Real reason for Alibaba’s US$2.9 billion investment in offline retailer
Alibaba Group today announced that it is making a US$2.87 billion investment into Sun & Art Group, a retail group in China that operates...
The failure that defined Alipay’s success
In case you have been living under a rock (or a pile of paperwork) these last few years, here’s an introduction of Alipay (支付宝)...
Fashion ecommerce in SEA, and why Zalora is struggling
Last month, Pomelo, a Bangkok-based online fashion brand, confirmed US$19 million funding led by JD.com, China’s second biggest ecommerce platform.
This is shortly after Zilingo,...
Ezbuy’s Taobao accounts suspended: What it should have done
In October, we published an article on the viability of Ezbuy facing an onslaught of Taobao entering Southeast Asia through Lazada.
Now in the light...
Alipay & WeChat Pay stick, GrabPay doesn’t, literally
We came across this at a florist in Singapore. What does this tell us?
Some of our thoughts:
Alipay and WeChat Pay are very present...
Why fintech companies in China avoid SMEs
While all the governments are encouraging P2P to be primarily helping SMEs with credit for growth, the founder of one of China’s largest fintech...
The gold rush in Indonesian payday loan market – Part 2
In the first part of this article, we took a look at the craze of Chinese mobile payday loan companies entering the Indonesian market....
The gold rush in Indonesian payday loan market – Part 1
In a recent Fintech investor brief in Singapore, where more than 50 investors participated, almost nobody was aware of the huge gold rush that...
Lazada squeezes the likes of Ezbuy out in Southeast Asia
We have always been arguing that with the giants such as Alibaba, Lazada and JD.com entering the Southeast Asian market, smaller e-commerce platforms will...
Brands losing their grip in ecommerce era – or are they?
E-commerce has grown to be a powerful distribution channel for goods, and I believe it will continue to grow in weight and influence in...
