Fresh out of the studio, Scott Beaumont, President Asia Pacific from Google joined us for an interesting conversation on why, what and how it takes to connect the next 2.5 billion people online in Asia. He discuss how COVID-19 has accelerated the digital adoption in Asia Pacific and broke down the key opportunities on how entrepreneurs can innovate and build their start-ups on the dynamics in the region. Last but not least, Scott offers his perspectives on the emerging technology trends and where they are heading from AI to quantum computing.

"If we're going to create equitable progress throughout Asia, then we need to make sure that everybody's got access to that technology. The demographics in Asia are astonishing.  Since COVID began, so 2019, in the last two years, we've seen about 217 million people come online for the first time, so a whole new Indonesia which is really quite remarkable.  What we want to do is make sure that they've got access to that technology, that they know how to use it, and that the products and services that they can leverage are meaningful to them." - Scott Beaumont

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian

Analyse Asia Podcast

Connecting the Next 2.5 Billion with Scott Beaumont

"The way we've designed our strategy in the way of the businesses that we need to create sustainable value, and we need to do something good for the communities and the markets that we operate in. That is the best way to create shareholder value." - Bjarke Mikkelsen

Fresh out of the studio, Bjarke Mikkelsen, CEO and founder of Daraz, joined us to discuss the origins of the e-commerce marketplace and the key trends on technology and business across South Asia in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bjarke shed light on the backstory on how Daraz was eventually acquired and fully owned by Alibaba Group. Last but not least, he shared his perspectives on the business trends in South Asia and explained how the businesses in region is poised to grow along with Daraz.

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong and Carol Yin. Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Daraz & the growth in South Asia with Bjarke Mikkelsen

"So I think from a market perspective, Southeast Asia is still in its early stages. We probably do not have that much of that to have so many stable coins. End of the day circulation and liquidity is everything. So the one that is pretty much have the most adoption and since the circulating and support will be the one that most, probably 90% of everything will happen at." - Liu Tianwei

Fresh out of the studio, Liu Tianwei, CEO and co-founder of Xfers, sit down for a discussion on the origin story of Xfers and shares the backstory in how the company has managed to launch their StraitsX exchange with the first stable coin XSGD in Southeast Asia. Tianwei dived deep into the weeds in how the team put together the white paper from concept to launch with key applications in DeFi and worked with the regulators and partners to launch the stable coin into action. Last but not least, he shared his perspectives on the ongoing convergence between cryptocurrency and fintech.

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong) and Carol Yin (@CarolYujiaYin). Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Run it" by DJ Snake, Rick Ross and Rich Brian and the episode is edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

Xfers and the launch of StraitsX XSGD with Liu Tianwei

"I think one of the things that TSMC does is that they tend to hit their targets. When they say they're gonna build something, they're gonna do something, they do it. I think that when you contrast that with other companies in the industry like for example, a particular company in America that says and sets a certain deadline and misses it repeatedly, that affects your credibility. TSMC has always said that they're gonna hit a certain number. It's like a pretty good chance that they'll hit it." - Jon Y &nbsp; Fresh out of the studio, Jon Y, the founder of Asianometry joined us to discuss TSMC and the global chip shortage happening across the world. Jon Y began the conversation with an overview of the semiconductors industry with the different key players in the space from SMIC in China to Samsung in Korea. Then he dived deep into TSMC and explained why it is hard to replicate the semiconductor foundry to other parts of the world and their competitive advantage in the market. Last but not least, he examined the end of Moore's law and the future of the semiconductor industry. 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong and Carol Yin. Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited by Geoffrey Thomas Craig.

