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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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As a combination of e-commerce, gaming, and financial services, Sea Group is one of the best positioned companies in Asia to benefit from the coronavirus. They just reported their Q2 earnings, where they experienced 93% year-on-year revenue growth. Free Fire, one of their mobile games, reached 100 Million monthly active users and became the highest grossing mobile game in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Their e-commerce app Shopee competes directly with Alibaba/Rocket Internet backed Lazada and is in a strong position right now. Shopee was the number one ranked app in Southeast Asia on Android, in terms of downloads, monthly active users, and time spent. In Indonesia, Shopee’s largest market, Shopee experienced 130% year-on-year revenue growth. SeaMoney, Sea’s digital payments arm, added five million new users over the last quarter. Sea’s areas of focus (gaming, e-commerce, and financial services), are quite literally some of the best bets you could make in a post-covid world. From their Q2 results, it shows.
Bigo Moves From Hong Kong to Singapore 🇸🇬
Joyy Group, a competitor to TikTok in the social/video/mobile app space, operates a group of apps including livestreaming app Bigo Live and short video app Likee. Both of these apps were part of the recent Indian ban of several Chinese mobile apps. While the scrutiny being faced by Joyy is a lot less than TikTok/Bytedance, this Chinese tech company still realises the importance of optics and positioning in the current business environment.
Joyy has recently moved its servers from Hong Kong to Singapore, in an attempt to distance themselves from Chinese association. Bigo was originally founded in Singapore before being bought by the Chinese Joyy Group, and 91% of their 460 Million monthly active users are in international markets outside of China. Considering their revenue and user base is so heavily weighted internationally, it’s critical that Joyy keeps governments happy. Otherwise, they could start facing similar threats as TikTok.
Chinese Electric Scooters, With the Help of Vin Diesel 🏍
Yadea Group Holdings is a Chinese electric scooter company currently worth around $22 Billion. Due to the coronavirus, demand for electric scooters has been increasing and Yadea has seen 91% year-on-year growth in H1 revenue. The company sells 162 electric scooter models and exports around the world. American actor Vin Diesel, best known for his roles in the Fast & Furious film series, is one of the main faces behind the Yadea brand.
90% of Yadea’s revenue still comes from Mainland China, so employing an international Western star like Vin Diesel might help increase their brand’s appeal outside of China. Electric vehicles, and in this specific case the subsegment of electric scooters, is a rapidly growing market. 30% of mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles were electric in 2019, and that number is expected to reach 77% by 2040. Consumer behaviour in China, which soon may translate around the world, has influenced people to turn to electric scooters for economic, environmental, and safety reasons.
Update #54 - SEA Group, Bigo Joyy and Vin Diesel