Category Archives: Business

*This article is contributed by Nicole Tan, Country Director of Facebook Malaysia*

A fisherman who uses WhatsApp and Facebook to change his quality of life and keeps his community safe by alerting each other on weather and tide conditions, a non-profit that empowers the homeless towards financial independence by turning them into tour guides, a delicious sambal recipe made in Malaysia that gained acclaim across borders from Indonesia and the Philippines — these are real examples of business innovation previously unimaginable.

The year 2020 crowns a decade of change that has upended traditional ways of starting, marketing and growing businesses across the world. This is even more pronounced in Asia, where entire countries have leapfrogged to the mobile internet, making the region home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the nations’ digital economy contributed 18.5% to the national economy in 2018, while e-commerce contributed 8%, highlighting digital transformation as a catalyst for expansion[1].

Source: Facebook

According to a McKinsey report, by 2040, Asia could account for more than half of the global GDP with global cross-order flows shifting towards Asia. The report shows how these changes could shift globalisation towards regionalisation with 60 percent of goods traded by Asian economies being within the region. In addition, 71 percent of Asian investment in start-ups is intraregional, and 74 percent of Asian travelers travel within the region[2].

Malaysia’s exports accounts for more than 71.5% of GDP[3]. Digital adoption in increasing productivity is crucial for SMEs to expand further[4] and digital tools give SMEs a boost in economic growth (revenue and sales 65%) and go global (82% of exporting SMEs in Malaysia say that at least half of their exports depend on online tools usage)[5].

Against this backdrop of macroeconomic change, people’s expectations for the experiences they have with brands and businesses is evolving fast. As we have seen over the last few years, people adopt new technologies long before businesses do, and it influences how they discover, research and finally make purchasing decisions.

We see this every day on Facebook, where every day 1.62 billion people across the world come to connect with people, products and services they care about. We stand at the intersection of community and creativity where brands can identify, take inspiration from and participate in the communities that people inhabit. At the start of 2019, we shared three social trends that were on rise across our platforms: ephemeral sharing, videos and messaging. As we head into 2020, these trends have only intensified in our region. Simply put, Asia is about more — more mobile, more video, more stories, more conversation and more commerce.

Malaysia is a truly mobile-first nation with 88% owning smartphones. According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), 77.6% of Malaysians are spending time streaming or downloading videos online[6].

Last year we saw how people show preference for sharing photographs or video over typing out a text update, the comfort of knowing what you post isn’t going to stick around forever and the need to share everyday moments with smaller audiences.

It’s interesting to note that video on mobile is far from a homogeneous experience. Unlike traditional video, mobile video experiences are not linear and vary based on a number of factors. Through our research and experience over the last few years, we’ve seen two distinct categories of video experiences that have accelerated largely due to mobile: “on-the-go” and “captivated viewing.” As a result of these changing viewing habits, people are most drawn to brands that are easy to discover and use, whether it’s through their strong presence in online communities or their high-quality mobile content across platforms. With the continued growth in streaming services, people will be looking to brands that can clearly communicate their offerings and to those that can create a more personalised viewing experience.

We’re continuing to see fast adoption of ephemeral sharing as each of our Stories experiences across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp now have more than half a billion daily users[7]. As more and more people use Stories, we’re making it easier for marketers to adopt this format and reach people where they’re spending their time.

The same goes for messaging. At the start of 2018, we shared that over 8 billion messages were sent between people and businesses on Messenger every month. That number has more than doubled to 20 billion messages this year – which shows that people expect to communicate with businesses in much the same way as they message with their friends. As people increasingly use messaging apps, we’re helping businesses make the shift too. There are now over 40 million monthly active businesses on Messenger (i.e. sending or receiving a message on Messenger)[8] and research shows that people in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific are more likely than the global average to message a business. In fact, 63% of people surveyed in Asia-Pacific messaged a business last Holiday season[9]. More than 5 million businesses are actively using the WhatsApp Business app each month[10].