TSMC & Global Chip Shortage with Jon Y

"What we did instead is we did not. The market rallied. We were just clouded in our judgment and we were not scaling the firm the way we should have. So that was probably one big one. The other one was after the liquidation I should have just had blinders on to the media and focused on creditors only and probably just had a round table and said these are what I think the options are. What do you think the options are? And if that were the case I think we probably wouldn't be in bankruptcy. We would've found one of the solutions that I just mentioned." - Kyle Davies 

Fresh out of the studio, Kyle Davies, co-founder of 3 Arrows Capital aka 3AC, joined us in a discussion to discuss their firm's demise in June 2022 and its aftermath after filing Chapter 15 bankruptcy. He explained why and how the firm's thesis on the crypto super cycle failed with the Luna-Terra collapse and offered his thoughts on the current meltdown of the crypto markets amid the ongoing meltdown. Last but not least, he offered his responses to several allegations and why he challenged the hosts of "On the Brink" podcast on a debate about BlockFi and his perspectives on the current state of crypto post-FTX-collapse. 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong and Carol Yin. Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited for both audio and video formats by G Thomas Craig. For the first time, we have this episode recorded in video format. 

Our host Bernard Leong's disclosure and excerpts on the opening for this podcast: "Welcome to Analyse Asia, the premiere podcast dedicated to dissecting the pulse of business, technology, and media in Asia. I am Bernard Leong and today’s conversation totally deviates from my usual format. ... Under normal circumstances, I would have them dig into their investment thesis, career highlights, and how they are helping the crypto ecosystem. But today we will (mostly) focus on the demise of 3AC from Kyle’s point of view. One quick disclaimer before we start: I am a web3 investor and retail crypto investor but I do not have any business dealings with Su or Kyle or 3AC. I have my own opinions on the recent crypto crash & the players involved but I won't be sharing my perspectives today. The aim is to let Kyle share his story from his perspective and let the audience decide for themselves. Of course, everything that we discuss here does not constitute investment advice but for informational purposes only, so do your own research (DYOR). ... "

The 3AC Demise with Kyle Davies

"If you look at over 30 years, China equities have returned zero, basically gone up and gone back down to where it was 30 years ago. &nbsp;It was shocking. So the other thing that is hard to believe, I think we're entering a period of even greater uncertainty now than where we were six months to a year ago. Opening up is a huge gamble. the markets are rallying right now -- 'yay China is opening!' -- but at what cost?" - Shai Oster 

Fresh out of the studio, Shai Oster, Asia Bureau Chief from The Information, returned for the 5th time in a row for his annual review of China for the year 2022. Shai started the grading of his predictions last year and dive deeper into Sequoia China's current status, and potential tech IPOs of Chinese companies: Bytedance, Ant Financial and Didi. He examined how Apple and Tesla will navigate China in the midst of tensions between China and the United States. Last but not least, he gave his predictions on China tech for the year 2023. 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong and Carol Yin. Sound credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited only in audio format by G. Thomas Craig.

The State of China in 2022 with Shai Oster

"Yes FTX was a very large institutional player, Genesis whatever happens out there was a very large institutional player and so it'll take a lot of time for the fallout to fully play out. But just taking a step back and looking at the big picture, none of this has any impact on crypto's multi-year arc towards enabling innovation. Ethereum as a trustless, decentralized digital asset set on one layer is groundbreaking that nothing will change. Tokens as a form of capital creation is a paradigm shift for business formation. Nothing's gonna change that. And talented builders are still continuing to come into the system and soon their work and their labour will bear fruit." - Cosmo Jiang 

Fresh out of the studio, Cosmo Jiang, founder of Nova River and host of Liquid - Web3 investing podcast with Global Coin Research, joined us to break down the consequences of FTX's collapse and how it triggered the crisis for Digital Currency Group (DCG) with the potential insolvency of Genesis and its crown jewel, Grayscale. Cosmo shared his perspectives on how the crypto and web3 space will evolve and the potential backlash coming from the regulatory authorities in different countries. Last but not least, he offered an optimistic outlook on how the narratives for crypto and web3 will look in the future. 

Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong and Carol Yin. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by Thomas Geoffrey Craig.

