Ant International has introduced the world’s first iris authentication feature for smart glasses-embedded payment solutions through its Alipay+ GlassPay platform. Developed in partnership with Asian smart device makers Xiaomi and Meizu, the innovation signals rapid […]
Duolingo and Indonesia’s e-commerce giant Tokopedia have a first-of-its-kind brand collaboration that has taken Indonesian social media by storm. Although the two originate from vastly different industries, their partnership feels like a natural evolution of […]
Alipay+ is set to launch in Saudi Arabia, following an agreement between the Saudi Central Bank (Sama) and Ant International, the Singapore-headquartered digital payments and fintech giant behind the platform. Expected to roll out in […]
Bosch and Alibaba Group, have expanded their strategic partnership to accelerate digital transformation through cloud computing and AI technologies. The enhanced alliance focuses on cloud-based enterprise operations, AI-powered business innovations and expansive growth in e-commerce […]
Alipay+ has brought its services to Nepal, boosting the country’s tourism and digital payment sectors. Ant International, which operates the cross-border mobile payment and digitalisation solution, has partnered with Himalayan Bank to enable acceptance at […]
The Network for Electronic Transfers (Nets) has introduced the Nets SoftPOS, terminal-less payment solution that allows merchants to transform their Android smart devices into payment terminals, facilitating swifter and more cost-effective transactions. Merchants can simply […]
PayPal is piloting and bringing to market six innovations to revolutionise commerce through artificial intelligence (AI) driven personalisation for both merchants and consumers. Expected to roll out in the US this year, the innovations include: […]
E-commerce solution provider Baozun has agreed to acquire specialty apparel maker Gap Greater China for US$40 million. Since it opened its first China store in 2010, Gap Greater China has grown in reach and brand […]
The KoomiMarket one-stop platform is a new digital marketplace that connects food suppliers and food and beverage (F&B) businesses. While digital transformation is taking place in many industries, the food service sector is still very […]
China e-commerce service provider Baozun has established its new regional headquarters in Singapore to drive e-commerce innovation and give the competitive edge to brands in Southeast Asia (SEA). With e-commerce fast growing in the region, […]
ShopBack has opened its new Campus headquarters in Singapore. Serving a regional hub, the new office building features Y-shaped cluster seating arrangements to encourage team unity and foster collaboration, and an assembly area for company […]
Travellers from Malaysia and Singapore and soon Hong Kong can choose to travel first and pay later with Malaysia Airlines. This follows the establishment of a regional partnership between the airlines parent company Malaysia Aviation […]
Cabital has launched the Cabital Connect secure fiat on-ramp and off-ramp gateway for cryptocurrency exchanges that makes it easy for their users to buy leading cryptocurrencies. The business solution for cryptocurrency platforms allows the use […]
Wilstech is collaborating with Selangor Information Technology & Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec) to help 200 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia kickstart their digitalisation efforts. The partnership will cover digitalisation of areas such as […]
hoolah is partnering Jumper.ai to offer buy now pay later (BNPL) to merchants in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. This new payment option will let customers pay later in a convenient, flexible and transparent way […]
Square has agreed to acquire Afterpay for US$29 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2022. According to Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder and CEO of Square, both companies have a […]
Asus is hopping on the buy now pay later (BNPL) trend to offer customers a more flexible and convenient way of payment. The new payment option will kick off in Singapore across all Asus physical […]
Walmart will begin offering its own technologies and capabilities to help other businesses and brands better serve both onsite and online customers. Over the past several years, the US supermarket giant has developed technologies and […]
Fintech firm Choco Up has invested USD$8 million in Janio, a cross-border platform that provides integrated, end-to-end e-commerce logistics solutions in Southeast Asia. Singapore-based Janio aims to simplify deliveries across borders and integrate the logistics […]
LintraMax and Merchantrade Asia are partnering to bring digital payment solutions to oil palm plantations across Malaysia. The partners will introduce Merchantrade’s digital payment solutions to oil palm plantations that are currently using LintraMax’s Quarto […]