While last year we saw the ability to message with a business made people feel more confident about the brand and more connected to it and create a connection that fosters brand loyalty, this year we see an interesting subset of this preference for messaging; the growing use of messaging or online chat to buy and sell. A study by the Boston Consulting Group in partnership with Facebook across nine countries found that Southeast Asia outpaces other countries surveyed in both awareness and adoption of conversational commerce. Of the nine countries surveyed, the percentage of respondents who had undertaken a conversational commerce transaction was the highest in Thailand and Vietnam, at 40% and 36% respectively, followed by Indonesia (29%), Malaysia (26%) and the Philippines (23%). The rate of adoption for other countries is still nascent – US (5%), Mexico (6%), India (10%), and Brazil (11%), which shows substantial opportunity for growth[11]. The study unveiled a remarkable finding that discovery and spending behavior of digital consumers in between Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities are very similar, debunking the myth that Tier 1 digital consumers shop more online. Once a Tier 2 shopper adopts online shopping, habits and preferences become very similar to Tier 1. Except for the discovery journey, where Tier 2 shoppers don’t know what they want to buy even more, which means they are even more encouraged by inspiration-shopping.

All of these developments mean that the commerce landscape will continue to evolve with people opting to interact with businesses via experiences that are most relevant, personal, and seamless in their daily lives. With increasing affluence and access to the mobile internet, the ways people discover new products is very much about a connected experience. Therefore, ensuring that your business and brands are visible and discoverable is going to be an essential element to winning in the new era of commerce.

Today, Most Malaysian consumers want everything almost immediately, making every step or delay a chance for them to abandon their journeys. Awareness, information gaps and the inability to optimise technology are some causes that contributed to the friction[12]. So what can businesses do to prepare for this new era of commerce? Bring connection back to the equation. Businesses can enhance connections by designing mobile-friendly websites, apps, marketing and real-time communication to reduce friction and establish the best experiences for customers[13].

[1] Department of Statistics Malaysia: Contribution of Digital Economy was 18.5 per cent to National Economy

[2] McKinsey: Future of Asia report

[3] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS?locations=MY

[4] https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/smes-yet-unlock-opportunities-internet

[5] Future of Business Survey H1 2018

[6] https://www.mcmc.gov.my/en/media/press-releases/online-video-and-voice-record-biggest-growth-among

[7] Facebook Q3 earnings 2019

[8] Mobile Unique subscribers, GSMA Intelligence, Oct 2019.

[9] https://www.facebook.com/iq/insights-to-go/63-63-of-people-surveyed-in-asia-pacific-messaged-a-business-last-holiday-season/?tags%5B0%5D=people-insights&tags%5B1%5D=asia-pacific&tags%5B2%5D=holiday-season&tags%5B3%5D=i2g_People_Insights_Type

[10] https://our.internmc.facebook.com/intern/tasks/?t=43243044

[11] https://messengernews.fb.com/2019/04/30/messenger-at-f8-2019-over-20b-messages-exchanged-between-people-and-businesses-every-month/

[12] Zero Friction Future Report: Malaysia Financial Services

[13] https://www.facebook.com/business/news/insights/conversational-commerce

Business, Mobile, News

HiSilicon No Longer HUAWEI Exclusive

January 3, 2020 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

You know that CPU in your HUAWEI smartphones that you are so used to? Yes, the HUAWEI branded processing chip that has been a staple in HUAWEI’s flagships and other smartphones. Yes, HiSilicon, as the title named. No, they are still HUAWEI’s subsidiary.

From 2020 onward though you might not just see HUAWEI devices fitting in chips from their in-house chip maker. They are starting to sell their chip technologies and processing chips to other manufacturers, expanding their business opportunities.

It does make a lot of sense this move of opening themselves up to the bigger market. HiSilicon makes some of the world’s cleverest and powerful processing chips to be put in a smartphone. The HiSilicon Kirin 990 for example, is proven to be one of the most powerful System on a Chip (SoC) to be found on a smartphone. So it is not like they make subpar products, they do make some compelling stuff. It is just that we have never seen anyone other than HUAWEI using the chips due to HUAWEI’s agreement with their subsidiary.

These years where Shanghai HiSilicon operates exclusively for HUAWEI too sees the Chinese telecommunication giant benefit from the clever chip designs of the chip manufacturer. The Kirin SoC series is partly responsible for HUAWEI’s successful P series and Mate series line-ups thanks to the clever dedicated Neural Processing Unit (mostly known as an AI chip) integration, first in the world in the HiSilicon Kirin 970.

The expansion does not just cover smartphone SoC sales though. The expansion also extends to Shenzhen HiSilicon expanding their manufacturing scope to more than just smartphone chips. They will be responsible for making processing chips for things like smart TVs, set-top boxes, and other smart home electronics that needs a processing chip.