Genesis' potential insolvency & FTX collapse with Cosmo Jiang

"So at the Asia Pacific level, this study looked at several countries. But you know, we looked at a country level because that's the information that our customers and partners are interested in - whether they're in the government sector or in the private sector. So the countries include Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and India. In the ASEAN space, the four countries I mentioned before - are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. So in this case, the first takeaway was that, again, digital fluency yields massive economic benefits. For example, those with advanced digital skills raised the Asia Pacific GDP by an estimated 934 billion. So it's pretty close to a trillion." - Emmanuel Pillai from Amazon Web Services 

Fresh out of the studio, Emmanuel Pillai, Head of Training and Certification from Amazon Web Services, ASEAN, joined us to share how companies can build a tech-savvy workforce from building their startups to digital transformation with enterprises. Emmanuel began with an overview of AWS training and certification in the Asia Pacific. Then he dived deep into the recent report on building a tech-savvy workforce with Gallup and explained how economies and companies benefitted economically with the implementation of training and certification initiatives targeting to uplift the digital workers with modern technologies from AI/ML to 5G. Last but not least, Emmanuel shared what great would look like for AWS training and certification in the Asia Pacific. Podcast Information: The show is hosted and produced by Bernard Leong and Carol Yin. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by Thomas G Craig.

Building a Tech-Savvy Workforce and AWS Training in Asia Pacific with Emmanuel Pillai

"If I were to summarize it, your job as a product manager is to deliver the right product to the right users, to solve the right problems at the right time. Now, your role is very contextual because you will focus on different parts of that statement, depending on the founders, the stage of life of the company, which industry it is and everything else. There are some core functional skill sets that you can't run away from, and you must have them. But I don't think there is a cookie-cutter template on what you must do to succeed in product management." - Isaac Tay 

Fresh out of the studio, Isaac Tay, VP of Product at Shopback shares his thoughts on how to be a product manager in a scale-up. Reflecting on his experiences as a co-founder in his former startup Honestbee, he offered his perspectives on the lessons he had learnt and what he could done differently. From there, he elucidates the concept of distance to understand how to align and work with teams across different cultures on building and developing products in different stages of maturity for a company. Isaac ties in his unique stint in stand-up comedy, revealing how it has influenced his professional life. Last but not least, Isaac shares what great would look like for product management in a scale-up. 

Audio Episode Highlights: 
[0:50] Quote of the Day #QOTD by Isaac Tay. 
[1:21] Introduction: Isaac Tay, VP of Product at Shopback. 
[7:40] Isaac's Adventure in Stand-Up Comedy and Travel. 
[9:10] Lessons from Isaac Tay’s career journey. 
[10:34] Founding, Evolution, and Collapse of Honestbee. 
[15:26] What could you have done differently with Honestbee? 
[18:15] Navigating the complexities of product management. 
[25:06] Product Management in different stages of a company. 
[30:23] Refining Product Strategy in a Fast-Paced Environment. 
[33:06] Advice for Aspiring Product Managers. 
[34:00] Essential Skills for Aspiring Product Managers. 
[35:18] The Importance of Technical Skills in Product Management. 
[38:33] The Role of Distance in Product Management. 
[39:40] Understanding and Managing Different Types of Distance. 
[44:37] The Challenge of Remote Work and Communication. 
[48:06] Evolving Leadership Styles and Building Cohesive Teams. 
[54:16] Balancing Professional Growth with Personal Interests. 
[59:29] Insights on Great Product Management and Leadership. 
[61:00] Closing. 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig. 

You can find Isaac on his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaactimothyt/ and X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/isaacttsg and more on him here: https://www.isaactay.com/about/ 

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia 
Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 
Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 
Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia 
Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/ 
Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia 
Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia 
Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup 
Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

Product Management in a Scale-Up with Isaac Tay

Fresh out of the studio, Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s VP of Content for the Asia Pacific (excluding India), shared her perspectives on how Netflix work with content creators across the Asia Pacific region and brings them to a global audience. In the same conversation, Minyoung discussed the importance of cultural adaptation and localization and provided behind-the-scenes insights into how the Squid Game became a global phenomenon starting from their focus on the Korean audience. Minyoung also addressed challenges faced by Asian content creators, offered her advice for aspiring filmmakers who want to collaborate with Netflix, and shared her thoughts on what great would look like for Netflix in the Asia Pacific. 

