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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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Apple Opens First Online Store in India - It’s Just The Beginning 🇮🇳
On September 23, Apple launched its first online store in India. What does that mean? Now, Indians can go online to order Apple products and services directly. You might be surprised to learn that this is the first time this has ever been possible in India. In the past, you could only purchase Apple products through authorised local partners offline. It has also been hard for Apple to open a retail store in India considering local government regulations. These regulations are being relaxed and Apple plans to open their first offline retail store in India sometime next year. The Indian government has also offered billions of dollars in incentives for smartphone makers to move more of their operations to the country.
Apple started manufacturing iPhones in India two years ago, which now allows Apple to sell more affordable phones for the market. This is the 38th country in the world where Apple has launched an online store. But as you know, India is the 2nd biggest country in the world by population. Opening an online store (and eventually offline retail) indicates just the beginning of Apple increasing their marketing investment within the country. India is becoming a more important market for Apple and we should start seeing more investment soon.
Japan Wants More Foreign Entrepreneurs - Are You In? 🗾
The Japanese government will now start offering a two-year entrepreneurship visa for foreign students graduating from a Japanese university who want to open up a business in the country. Previously, it was a lot more difficult to stay in Japan after your graduation. These sorts of programs usually come with lots of hidden details, but at the very least it signals that the Japanese government is taking an interest in attracting more foreign entrepreneurs to the country.
At least within my world of friends, colleagues, and influences, Japan has a really strong, positive brand. These ‘country brands’ will matter more in the increasing world of remote work. And I’m personally predicting mass significant global migrations in both students and workers in the aftermath of the coronavirus. As a country, there are a lot of things you can’t control about what makes you attractive. But laws and regulations around visas play a big role in the decision-making to attract more people and you can definitely affect that. Let’s see how seriously the Japanese government wants to invest in this and let’s see how many people—especially entrepreneurs—end up moving to Japan over the next years.
Even More Investing in Asia from KKR and SPACs 🌏
KKR, one of the world’s biggest private equity funds, has just finished raising a new $11 Billion dollar fund to focus on investments in Asia. This is the biggest Asian-focused private equity fund ever raised. In related news, Hong Kong-based Pacific Century has combined with the investment fund of Silicon Valley tech billionaire Peter Thiel to create a new $625 Million SPAC focused on Asia. SPAC stands for Special Purpose Acquisition Company, which is a new financial tool to help private companies go public through an acquisition.
This new Asia-focused SPAC is called Bridgetown Holdings and is specifically targeting companies in Southeast Asia within sectors like tech, financial services, and media. For small startups or bigger companies across Asia, this means that there are more foreign investors and potential acquirers. You can usually interpret a trail of money as a leading indicator for economic growth. These new Western investment vehicles focusing on Asia show us that the global investment community is looking even more to Asia’s fast-growing companies.
*BONUS* TikTok Marketing & Advertising 101
At the urging of some readers, I wanted to share something else I’m working on outside of East West Hurricane. If you are a company struggling to achieve the marketing results you really want, I would highly recommend you looking into TikTok. I fully believe it’s currently the world’s most underrated marketing channel. I’ve put together a crash course on TikTok, which you can check it out here.!
Update #76 - Apple India, Japanese Entrepreneurs and Investing in Asia