Source: Android Central

Business

3 Reasons Why Amazon Web Services (AWS) Matters to you

December 19, 2019 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

It would come as no surprise is the first thing that comes to your mind when your hear “Amazon” is the popular online marketplace or the largest rain forest in the world. What if we told you that there is another Amazon that you should know of – Amazon Web Services (AWS). Yes. This Amazon is related Amazon.com but their reach is far, far greater than just an online marketplace. AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon.com which powers most of the internet. Yep. You read that right! AWS provides the backbone for a majority of the world’s websites, apps and services. They provide a slew of cloud computing infrastructure services which allow many websites, apps and businesses to scale and accommodate sudden spikes in their usage as well as the backbone for cloud based compute services.

Now that you have a general idea of who they are. We’re pretty sure that you’re wondering why you should be paying attention to this company. From what we’ve outlined, it seems like AWS is a very corporate service. So why would the regular joe need to know about it? Here’s three of the compelling reasons you should.

1. Nearly Half of the world’s Cloud Computing Services and Platforms Run AWS

AWS is one of the most omnipresent service providers in the world. Apps, websites, banks and more are using AWS to drive digitalization of their businesses. In fact, in his keynote, Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS, shared that about 47.8% of all services using cloud computing run on the platform. This number puts them far ahead of their nearest competition, Microsoft Azure (15.5%) and Alibaba Cloud (7.7%).

Q3 Cloud Computing Market Share estimates from Canalys. Taken from https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/global-cloud-market-Q3-2019

This also means the company’s platform and services are being adopted at a rate much higher than its competition. The AWS platform has an edge over its competition thanks to the extensive services and granularity of the customisation that the service offers.

2. More Companies are adopting Cloud Computing to better serve customers

We’ve talked about Industry 4.0 a whole lot over the past year and the truth is, we’re only at the cusp of it. In the next few years, we will be seeing more and more companies adopt cloud computing as one of their main tools to serve their customers. You may not see this being announced publicly, but nearly all the services that you use from Agoda to Facebook have a cloud computing component to it; whether it’s to hyper personalise their offerings or to have redundancies that will help with making things more seamlessly. With this increased adoption, it may be time to know a little more about how these services are provided.

3. AWS has one of the most complete Cloud Computing services

Amazon Web Services is one of the most complete cloud computing platforms available now. In fact, the company is ahead of the curve when it comes to providing the latest and greatest in cloud computing. AWS currently has over 165 modules or services which it offers its customers. Each of these services can be selectively deployed to meet their customers’ unique needs. With their recent announcement at their annual Re:invent conference, the number of services offered by AWS has grown further.

AWS service categories as listed on aws.amazon.com

Very briefly, the company’s offerings span everything from storage, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data processing. The company has announced even more services with a strong focus on allowing its customers to adopt edge computing and better manage and process their data which is being stored in the cloud and even on premises with their new AWS Outpost.

With the companies adoption across the internet becoming more and more popular, AWS is set to become one of the largest cloud computing providers in the world. They’ve even made it into things like the Formula 1 (F1) and National Football League (NFL). You may even see them helping your self driving vehicles in the near future. With that in mind, prepare to find out more about AWS and how they are changing the state of the internet.

Business, Podcast

Going Digital Isn’t Just About Technology; It’s About Changing Mindsets

August 5, 2019 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

The world is abuzz with a massive change in the way things are working when it comes to companies. This change is spurred by the introduction of many technologies which have revolutionised and fundamentally changed how things are done. Perhaps the biggest observable change so far is that start ups have become the new normal. The simple reason behind this is that there has been a fundamental change in paradigm when it comes to product development and the duration is takes for an industry-wide disruption to occur. What once took decades is now happening at a near daily pace. The reality of the nature of disruption today is that you don’t have to be a large corporation to disrupt nor do you have to be a digital native. You simply have to be able to impact the way things are done and fundamentally change a preset mindset.

Being Digital Simply Means Adopting A New Mindset

Looking back at disruptors such as Grab or Uber, this statement couldn’t be more true. Even in our sit down with Mr Santanu Dutt, Chieft Technology Officer and Head of Technology (ASEAN) at Amazon Web Services, this point was stressed upon. The world has changed from an industry-first paradigm to one where customers are placed front and center. Development starts with the identification of a gap in services or a new way of offering the service which would cater to better customer experience. From there, companies need to address the constantly changing demands of the customer with quick iterations. The harsh reality is, when it comes to competing in Industry 4.0, companies are now vying for a very limited commodity: customer attention. The days in which customers have a sense of loyalty are quickly fading. Instead, they look to new experiences and features which make their life easier.