"The most important lesson that I have learned is to really know your audience. You need to really understand your audience, and what they want because oftentimes the content executives make a mistake of programming for themselves rather than the audience. And I actually went through the exact same mistake when I first started, because I believed what I like is what audience like. So I think that's like the number one rule, really trying to understand the audience. That is number one. And as an individual, for me. I don't think it's only in Asia. I think globally building a relationship is really important. But trying to develop a relationship for the sake of a relationship never lands well. You can never, utilize the relationship. You build a relationship through great work and you build a relationship not only to get what you need but also to be able to say 'no' when necessary." - Minyoung Kim

Audio Episode Highlights: 
[0:45] Quote of the Day by Minyoung Kim from Netflix #QOTD
[1:41] Introduction: Minyoung Kim, Netflix’s VP of Content, APAC excluding India
[5:34] Minyoung Kim’s lessons from her career journey.
[7:15] Overview of Netflix, its global vision and mission.
[10:28] The footprint of Netflix in the Asia Pacific.
[13:41] How Netflix brings Asian content from a local audience to a global one.
[15:02] The decision behind Squid Game and how it resonates with the Korean audience.
[16:59] The ingredients of a local show that might become a global success on Netflix.
[19:02] Challenges for Asian content creators.
[21:31] The importance of cultural adaptation and localization for the Asia Pacific.
[23:03] Netflix has conditioned the audience to watch in the original version rather than dubbing.
[25:55] Green light rigour at Netflix.
[27:28] Future of Asian content and Netflix’s role in shaping the landscape.
[29:41] Advice to aspiring creators and filmmakers in Asia who want to collaborate with Netflix.
[31:18] Trends in the Asian content market.
[33:12] What does great look like for Netflix in the Asia Pacific region.
[34:24] Closing.

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia 

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup 

Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

#netflix #contentcreator #squidgame #mediaproduction

How Netflix brought Asian Content to the Global Audience with Minyoung Kim

"Temu was launched in the US, their first market in September 2022. That is when Shein just started to gain a lot of traction. There's a lot of attention being paid to Shein. In the beginning, many people thought that Temu was a copycat of Shein because they both sold goods from China using this direct-from-China shipping model. However, I think the competition has evolved quite differently now, and Temu has done business and operational innovation that has made others, including Shein, have to catch up." - Jing Yang 

Fresh out of the studio, Jing Yang, the Asia Bureau Chief from The Information shares the ongoing e-commerce war between Amazon and the upstarts: Shein and Temu across the global landscape. Starting from the origins of Shein and Temu, she explained how both companies first expanded to the US enabled by Amazon. Jing Yang breaks down how Temu gains total control over its suppliers and sellers and subsequently threatens Amazon's e-commerce dominance in the US market. Last but not least, she examined the fallout from the potential US ban on Shein and Temu from US lawmakers and the possibility of Shein's IPO in the US. 

Episode Highlights: [0:46] QOTD [1:27] Introduction: Jing Yang, Asia Bureau Chief from The Information [2:34] The surprise of Open AI not allowing ChatGPT to be in Hong Kong and China. [5:29] You need a China mobile number to access Chinese LLMs. [6:48] Introduction to Shein and Temu, the global e-commerce upstarts originating from China. [9:59] The elusive people behind Shein and Temu. [13:29] Shein’s current performance against H&amp;M, Zara, and Uniqlo. [18:12] How Authentic Brands (owner of Forever 21) made a partnership &amp; investment deal with Shein in the US. [23:09] How Temu maintains control over the supply chain in China. [31:23] Comparisons between Temu and Amazon from the seller to business models. [34:51] How Amazon enabled Shein and Temu to expand into the US. [35:38] Amazon’s realization of Temu’s threat and response. [36:58] Amazon’s response to Shein and Temu’s threats in the US market. [38:56] Temu is copying Amazon in the US with a local warehouse strategy and vice versa. [42:08] How Amazon vs Temu &amp; Shein shaped the global e-commerce landscape. [43:54] How reliant is Amazon on Chinese sellers and suppliers globally? [45:30] Why the US lawmakers are thinking about a ban on Temu. 