Malaysia startup Delyva has launched the DelyvaNow mobile app as a booking platform for delivery services for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Available on Android and iOS, the app lets users book, manage and […]
Little Birdie has received A$30 million investment from Commonwealth Bank (CBA), ahead of its launch next month (June 2021). The investment values the online shopping startup at A$130 million, making it among the largest pre-launch […]
hoolah and BridgerPay are teaming up to provide merchants in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong the opportunity to offer their customers to pay later in a flexible, convenient and transparent way. Singapore-headquartered hoolah offers merchants […]
Two of Indonesia’s brightest tech stars are merging to form GoTo Group in a deal reported to be worth US$18 billion. Gojek is the archipalego’s top ride-hailing and payments firm while Tokopedia is the nation’s […]
AsiaPay and Azupay have teamed up to facilitate digital payments aross Australia. They aim to provide for e-commerce customers a simple, secure, seamless and real-time checkout experience, and for merchants to receive payment instantly and […]
Shippit has raised an A$30 million in Series B funding to fuel its further expansion into Southeast Asia. The fund will also support the Australian logistics technology company in product and technology enhancements and boosting […]
E-commerce transactions jumped 300 percent during the the Circuit Breaker period (April to June) in Singapore, compated to the same period last year, according to YouTrip.
Tap to pay via the smartphone is a quick and easy way to make contactless payments. However, businesses are slow in adopting tap to phone solutions even though 55 percent of Asia Pacific consumers surveryed are willing to use this mode of payment.
PG Mall is powering its multi-channel marketing automation and engagement campaigns with Netcore Smartech.
Travel restrictions and curfews have been devastating Thailand’s 1.3 million small businesses. With international tourism far from being normalised, many are reeling from the effects of COVID-19 and struggling for survival.
Cloud Expo Asia, Hong Kong is the latest tech event in the region to move online — another casualty of the coronavirus. The dates remain the same — September 23 and 24 — and its contents will be remain online for three weeks after the event.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
In the midst of the pandemic, e-commerce is thriving and creating opportunities for many. At a webinar for developers last week, Huawei unveiled an enhanced live streaming solution that can help merchants and e-commerce platforms tap this fast growing market, which raked in US$3.46 trillion in 2019.
Intuit has acquired Singapore startup TradeGecko, the inventory and order management platform that makes omni-channel commerce easy for small businesses, for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to be completed in September 2020.
Echoss Smart Stamp: contactless validation
Korea’s 12CM and Line Taiwan have launched Takeout, a contactless way of validating orders that are being picked up in Taiwan.
Photo by Afif Kusuma on UnsplashFacebook and PayPal have pumped undisclosed sums into Indonesia ride-hailing firm Gojek.
Set up shop on Facebook and Instagram (Photo: Facebook)Having an online shop is so important today. With people huddled at home and movement limited, online shopping has spiked, leaving those without an online presence behind.
SAP has expanded its presence in Asia-Pacific (APAC) with the opening of a new data centre in Singapore to support SAP Commerce Cloud deployment.
Think using the smartphone is a cool way of paying? Well, that’s neat but China-based Sunmi aims to take digital payment a step further with its face-recognition payment solution.
By Edward Lim
In the early 2000s, I visited Beijing for the first time and was amazed to see a taxi using a global positioning system (GPS) to get me to my destination. To put things in perspective, this was before the arrival of smartphones and GPS wasn’t even used in Singapore.
A new player has entered the machine learning arena. While big players such as Google, Intel and NVIDIA have been slugging it out, Amazon has thrown its hat into the ring with its newly-launched Inferentia chip.
Singapore headquartered Arcadier, has launched Token Generation Event (TGE) Presale to raise US$25 million by Q3 next year for its Project ArcadierX blockchain-enhanced marketplace platform. A private sale has yielded US$1 million in investment.
It’s interesting how trends keep evolving. In the past decade or two, many supermarkets have opened up online stores to cater to changing consumer demands. On the other side, new companies set up online stores to challenge these traditional players. Yesterday, one of these, Honestbee, took the reverse route by setting up Habitat, its first brick-and-mortar outlet in Pasir Panjang, Singapore.
