Analyse Asia With Bernard Leong

James Hull, co-host of China Tech Investor podcast and founder of Hullx, joined us to discuss whether we can invest into technology companies from China. We start our conversation with James' background and how he came to China and work in the realm of investments with different funds and capital groups. James explained how he assembled together a portfolio of technology companies and discuss the major misconceptions about investing into Chinese companies. Last but not least, we dig deeper into the Chinese technology companies in the ecommerce category, Luckin Coffee's IPO and Tencent's future prospects in gaming. Editor’s disclaimer: Our discussion pre-dates the ban of Huawei by the US. Further more, our discussion does not constitute as investor advice, and we urge the audience to do their own homework to invest in any companies and be responsible for their own investments. The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Steve Glaveski, host of Future Squared podcast and founder of Collective campus, returns to our podcast to discuss his latest book "Employee to Entrepreneur:  How to earn your freedom and do work that matters" and offered his thoughts to how the podcasting movement in Asia Pacific is evolving. We dived deep into why and how Steve wrote the book and his thoughts on how one should build the entrepreneurial mindset in his or her career. Podcast Information: RSS Feed Apple Podcasts Himalaya Spotify Libsyn Google Play Overcast FM SoundCloud Twitter Facebook Video Facebook Page Linkedin Stitcher Castbox RadioPublic Acast PodBean ListenNotes TuneIn The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, "The Beginning" from Red Cliff Soundtrack and this episode is edited by Carol Yin, and co-produced by Carol Yin and Bernard Le

Jon Russell, reporter from TechCrunch, joined us in a conversation about the continuing war between Gojek and Grab with the dawn of the super app. We started our conversation on Honestbee's recent predicament, the growth in series B-D funding for startups across Southeast Asia and Eduardo Saverin's B-Capital recent raising of 406M for their fund. Then we dived deep into Grab vs Gojek and their narrative from fundraising valuation to the paradigm of super app, and discuss whether each of them can pull it off with their different strategies from Grab's financial services to Gojek's multiple acquisitions in the market. Last but not least, we discuss Uber's recent IPO S1-filing and their implications to Didi, Grab and Ola and what it means for the Asian ecosystem for the long term.   Podcast Information: RSS Feed Apple Podcasts Himalaya Spotify Libsyn Google Play Overcast FM SoundCloud Twitter Facebook Video Facebook Page Linkedin Stitcher Castbox RadioPublic Acast PodBean ListenNotes TuneIn The show is ho

Tim Romero, chief technology officer for TEPCO Ventures and host of "Disrupting Japan" podcast, joined us in a discussion on the entrepreneurial technology ecosystem of Japan. We started with Tim's background and how he built his podcast to discuss startups & innovation in Japan. Subsequently, Tim dived deeper into the current evolution of the Japanese startup ecosystem, highlighting the key verticals from space, robotics and consumer Internet, the cultural changes that have taken place in the past few years and discuss how the small and medium businesses will be the most interesting companies to look out for Japan's next breakout phase in technology and entrepreneurship.  

Cole Sirucek, CEO and co-founder of Docdoc, joined us to discuss the evolution of his digital health startup leading in patient intelligence and shared his perspectives on digital healthcare across Asia. We started from Cole's early career highlights particularly his time with Temasek and subsequently, the backstory to how Grace Park, his wife and he both started Docdoc and how the company transformed both the healthcare and insurance space. Last but not least, Cole discuss the major trends in digital healthcare space and the challenges in building a startup in that space across Asia.

Joyce Yang, founder of Global Coin Research is back on the podcast to share an overview of the regulatory landscape for blockchain technology and cryptocurrency across Asia Pacific with China included. She discuss the major misconceptions on the regulation of cryptocurrency and blockchain by governments across Asia Pacific and how startups and major corporations need to do in order to navigate the ever changing industry with blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Zen Soo, technology reporter from South China Morning Post (SCMP) and host of Inside China Tech, joins us for a conversation on Huawei's recent troubles. We begin with Zen's introduction of her coverage with SCMP, and the interesting story of her podcast. Then Zen dived deep into Huawei's recent troubles which include the arrest of their CFO, Meng Wanzhou in Canada, and the fallout between China and US on 5G with Huawei in the centre, and its implications to the other Chinese technology companies expanding abroad.

Rachel Lau, managing partner of RHL Ventures joined us in a conversation to discuss their newly formed venture capital firm and discuss her perspectives on venture capital trends in Southeast Asia. Rachel began the conversation with her background and how RHL Ventures is formed under a group of well-established family businesses behind them, their investment thesis and the verticals which they are currently focused on. She also offered her perspectives on how one need to think of Southeast Asia as a region of investment and the major technology trends in the region.  

Jeff Nicholson, chief media officer of Vayner Media joined us in a conversation on the expansion of their business footprint in Asia Pacific and discuss the major trends in marketing and advertising across Asia Pacific, splitting between China and the rest of Asia. Jeff discuss the customer centric focus of Vayner Media and how they are working with international brands in Asia Pacific and regional brands on digital marketing. We discuss the effects of the new tri-factor of Google, Facebook and Amazon in advertising and aggregation, and the rise of Tik Tok in international markets.