Podcast Information:&nbsp;Bernard Leong&nbsp;hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed &amp; edited in both video and audio format by&nbsp;G. Thomas Craig. 

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia 
Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 
Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 
Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia 

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/ 

Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia 

Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia 

Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Disrupting E-Commerce: How Shein and Temu are Challenging Amazon's Reign with Jing Yang

" Now, the beauty about the real estate industry, if you look outside and you look at the commercial buildings, you have a lot of data generated on a daily basis. The challenge is, what do you do with this data? How do you mine this data in a smart way to give you better investment decisions going forward [or] better decisions on how you run the building? Where are the opportunities to reduce your expenses? On the climate side, how do you reduce your operational carbon? How do you make those buildings better? I think that here, Gen AI, can help big time, because any solution that will mine this data smartly and will create a result, an output, that end users and owners can use to their advantage.” - Ariel Shtarkman 

Fresh out of the studio, Ariel Shtarkman, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Undivided Ventures, joins us to share the mission and vision of Undivided Ventures and how the fund is driving innovation at the intersection of sustainability, PropTech, and construction technology. Beginning with her origin story, Ariel reflected on her journey from real estate private equity in New York to becoming a venture capitalist championing sustainable technologies in Asia. She elaborated on Undivided Ventures’ investment thesis, focusing on scaling sustainability-driven innovations in the built environment and shared key portfolio highlights, including successful investments like Structure Pal. Ariel also explored the transformative potential of generative AI, robotics, and data centers in addressing challenges in real estate and construction. Last but not least, she offered her insights on navigating fundraising in a challenging venture capital landscape and painted a compelling vision of what great looks like for Undivided Ventures. 

Audio Episode Highlights: [00:46] Quote of the Day: Ariel Shtarkman on data and AI in real estate. [01:40] Introduction: Ariel Shtarkman, Managing Partner at Undivided Ventures. [04:23] How she co-founded Undivided Ventures with Alex. [06:08] Lessons from her career journey. [08:06] Overview of Undivided Ventures and its investment thesis. [10:33] Recent highlights of the fund’s portfolio. [12:46] Unique insights into Undivided Ventures’ investment approach. [14:59] Lessons learned from fundraising in challenging times. [17:28] Generative AI’s impact on PropTech and sustainability. [21:00] Case study: Structure Pal’s innovative approach in PropTech. [23:35] Traits of founders that attract investment. [27:19] Red flags in startups and founders. [29:24] Approach to valuation and avoiding overblown valuations. [31:19] Insights on data centers and how to think about data center technologies globally. [37:09] Robotics and their evolving role in construction. [39:12] The one question that Ariel wishes people would ask her more about Undivided Ventures. [41:18] What does great look like for Undivided Ventures over the next few years. [42:32] Closing. 

Profile: Ariel Shtarkman, co-founder and managing partner, Undivided Ventures: https://www.undivided.vc/about and LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-s-2850322/ 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast. 

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia 
Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 
Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 
Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia 
Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/ 
Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia 
Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia 
Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup

Undivided Ventures: AI, Sustainability & Data Centre Technologies with Ariel Shtarkman

"What's the point if it's a fast platform, but I still have to go somewhere else? And the last thing is speed. Right now, especially in our region, it's a land grab. When we think about some of the fastest-growing economies in the world—Indonesia, for example, Vietnam, the Philippines—you have hundreds of millions of people here. What we see in every customer I speak to is interest in how they use our platform to move faster, to deploy AI. They don't want to have to build a foundation level of AI, integrating all those elements themselves. They want to deploy it faster. When you think about our history, we have 250 petabytes of data being accessed by 150,000 customers every single day. When you take that set, we had to get this right. We had to because we have thousands of engineers focused on building these platforms so our customers don't have to—so they can deploy innovation and create truly unique and differentiated customer journeys." - Sujith Abraham 

