𧨠The crypto hunt
The manhunt begins for Do Kwon, Amazon fails to sparkle in SEA, and Apple gets rid of yet another feature!
Hello everyone! đ
Welcome back to yet another edition of Inspace! Itâs a beautiful Thursday morning and weâre already more than halfway through the week!
đ This week, we found some juicy and exciting things happening in our space:
The law has caught up with Do Kwon
Apple and its latest shenanigans
Amazon canât seem to succeed in Southeast Asia
What Happened This Week In Asia?
3 business, tech, and startup stories in 180 super short seconds.
The Hunt For The Founder
So what happened?
The law is finally catching up with Do Kwon, after a court in South Korea issued an arrest warrant for the founder and five other individuals of the Terraform Labs cryptocurrency ecosystem, whose implosion earlier this year sparked a global crypto rout.
The warrant comes four months after the collapse of the $40 billion Terra ecosystem and its algorithmic stablecoin (UST), which was the first domino to fall in this year's crypto winter. The contagion that followed caused an industry-wide fallout, with companies like Celsius Network and Voyager Digital filing for bankruptcy as the value of digital assets slumped by more than 50% from their respective highs.
Singapore-based hedge fund Three Arrows Capital became the latest entity to file for bankruptcy after the extent of its exposure to the Terra ecosystem was exposed. The implosion of Three Arrows left a trail of devastation and bad debt across the crypto industry, with billions being owed to creditors.
The key takeaway
After months of unresolved issues, the time has finally come for Do Kwon to face the music. Or should I say, the investors?
No More Sims
So what happened?
There's a new hidden cost on top of the US$799 price tag for the new Apple iPhone 14, at least for those who want to travel around the world.
While going over all the new features in the iPhone 14 lineup on Wednesday, Apple snuck in a little detail that was easy to miss: These new phones won't come with physical SIM card trays anymore â well, not in the United States. Going forward, you'll have to rely entirely on eSim, which is affixed to a phone's motherboard and can't be physically removed. Thatâs right, buying a local SIM card when youâre overseas will no longer be so easy.
The key takeaway
Maybe this is another way to make the new iPhones slimmer and sleeker, but for some customers, it could also be a new nightmare, even more so than removing the headphone jack was six years ago. Donât worry, if youâre not from America, youâre safe â at least for now.
The Struggling Giant
So what happened?
To say that American tech giant Amazon has quite the reputation in the world of e-commerce is a bit of an understatement. Noticeably, however, Amazon is not within the top few e-commerce platforms in Singapore or in SEA. So why has Amazon found success for its e-commerce operations elsewhere, but not here?
As it turns out, e-commerce platforms in SEA have adapted to the needs of local consumers, and platforms are combining online shopping with entertainment to give consumers âshoppertainmentâ.
According to research by social media platform TikTok and Boston Consulting Group, shoppertainment could uncover US$1 trillion in market value for brands in the Asia Pacific region by 2025.
Lazada and Shopee also offer livestreaming features, with sellers and brands that have participated in ShopeeLive reporting sales increases by up to 75 per cent.
By contrast, Amazon seems to have missed the boat on such features for sellers to gain access to customers â at least for SEA.
Amazon shoppers and vendors in SEA have no access to Amazonâs live streaming platform Amazon Live, and what small platform they have is small when compared to what Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms have built.
For all the products that Amazon has to offer, Amazon Live garners less than a thousand active viewers on a regular day.Â
Amazon has also built up a bad rep among vendors, and failed to properly integrate up and coming trends in the e-commerce space.Â
The key takeaway
Southeast Asian e-commerce is unique, and Amazon should not be put on a pedestal just because of its scale. On the contrary, Amazon seems to have quite a bit to learn from SEA on how to treat its vendors, and how to adapt to changing times. Â
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