*Santanu Dutt, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Technology (ASEAN) at Amazon Web Services (AWS)*

So the big question is: How can companies have a competitive edge in this marketplace? As Mr Santanu put it, “Being digital is also largely a cultural change. Yes, it is about technology but [also] a cultural change of a company to have their product and services digitally [and] expand their reach.”. He stresses that the fundamental cultural change is for companies and their employees to understand the needs of their customer, listen to their feedback and to iterate quickly to address them. In fact, in recent years, we’ve seen companies die because of this. One of the best examples of this on a international scale is Blockbuster and other video rental services. With the advent of fast, broadband internet, their customers started expecting videos and movies to be immediately available for on demand viewing. The only company to capitalise on this fundamental change was Netflix. Netflix changed from an overnight DVD and Blu-ray courier and rental service into a platform which allowed users to stream video on demand. This was, of course, followed closely by Amazon Prime Video and other companies. Another example is that of Grab which started off as an app to making hailing a taxi easier and safer. It is today, Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing application and e-Wallet.

Learning and Unlearning to Compete in Industry 4.0

There is a misconception that comes with companies going digital and that’s the assumption that going digital simply means that companies need to adopt new technologies to streamline processes. Truth be told, going digital entails more than just adopting new technologies; it involves the learning of new approaches and technologies and the unlearning of old approaches which are holding the company back. However, in adopting new technologies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud based services, companies cannot simply be looking at a “lift and shift” approach where they simply take their pre-existing architecture and shift it to platforms such as AWS. Instead, SMEs need to look at learning new the technology and implementing them in such a way that they are maximising their potential. In essence, unlearning the old and optimising essential processes and architecture using new technologies such as Machine Learning (ML) and Data Lakes.

To be agile and effective, SMEs must look to the most effective approach to their needs. Certain industries may not permit the complete migration of on premises infrastructure to one that is purely cloud based. In cases such as these, Mr Santanu says that there is no harm in keeping core services on premise with permitted peripheral services being moved to the cloud. This approach allows SMEs to benefit from an agile workflow whilst keeping inline with regulations. When it comes to regulated industries, certification is essential. This is why SMEs looking to take advantage of Industry 4.0 should look to partners who share the burden of getting industry certifications. Companies such as AWS share this burden with their clients and ensure that any certification necessary for relevant industries is met on a regular basis.

With these worries aside, SMEs can focus on learning new approaches such as implementing DevOps in a leaner, more efficient manner. This will, over time, lead to better processes which allow for greater profits while minimizing cost. With partners such as AWS, SMEs can focus on servicing their clients while leaving infrastructure maintenance to their partner.

Planning For Scale from the Beginning

To keep up with the demands of the rapidly changing landscape in Industry 4.0, companies need to have the foresight to plan for scale from the get-go. While AWS acknowledges that know-how and skill set may continue to be a gap in the near future, the company is working with Universities to train the future. In Malaysia alone, AWS is training over 100,000 students who will soon enter the work force ready with the skills and knowledge required to take advantage of Cloud Computing.

That said, companies have to look to scale dynamically. As businesses continue to grow rapidly thanks to the internet, they need to be ready, from the beginning, to cope with scale. At a moment’s notice, they may be required to adapt from thousands to hundreds of thousands of transactions. This can only be achieved when infrastructure is able to scale as such. With Cloud computing platforms such as AWS, SMEs need not worry about new infrastructure acquisition. Instead, they are able to accommodate with simple automation the increased scale.

Malaysia is already moving towards industry 4.0 with the push from the government as well as industry. More importantly, SMEs need to learn to iterate – at scale – to accommodate the needs and demands of their customers. That said, it is still early days in Malaysia. The change in mindset needed for the country and its industries to fully appreciate and benefit the potential of Industry 4.0 is still in its growing stages. Mr Santanu stresses that with the passage of time and the willingness of Malaysian SMEs in adopting new technologies and approaches, there is no doubt that the country will be able to reap the many benefits of Industry 4.0.

techENT