Fresh out of the studio, Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN at Salesforce, joins us to explore how AgentForce 2.0 is transforming enterprise AI. He shares his journey from automotive engineering to tech leadership, reflecting on the rise of AI agents that move beyond chatbots to take real-world actions. Sujith explains how AgentForce 2.0 integrates across Salesforce products like Slack and Tableau, helping businesses automate sales, customer service, and marketing. He highlights how banks, airlines, and telcos in Southeast Asia are leveraging AI for growth, alongside Salesforce’s shift to a pay-as-you-go model for easier adoption. Addressing AI trust and governance, he underscores data privacy and enterprise-grade AI security. Closing the conversation, Sujith shares his vision for AI-driven customer engagement and what great looks like for Salesforce &amp; AgentForce 2.0 in ASEAN. 

Profile: Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN for Salesforce, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sujithabraham/ Audio 

Episode Highlights: [00:46] Quote of the day by Sujith Abraham [01:44] Introduction: Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN for Salesforce [02:22] Sujith’s Career Journey [03:51] Career Lessons from Sujith [05:26] What is Salesforce &amp; Its Mission? [08:27] Definition of Generative AI &amp; AI Agents in the context of enterprises [11:22] Introduction to AgentForce 2.0 [15:37] AI Across Salesforce Products [20:22] Enterprise AI Adoption &amp; Challenges [22:51] The Business Model of AgentForce [24:07] Industry Use Cases in Southeast Asia [25:47] AI Governance &amp; Trust at Salesforce [27:54] Choosing the Right Large Language Model (LLM) [28:55] Advice for Business Leaders on AI Adoption [30:60] The One Thing Sujith Knows About Salesforce &amp; AgentForce in ASEAN That Very Few Do [32:48] The One Question Sujith Wants More People to Ask: Why Salesforce? [34:45] What Does Great Look Like for Salesforce? [37:05] Closing 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast. 
Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia 
Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 
Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 
Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia 
Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/
Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia 
Analyse Asia Threads: https://www.threads.net/@analyseasia 
Sign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup 
Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

How Agentforce is Transforming Businesses in ASEAN with Sujith Abraham

"We're all vulnerable. And I hadn't thought about that previously. I thought, oh, it's only a small group of people who might fall for this. What I've learned is actually [that] these scammers are so sophisticated. They have so much money. Based on my reporting, this industry, you know, is maybe more lucrative than the illicit drug trade, and these criminal syndicates might be making over 500 billion US dollars a year.  So that means they have access to the latest technology, whether it's voice cloning or face changing software. They can buy  the latest in AI tools. they can stay several steps ahead of most law enforcement organizations in most places in the world, and, you know, re-invest in their businesses, because that's how they view what they're doing. They just see this as a business line, and they want to make a profit. That's why we called the podcast Scam Inc, because I think the way to understand what we're seeing is that this is an industry and everyone's driven by profits. So the fact that the criminals have so much money makes it really difficult for governments, police or international organizations or banks or crypto exchanges or social media companies to tackle this huge and growing problem." - Sue-Lin Wong 

Fresh out of the studio, Sue-Lin Wong, Southeast Asia Correspondent for The Economist, joins us to uncover the dark world of online scams and how they’ve evolved into a $500 billion global crime industry. She shares her investigative journey behind Scam Inc., her latest podcast series, revealing how cybercriminal syndicates operate like multinational corporations—leveraging AI, crypto, and human trafficking to fuel their scams. Sue-Lin explains why Southeast Asia has become a hub for these illicit operations, the psychological manipulation that makes anyone vulnerable, and the deep-rooted connections between scamming, money laundering, and political corruption. We discuss the Kansas bank collapse, the rise of pig butchering scams, and how law enforcement struggles to keep up with decentralized criminal networks. Closing the conversation, Sue-Lin highlights what individuals, governments, and financial institutions must do to fight back against the next wave of AI-powered fraud. 

