Analyse Asia With Bernard Leong

Andreas Ehn, current partner of Approach and former CTO of Spotify, joined us in a conversation on technology and where we are heading in four major areas: artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and cryptocurrency, autonomous vehicles and virtual & augmented reality.

Ramakrishna Purushotaman, deputy CEO of CIO Academy Asia joined us in a conversation to discuss his new book "Intelligent Island" which he co-authored with Grace Chng, that chronicled the history of information technology development & how it spurred the economy of Singapore from early government efforts. We discussed the major themes, the lessons learnt and what the future of technology industry lies ahead for Singapore will be in the next decade to come. 

Benjamin Joffe, partner of HAX from SOS Ventures joined us in a conversation about the evolution of their hardware startup accelerator and discuss what Mike Moritz from Sequoia Capital got wrong and right about China's technology startup ecosystem. We discussed the intention of Moritz's article to Silicon Valley and how the Chinese startups will pose a challenge to them globally.

Juro Osawa, reporter at The Information joined us in a conversation to discuss the recent challenges faced by China's technology giants, Huawei and Tencent. We discussed why Huawei's deal with AT&T in the US had fallen apart and its implications to other foreign companies trying to enter the US market. At the same time, we discussed the recent turmoil within Tencent on the future of Wechat.

Brink Sanders joined us in an interesting conversation on the footprint of Cisco across Asia Pacific and his perspectives on software & network transformation across Pacific. We discussed Cisco's coverage across Asia Pacific with their products and services and how they are helping to transform the landscape of Asia with their network technologies. Brink also shared his thoughts on the challenges of companies in Asia undergoing digital transformation and discussed the upcoming technologies from AI, blockchain to even quantum networks that will transform the networking industry for tomorrow.  

Markus Gnirck, CEO and co-founder and Lien Choong Luen, COO of Tryb joined us in a conversation to discuss the backstory and evolution of their company, and their recent round of US$30M from Makara Capital. They also discussed their perspectives on the major trends on fintech in Asia Pacific, specifically on how the Chinese technology giants and local banks are approaching financial inclusion and the challenges on regulation and navigation in the fintech space by corporations & startups.

Zennon Kapron, founder of Kapron Asia and China Fintech joined us to conclude the two part conversation on Fintech in Asia Pacific. In this episode, Zennon continued the conversation on fintech outside of China, starting from the recent aggressive expansion of Tencent & Ant Financial in Southeast Asia, the evolution of digital payments in an open market with the other major players such as Visa, Mastercard & Paypal and the current boom and bust of ICOs in the cryptocurrency and blockchain markets in Asia.

Zennon Kapron, founder & director of Kapron Asia and China Fintech, joined us in a conversation in how the Chinese government's new regulations are shaping the fintech space in China. We discussed the impact of Wang'lian on digital payments, the reduction of peer to peer landing companies and the ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges to the dynamic fintech space in China. Last but not least, we look at how the fintech industry in 2018 within China will be shaped by emergence of new verticals such as AI or new regulation that continues to shape the fintech space in China.

Alex Campbell, managing director of Xero, joined us in a conversation to discuss the web based accounting software service company in Asia and the state of software as a service (SaaS) in Asia. We discussed the origin of Xero and its current footprint across Asia, the products and services behind the company and how the company is scaling across different geographies. Last and not least, Alex shared his thoughts on the SaaS industry in Asia.  

Snehal Patel, CEO and co-founder of MyDoc joined us in a conversation to discuss the story of his healthcare company and the state of digital healthcare companies in Asia. We discussed the vision and mission of his company MyDoc, and how it has shifted from its initial model to the current state. Last but not least, we discussed the state of digital healthcare companies and how they are navigating the boundaries from regulatory bodies across Asia.

Eva Xiao, China reporter from Tech In Asia joined us in a two part conversation on the most important events that is rocking the China technology landscape. In the second part of our conversation, Eva discussed the return of China's ride hailing wars and why Didi's dominance in the ride hailing space is now being challenged not just by the bike sharing startups such as Ofo and Mobike but surprisingly from a fellow second generation technology giant, Meituan-Dianping.

Eva Xiao, China reporter from Tech In Asia joined us in a two part conversation on the most important events that is rocking the China technology landscape. In the first part of our conversation, we discussed the recent WeChat World Conference 2018 and its impact to the ecosystem. We covered the key announcements made during the conversation, the important messaging from Allen Zhang, the WeChat founder, and how mini-programs and mini-games will change the dynamics of the WeChat ecosystem from online to offline in China.

Simon Kemp, founder and CEO of Kepios and global consultant from We are Social, joined us in a conversation to discuss the latest global digital report in 2018. In the second part of our conversation, we discussed how the next billion will be connected and what it means for innovation for voice and video messaging and the profile of the Instagram user. Last but not least, we examined whether Facebook is really declining across the world and whether we are seeing any interesting trends from the ecommerce data.

Simon Kemp, founder and CEO of Kepios and global consultant from We are Social, joined us in a conversation to discuss the latest global digital report in 2018. In the first part of our conversation, he discussed the key numbers, trends and new data that is added to this most important annual digital report across the world, and dissected the interesting world map of the messaging apps and its implications for Facebook, Whatsapp, Wechat, LINE, Telegram and many others across Asia Pacific.

Chenyu Zheng, former product marketing manager from Uber and now author, joined us in a two part conversation to discuss the unique digital experience in China and the Uber China mafia and their impact to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in China after merger with Didi. In the second part, we discussed the impact of Uber in China, after its merger with Didi, and how it has created a generation of entrepreneurial talent that are shaking the transportation landscape with Ofo and Mobike.

Chenyu Zheng, former product marketing manager from Uber and now author, joined us in a two part conversation to discuss the unique digital experience in China and the Uber China mafia & their impact to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in China after merger with Didi. In the first part, she discussed her major observations on the web and mobile apps in China and why they have evolved in a different way from their US counterparts. Last but not least, she also shared what she has learned from Allen Zhang, the founder of Wechat in product management.

Chih-Han Yu, the co-founder and CEO of Appier joined us in a conversation to discuss the journey, team and products behind his company, Appier that focused on artificial intelligence with leading investors from Sequoia Capital to SoftBank Group. We discussed his perspectives on AI and its impact to society and where the field is moving in the next one year.

Ayesha Khanna, CEO of ADDO AI joined us in a conversation on the subject of artificial intelligence aka AI. We discussed the key technologies, major applications in fintech and manufacturing and at the same, discussed the major trends on AI dominating Asia Pacific. Last but not least, Ayesha discussed the implications of AI, particularly in how they will reshape traditional industries and the displacement of knowledge workers' jobs by AI.

Arnaud Bonzom from 500 Startups joined us in a conversation to conclude our conversation on the state of Southeast Asia in 2017 and what is likely to come in 2018. We discussed the entry of Alibaba and Tencent in Southeast Asia and India which set up the war for ecommerce, logistics, social and cloud computing with Amazon, Facebook and Google, and the strange situation of disruptors and incumbents teaming up in consolidation or strategic partnerships across Southeast Asia. Last but not least, we discussed what 2018 will be for Southeast Asia particularly in the payment wars between major players and startups across the region.

Arnaud Bonzom from 500 Startups joined us in a conversation to review the state of Southeast Asia in a two part conversation before the closing of 2017. In this episode, we discussed the three major events that rocked Southeast Asia starting with SoftBank and Didi's investment into Grab with US$2 billion, followed by the two IPOs from Sea (formerly Garena) and Razer, followed by how the startups and venture capital firms are starting their series B journey, and the change of fundraising landscape with initial coin offerings (ICOs) dominating the region.