Top 10 Digital Disruptors in Asia

WRITTEN BY WILLIAM SMITH

Business Chief examines 10 of the most innovative companies using technology to shake up their respective industries across Asia.

10 Razer

GAMING & ESPORT

Founded in 2005, gaming hardware and esports company Razerhas ridden the wave of money introduced into the industry tobecome a tech unicorn. Goldman Sachs expects the esportsmarket to be worth $3bn by 2022 (up from $869mn in 2018), andRazer is a big name in the scene thanks to its gaming-orientedperipherals such as mice and keyboards. In recent years, it hasbranched out into other forms of hardware, including phones andlaptops, targeted towards its key gaming demographic.

09 Megvii

TECHNOLOGY

Less publicly prominent than some of the companies on this list,Chinese AI company Megvii is nevertheless a cause of significantdisruption thanks to its facial recognition technology. In August, thecompany filed for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stockexchange. The company’s services have been employed by the likesof Alibaba, Ant Financial and the Chinese government. Of particularnote is the company’s Face++ product, an open platform for imagerecognition of faces and bodies.

08 Ola

TRANSPORTATION

Ola was founded in Mumbai, India in 2011. Like other ride-hailingapps, it has branched out into the food delivery market, acquiringthe Indian business of Foodpanda in 2017. In June, the company’selectric mobility business received $250mn of funding fromJapanese conglomerate and serial investor SoftBank. The pastyear has seen the company’s ride-hailing business expand outsideof India, opening offices in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

07 Lazada

ECOMMERCE

Lazada is an interesting proposition due to its history and meteoricrise. Founded in 2012 by German startup studio Rocket Internet, thecompany sought to exploit the at that time underdevelopedecommerce market in Southeast Asia. It’s an approach that drewdividends, with significant investment from Singapore’s TemasekHoldings in 2014 preceding the acquisition of a majority stake byChinese giant Alibaba Group in 2016.

06 EHang

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Chinese drone manufacturer EHang is a frontrunner in the urban airmobility space, a key future trend that the world’s largest companies,like Airbus, are investigating. EHang’s autonomous aerial vehiclescome in different configurations, such as the passenger-gradeEHang 216 which can carry 220kg and fly at over 80mph, or thecargo carrying EHang Falcon. Passenger carrying demonstrationshave already taken place in cities across China, including EHang’shome city of Guangzhou.

05 Gojek

TRANSPORTATION

According to Indonesian ride-hailing firm Gojek, since its launch in2015 its app has been downloaded by over 155mn users in SoutheastAsia. From the time of its founding, Gojek has expanded its remit intodigital payments and the provision of many other amenities as partof a so-called ‘super app’. To these ends, the company partners withover 2mn drivers and 500,000 merchants in the region.

04 Grab

TRANSPORTATION

Originally a ride-hailing firm, Singapore’s Grab is rapidly introducingnew services. Aside from its primary ride-hailing business, Grab, likeits rival Gojek, has expanded into digital payments as well as foodand parcel delivery, to name just a few of the services on offer. Setup as a regional spin on Uber’s business model in 2012, in 2018 Grabacquired its inspiration’s operations in Southeast Asia.

03 DiDi

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation company DiDi was founded by an alumnus of Chineseecommerce giant Alibaba, Cheng Wei. Originally backed by Tencent,in 2015 it merged with its biggest Alibaba backed rival, Kuaidi. Suchwas its dominance of the Chinese market that it bought out Uber’sChinese business. Expanding beyond its original ride-hailing remit,the company has branched out into areas such as robotaxis, whereit is planning to test its fleet of autonomous vehicles on the streets ofShanghai imminently.

02 Paytm

FINANCIAL

Financial services company Paytmoperates across multiple sectors, incorporatingbill payment, travel bookingand mobile recharges. Catering to theIndian market, its payment system allowsmerchants to offer customers the simplepayment option of scanning a QR codewith their phones, moving money fromsources such as bank accounts, prepaidcards and digital credit. A recentdevelopment has seen the processstreamlined, with the ability for paymentsup to a certain amount to be made withouthaving to use a one time passcodesent via text.

01 ByteDance

SOCIAL MEDIA

Anyone under a certain age will befamiliar with ByteDance, albeit indirectly,thanks to its TikTok social mediaapp. Born out of its Douyin productfor the Chinese market, TikTok allowsusers to create short looping videos,with the format being ripe for producingviral hits. The app was combined withvideo lip-syncing app Musical.ly afteran acquisition in 2017, and is in manyways a successor to the now defunctTwitter-owned Vine, which pioneeredthe format.