Asia Partners’ Rippel on why SEA could produce up to 30 unicorns and how he doesn’t want to miss it this time
Oliver Rippel, co-founder and partner of Asia Partners, believes South-east Asia could yield between 20 and 30 tech unicorns. And he believes there are only certain sectors that can have global network effects, the rest, which includes online travel, is where local heroes can win over global player [...]
SIA’s workforce gets seamless mobility
Singapore Airlines has partnered with US-based enterprise software provider VMware to create a seamless, mobile-friendly environment for its increasingly mobile-first workforce.
SIA will use VMware’s Workspace ONE
solution to streamline the delivery of mobile applications across more than
14, [...]
From betel to kale, Oway founder Nay Aung on quest to build Next Gen “pagoda” in Myanmar
There we were in Parami Pizza, a popular pizza joint in Yangon. Nay Aung, CEO and founder of Oway, Myanmar’s first OTA, had ordered kale juice and I, a coffee. The impression wasn’t lost on me – kale in a country still known for its betel-chewing among the older generation – shows you how m [...]
From Morse Code to 4G, from Yangon to Loikaw, welcome to a new yet old Myanmar
About 20 years ago, I crossed the Burmese border through the Chinese frontier town of Muse. At one of the checkpoints along the route, I heard the tap-tap-tap of a Morse code machine.
This
time, flying into a new and expanded Yangon International Airport that looks
like it could be anywhere, th [...]
Armed with $2.5m, OpenSparkz goes from startup to scale to help consumers in Asia earn and burn in one step
The Australian fintech startup’s mission is to “make
every loyalty programme in the world a good experience for customers and
merchants, and to be the go-to global platform for loyalty and offers”. Here’s
how.
Terry McMullen has spent his entire career in loyalty and marketing, first wit [...]
Tink Labs and Honest Bee offer cautionary lessons to tech startups, even unicorns fall
I used to be a fan of the Handy smartphone service. Mainly I used it for its wifi hotspot, even though it meant carrying two phones around. I fiddled with the content but never found it compelling enough to get me to book anything through it.
In recent times, I have used it less and less as dat [...]
The Wrap: Accor expands Singapore network in franchise deal with Global Premium Hotels
News Roundup: Of hotels and airlines - Accor increasing its hotel count in Singapore through a franchise deal; an “all new” mobile app from Singapore Airlines; Qantas distribution channel goes live; more fare options in Malaysia’s Malindo Air’s business class
Hotels: Accor expands Singa [...]
Asian travellers most keen on going cashless, China largest market for B2C ecommerce
Asian travellers are most keen to go cashless and adopt alternative forms of payment, according to Amadeus’ Travel Payments Guide 2019, a new report charting the rise of alternative payment methods.
According to the report, alternative ways to pay for travel, such as e-Wallets and bank trans [...]
The Wrap: APAC tourism boards are most online ready for Muslim travellers, study reveals
News Roundup: A report looking at how online ready national tourism organisations are to meet the requirements of the growing Muslim travel market, Travelport winning the bid for new contract with Webjet, Naumi Hotels acquiring another property in New Zealand, Radisson Hotel Group’s launch of new [...]
The Samurai swords are out in travel – Hughes calls out Google as an OTA, LINE reveals its superapp Pay power
A high-intensity Samurai “tate” swordfight opened the eighth WiT Japan & North Asia last week, leading some to draw a parallel with the growing competition in online travel. Certainly, the online share of the region’s market continues to grow but there’s no doubt that the intensity of t [...]
