Hi there. It’s Brady.
Here’s a stat worth repeating: around 40 million people in six countries across Southeast Asia—Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand—used the internet for the first time in 2020.
Considering how the pandemic likely won’t fade away anytime soon, and how tech companies are going beyond dense urban areas to woo new transacting users in smaller cities and rural areas, the pace of people and businesses going online will likely only pick up.
In Indonesia, my colleague Khamila spoke to people about the matter and heard firsthand observations of how a steady internet connection changes a developing community. These frontier lands—in terms of internet accessibility—require services that are different from those offered to people in metropolises. Aside from the economic dimension to this development, people are likely to engage with broader society more frequently once they are connected over the web.
Might this also change how businesses based in the capital and commercial hubs recruit staff? If most of us can work from home, do qualified individuals still need to relocate across the country if their job can be done remotely? What other transformations will fuller connectivity bring to Indonesia—and further afield?
The next 100 million people to come online in Southeast Asia will undoubtedly hasten the changes of the region’s tech sector. We may see some answers to those questions very soon.
Daily Roundup
- Luckin Coffee released updated 2019 financials detailing fraud.
- The Reserve Bank of India is worried about big tech’s deep involvement in the financial sector.
- More than 50 conglomerates and upstarts are vying for digital banking licenses in Malaysia.
- BCA’s Blu joins Indonesia’s long list of digital banking options.
- Flipkart enters the social commerce space with Shopsy.
- Xiaomi-backed autonomous driving decacorn ZongMu nets USD 190 million Series D.
- Here are five startups in China that caught our eye in 2021.
- R&D management platform Ones bags RMB 300 million Series B to rev up teamwork.
- Huawei enlists an army of European talent for “battle” with the US.