The number of QR codes for payment is akin to the number of credit card offerings in the market — it keeps growing, making it more of a hassle than convenience for merchants and consumers. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has stepped in to solve this problem with the launch of the Singapore Quick Response (SGQR) Code.
By Edward Lim
It’s hard to let go when you’re one of the richest man in the world and leading one, if not the biggest, e-commerce company in the world. But, Jack Ma is a man of his word. A man who knows his time and a man who has shown what resilience is all about.
Amazon Prime Day is still going strong and racking up tons of sales despite an outage that prevented some customers in North America from accessing the website and the app, and a strike by workers in Spain.
China e-commerce firm Suning Tesco has opened the first pilot route for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) logistics and transportation in Wuhan, China. Its logistics arm Suning Logistics and Ewatt Aerospace jointly developed two UAVs for this purpose.
China e-commerce giant JD.com has received a US$550 million investment from Google as part of a strategic partnership.
Information and communications technology (ICT) spending in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) will hit US$1.5 trillion in 2021, according to IDC.
Google has ousted Amazon from the perch of the global smart speaker market. According to Canalys, Google shipped 3.2 million units with its Google Home and Google Home mini series , surpassing the 2.5 million units of the Amazon Echo series for the first time in Q1.
Singapore-headquartered Carry is teaming up with Spoqa of South Korea to bring cryptocurrency payment and blockchain-enhanced loyalty points to brick-and-mortar retailers.
Singapore-based Carousell has secured US$85 million in Series C funding to grow and expand its e-commerce business across the region.
Alibaba Group has acquired Daraz, its second purchase for a Rocket Internet company following the earlier deal for Lazada in Southeast Asia.
Singtel and Razer have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to connect their respective e-payment systems into an interoperable network to reach out to up to 50 million users in Southeast Asia.
The number is staggering even if the company is Amazon. Jeff Bezos has announced that Amazon Prime has more than 100 million members globally.
Virtual reality (VR) has been tipped to be the next innovative technology to improve and impact retail and marketing.
More than 1,000 participants attending the NVIDIA AI Conference in Singapore next week are in for a treat as the organisers are bringing in a tantalising line-up of speakers.
The two keynote speakers are Dr David B Kirk, NVIDIA Fellow and inventor of more than 60 patents and patent applications relating to graphics design; and Dr Wanli Min, AI scientist of Alibaba Cloud, who will touch on A Revolutionary Road to Data Intelligence.
Besides these two, there are special guest-of-honour Chng Kai Fong, Managing Director of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, and a panel discussion on AI for the Future of Singapore Economy.
Greater internet and mobile device accessibility are driving e-commerce growth in Southeast Asia.
According to ABI Research, Smart Retail has gone through revolutionary changes in the past 10 years and will exponentially continue to do so going forward. Brick and mortar stores are no longer the only option for consumers across the globe to make their everyday purchases, due to significant advancements in technology, both in-store and online.
Key players include Senion, who implements some of the world’s largest Indoor Positioning System (IPS) solutions to enhance in-store experiences, and AisleLabs who provides shopper traffic behavior analytics to help retailers optimise store layouts. Leading POS software vendors, Shopkeep and Square are allowing retailers to sell across multi-channels from a single platform. These and other key vendors are paving paths to making the offline and online worlds seamless experiences.
The online grocery market in Singapore has just gotten hotter with Amazon’s launch of its Prime Now service. It is the e-commerce giant’s first stop in the region. Prime Now offers tens of thousands of […]
Mastercard has unveiled a new brand identity and logo to be aligned with its position as a forward-thinking, human-centred technology company. “To thrive in this new digital world where business moves faster than ever, we want […]
Leading e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it would pay US$1 billion for a controlling stake in Singapore startup Lazada, which has e-commerce operations across Southeast Asia. Established by Rocket Internet in 2011, Lazada is a popular […]
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