AI to amplify marketing efforts to drive customer engagement and brand awareness.”
Leveraging social e-commerce to maximise your brand in China by Charlene Ree, founder and CEO of EternityX
“Social e-commerce enables the social aspect of shopping offline, which is nearly impossible to replicate in traditional e-commerce. It creates communities of consumers with similar values, interests and tastes, which helps to strengthen brand loyalty, leading to higher conversion and repeat purchases.
To leverage social e-commerce effectively, companies must evolve from the traditional social seeding tactic to more precise programmatic social e-commerce strategies built on a deeper understanding of consumers.
Below, we gathered our tips to leverage the social e-commerce trend in China. The first thing that you need to do is to gain an understanding of the complicated and unique digital ecosystem in China, which is very different from other parts of the world. Understand the various social media platforms in China and their differences, niches and demographic reach.”
4 systems of intelligence to underpin your CX strategy by Anna Muchnik, outreach manager at Itransition
SMBs and enterprises seek to adopt customer experience technologies that can help them get a holistic view of customers and optimise the entire customer journey.
One of the major tasks of CX technologies is to help the company move from the situation where each department operates independently, creating technological silos and slowing down the adoption of a customer-centric mindset. A key part of this endeavour is to create an integrated ecosystem and nurture a collaborative environment by connecting separate technological systems.
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