Audio Episode Highlights: [00:00:46] – Opening Quote by Wong Sue-Lin #QOTD [00:02:12] – Bernard’s Introduction &amp; Podcast Overview [00:03:09] – Sue-Lin’s Journalism Journey: From Reuters to The Economist [00:05:58] – The Birth of Scam Inc.: Investigating the Industry [00:07:16] – The Changing Face of Crime: The ‘Gig Economy’ of Scamming [00:10:13] – The Meaning of ‘Pig Butchering’ Scams &amp; Their Chinese Origins [00:14:34] – How COVID-19 Turned Scams Into a Global Epidemic [00:16:33] – Inside Scam Compounds: The Story of Rita from the Philippines [00:21:15] – The Alice Guo Scandal: Political Corruption &amp; Scams in the Philippines [00:25:33] – How Scammers Launder Billions &amp; The Role of Crypto [00:30:14] – Why Crypto Isn’t as Anonymous as Criminals Think [00:35:46] – AI-Driven Scams: The Next Frontier of Cybercrime [00:42:10] – Solutions: What Governments &amp; Companies Must Do [00:44:46] – How Individuals Can Protect Themselves [00:50:46] – Closing. 

Profile: Sue-Lin Wong, Southeast Asia Correspondent, The Economist LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suelinwong/ , Host of "Scam Inc" podcast series by The Economist: https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc [Subscription Required]. Picture Credits in Marketing Image: Logo from The Economist Podcasts. 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast. 
Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Scam Inc: How a $500B Crime Industry is Impacting the World with Sue-Lin Wong

Jeffrey Paine, founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures and director of the Founder Institute (FI), Singapore sits down with us to discuss the story behind Founder Institute in Asia and the state of venture capital in Southeast Asia. He start his story from the days of he first built the institute in Singapore and subsequently expanding to other parts of Asia. We also discuss the state of venture capital in Southeast Asia, and whether the ongoing large valuations are leading towards a bubble in the region. 

Episode 29  Founder Institute & Venture Capital in Southeast Asia With Jeff Paine

Fresh out of the studio, Patrick McGee, San Francisco correspondent for the Financial Times and author of "Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company" joined us in a conversation to unravel the extraordinary story of how the world's most valuable company became inextricably entangled with China. Patrick shared the backstory behind Apple's century-defining Faustian bargain and progressed through how he uncovered the untold story of Asia's contract manufacturing history through Apple's supply chain point of view. He unpacks the famous "Apple Squeeze" philosophy of paying suppliers minimally while providing invaluable training, and shares fascinating stories from characters like the ruthless negotiator Tony Blevins to the tragic figure of Jackie Haynes. Throughout the conversation, Patrick demonstrates how Apple inadvertently created China's contract manufacturing capabilities and explains why the company's current attempts to diversify to India face insurmountable cultural and political barriers. Last but not least, he argues that Apple's very success in China has become its greatest vulnerability, trapped in a relationship where going too fast risks Beijing's ire, while going too slow means remaining stuck in an increasingly untenable position.

"I quote a study that looked at  84 countries in terms of internal migration and India was dead last. That's not a knock against the culture. It's just not part of the culture that young women in particular leave home at 17, go to the other side of the country and work in a factory. You don't have that. So what's the phrase: Culture eats strategy for breakfast.  Apple might have a plan, but  like good luck upending 5,000 years of Indian culture to make it happen." - Patrick McGee, author of "Apple in China"

Episode Highlights
[00:03] Quote of the Day by Patrick McGee
[01:00] Introduction: Patrick McGee, author of "Apple in China"
[03:12] Lessons from Patrick's Career Journey
[05:13] March 15, 2013: Xi Jinping's political awakening - Apple's first "oh shit moment" in China, just 12 hours after his inauguration
[10:25] Apple's manufacturing DNA - why they control supply chains differently than other tech companies
[12:09] The secret pyramid: ID → PD → MD - how Apple's industrial design gets translated into manufacturing reality
[16:11] Terry Gou's legendary call: "I can fix this" - the moment Foxconn became Apple's key manufacturing partner
[19:38] OEM vs ODM strategy: Why Terry Gou chose to never compete with clients, focusing on vertical integration instead
[25:00] Tony Blevins' ruthless negotiations: "We don't have time for you to read the contract. You just need to sign it now"
[26:45] The "Apple Squeeze" revealed: "We won't pay you much, but the experience will be invaluable"
[28:27] Staggering impact: Apple trained 28 million people - greater than California's labor force, 6x Singapore's population
[34:03] The Gang of Eight: Apple's first senior team living in China to navigate political pressures
[41:45] Chinese dominance: Huawei, Xiaomi, and others now control 55% of global smartphone market share
[48:08] Apple's double whammy: Supply Chain locked in China and TSMC
[52:37] Apple's impossible balancing act in India: "Go too fast, risk Beijing's ire. Go too slow, remain stuck"
[53:11] Jackie Haynes tragedy: Apple's failed attempt to improve worker conditions caught between operational demands and Xi Jinping's crackdown
[57:09] Closing

