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We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.
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The Chinese government has created a new regulation that will require anyone playing a video game to log in with their real name, part of a state-run authentication system that will be ready by September. Tencent and Netease have already put in advanced verification programs, including facial recognition technology. In 2019, the Chinese government put restrictions on minors, limiting how much time and money people under 18 can spend on video games. There are also regulations on the level of violence and controversial content allowed in video game content. Despite these new actions by the government, I’m sure there will be loopholes or ways kids can get around the rules. There are many well-documented tactics that Chinese gamer kids already use — like fake ids, using parent’s accounts, and impersonating grandparents.
The way your identity is represented on online platforms directly impacts your behaviour. Using a pseudonym on a platform like Reddit or Discord vs. your real name on a platform like Facebook can change user authenticity, civility of discourse, and more. Generally speaking, having people use their real names encourages more positive behaviour. Back in 2012, Youtube started to encourage users to use their real names to improve behaviour on the platform, especially within the often toxic comments section of a video. So even if minors can get around this new Chinese regulation, an added consequence of real names might be a more positive social environment for gamers.
Southeast Asian Startup Funding 💰
Despite challenges from the coronavirus, startups in Southeast Asia saw an increase in funding in Q2 between April to June. DealStreetAsia compiled data showing that the total value of startup fundraising deals has gone up 91% this year to $2.7 Billion. The number of transactions is also up year-on-year from 116 in Q2 2019 to 184 in Q2 2020. The biggest three startup verticals to receive funding were e-commerce, logistics, and fintech and the biggest deal was $500 Million invested into Indonesian e-commerce startup Tokopedia.
This should paint an optimistic picture for startups in Southeast Asia. It’s been a tough year for everyone, and I’ve spoken to several founders across the US, Europe, and Asia who have struggled to fundraise in the current environment. Some of these successful fundraises in Southeast Asia could also be attributed to deals that were already being discussed before Covid. You can also see where people are betting on growth because of the coronavirus: e-commerce, logistics and fintech. This latest data from DealStreetAsia is encouraging, but there’s still a lot of economic uncertainty and pain we will likely experience in Q3/Q4.
In case you missed my interview with Andrew Baisley of Tech in Asia Studios, he mentioned an interesting Singaporean startup called Secretlab. This KrAsia profile explains their incredible story. Ian Ang and Alaric Choo were both professional e-sports athletes and became close friends after playing many games together like Starcraft. In 2014, they founded Secretlab to scratch their own itch. As professional gamers, they spent hours sitting in a chair playing games and never found appropriate ergonomic support. So they decided to build their own high-quality chair for professional gamers.
Since then, their chair has been used in some of the world’s biggest gaming championships, their partners include Warner Bros, HBO, and Blizzard, and their company is worth over $200 Million. They manufacture over 500,000 chairs a year and over 50% of their sales comes from North America. With coronavirus forcing a larger percentage of the world’s population to work from home, Secretlab also saw a huge increase in demand for their chairs. It’s a great Singaporean success story that has found international success.
Update #41 - Real Name Video Games, Southeast Asian Investment, and Secretlab