Alan Soon, co-founder and CEO of Splice Media joined us in a conversation about Splice Media and their latest conference, Splice Beta, and offered his perspectives on how the media businesses are now in the transformation mode across Southeast Asia. We discuss the interesting media companies and the non-traditional business models in the media business. Alan also shared his thoughts on how the duopoly of Google and Facebook affects the advertising supply chain of media properties and the challenges of journalism in the region.  

Simon Kemp, founder and CEO of Kepios joined us in a conversation on the global digital report 2019 and what it has installed for Asia Pacific in 2019. We start with the global trends of the report and zoomed it down to Asia Pacific, with the surprise that growth is still accelerating in the region particularly with India, the rise of Tik Tok by ByteDance and the hard truth that Facebook is not declining. We discuss whether there are new entrants in social media for Asia Pacific and the attitude towards privacy in the region as well.

Graham Brown, founder of Asia Tech Podcast and Pitchdeck Asia TV joined us in a conversation about his current focus in the podcasting and video media business and his thoughts on the recent major announcements that shook the podcasting world and its impact to Asia Pacific. We first dived into his background and how he has decided to go into the podcasting business. We discuss the Asia Tech Podcast and its intended audience, and how he focused on the storytelling aspect of his media business. Last but not least, Graham discuss the general market trends for podcasting in Asia Pacific, and where it will be heading in the next 3-5 years.

Joyce Yang from Global Coin Research joined us in a discussion to review Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally, its rapid rise and current lead in the industry. We began the chronological history of the company and  how the founders Zhao Changpeng and He Yi built up the cryptocurrency exchange from 2017 to now the leading player with 40% of the market share globally. We discuss their current business footprint, their current projects from the stable coin project to the recent announcement of the Binance chain.

James Chau, news anchor and editor at China-US Focus and World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador, joined us to discuss the current China and US relationship. We began with his background as a news anchor with Hong Kong TVB, BBC and CGTN (former CCTV news) and discuss his insights from his recent conversation with former US President Jimmy Carter. We dived deeper into the China and US relationship starting from 1979 and discuss how the escalating trade skirmishes between both countries might push them towards a trade war. Last but not least, we hear his perspectives on the recent detention of Huawei's CFO and the potential implications to world politics upon the calibration of US and China relationship based on the current trade talks. 

Matt Harty, senior vice president of Asia Pacific for The Trade Desk, joined us to discuss the footprint of the programmatic advertising company and the major trends on digital advertising across Asia Pacific. From the start, Matt introduces the concept of programmatic advertising and explains how The Trade Desk works with their customers and expands their business offerings across Asia Pacific. We dived deeper in the importance of brand safety in programmatic advertising, the key trends in digital advertising in Asia Pacific and whether humans or AI should decide what we want to advertise in the future.

Molly Shea, general manager of Asia Pacific from Western Union joined us to discuss the business and distribution footprint of the company across Asia Pacific. We begin the conversation with Molly's career story, and subsequently leading into the discussion on Western Union's focus on digital services and geographic expansion in Asia Pacific. Last but not least, Molly shared her perspectives and thoughts on the current trends in the fintech space, for example, the current super apps trends from China to Asia and how Western Union are experimenting with blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies.  

Matthew Brennan, co-founder of China Channel and host of China Tech Talk, closes the Bytedance trilogy of Toutiao and Douyin with the Bytedance Group. We discuss the mission and vision of the Bytedance Group, an artificial intelligence technology company and where they are after raising US$3B from SoftBank recently. We discuss the product portfolio of Bytedance beyond Toutiao and Douyin, their business model of advertising which drives high profitability and why they are poised to take on Facebook in a global scale.

John Artman, editor in chief from Technode of host of China Tech Talk, joined us in a conversation to discuss three different and interesting stories from China entrepreneurial space and align them in the underlying theme of explaining what numbers and narratives can mean in China. We began with the bike rental startups collapse, followed by the Mafengwo scandal and finally the recent leaked financials from Luckin Coffee into the open. Through the lenses of these three stories, we discuss how we need to understand and adjust our expectations to the future of China's economic growth.

Parag Khanna, futurist, TED speaker and founder of Futuremap, joined us to discuss his book "The Future is Asian". We kick off the conversation on the main themes of the book, and taking the Asian perspective on how we should look at world history. We discuss the geopolitical landscape of Asia, and why China's Belt and Road Initiative will not led to a bi-polar world but will shift the rest of Asia towards independence and have the ability to assert their identity in the next century. Last but not least, Parag shared his advice for those out there who might want to come to Asia and why the future is truly Asian.

Charles Reed Anderson, founder of Charles Reed Anderson and associates joined us to discuss the state of proptech in Asia Pacific. Charles break down the real estate supply chain and discuss the key trends which are disrupting the real estate industry. We discuss how user experience and business model disruption are driving the current innovations in proptech such as Wework and how the traditional real estate players such as CBRE and Jones LaSalle are tackling these challenges ahead. Last but not least, Charles explained why the Asian counterparts in multi-national real estate companies are driving more innovation in proptech as compared to their US and European counterparts.