Profile: Patrick McGee, Author of "Apple in China": https://appleinchina.com and San Francisco correspondent for Financial Times
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prmcgee/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.

How Apple Accidentally Built China's Tech Superpower and Can't Escape with Patrick McGee

Fresh out of the studio, Sabastian Niles, President and Chief Legal Officer at Salesforce Global, joins us to explore how trust and responsibility shape the future of enterprise AI. He shares his journey from being a high-tech corporate lawyer and trusted advisor to leading AI governance at a company whose number one value is trust, reflecting on the evolution from automation to agentic AI that can reason, plan, and execute tasks alongside humans. Sabastian explains how Agentforce 3.0 enables agent-to-agent interactions and human-AI collaboration through command centers and robust guardrails. He highlights how organizations are leveraging trusted AI for personalized customer experiences, while Salesforce's Office of Ethical and Humane Use operationalizes trust through transparency, explainability, and auditability. Addressing the black box problem in AI, he emphasizes that guardrails provide confidence to move faster rather than creating barriers. Closing the conversation, Sabastian shares his vision on what great looks like for trusted agentic AI at scale.

"You can try to develop self-awareness and take a beginner's mind in all things. This includes being open to feedback and truly listening, even when it might be hard to receive. I think that's been something I've really tried to practice. The other area is recognizing that just like a company or country, as humans we have many stakeholders. You may wear many hats in different ways. So as we think of the totality of your life over time, what's your portfolio of passions? How do you choose—as individuals, as society, as organizations, as humans and families with our loved ones and friends—to not just spend your time and resources, but really invest your time, resources, and spirit into areas, people, and contexts that bring you meaning and where you can build a legacy? So it's not so much advice, but more like a north star." - Sabastian V. Niles


Episode Highlights
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Sabastian Niles: "Portfolio of passions - invest your spirit into areas that bring meaning"
[01:02] Introduction: Sabastian Niles, President and Chief Legal Officer of Salesforce Global
[02:29] Sabastian's Career Journey
[04:50] From Trusted Advisor to SalesForce whose number one value is trust
[08:09] Salesforce's 5 core values: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality, Sustainability
[10:25] Defining Agentic AI: humans with AI agents driving stakeholder success together
[13:13] Trust paradigm shift: trusted approaches become an accelerant, not obstacle
[17:33] Agent interactions: not just human-to-agent, but agent-to-agent-to-agent handoffs
[23:35] Enterprise AI requires transparency, explainability, and auditability
[28:00] Trust philosophy: "begins long before prompt, continues after output"
[34:06] Office of Ethical and Humane Use operationalizes trust values
[40:00] Future vision: AI helps us spend time on uniquely human work
[45:17] Governance philosophy: Guardrails provide confidence to move faster
[48:24] What does great look like for Salesorce for Trust & Responsibility in the Era of AI?
[50:16] Closing

Profile: Sabastian V. Niles, President & Chief Legal Officer, Salesforce
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabastian-v-niles-b0175b2/

#salesforce #agentforce #responsibleai #trust #aigovernance 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.

Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia

Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 

Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 

Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Analys1eAsia

Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

The Future of AI Trust: Why Guardrails Actually Accelerate Innovation with Sabastian Niles

The Truth About China's Generative AI Revolution Nobody Talks About with Grace Shao

Fresh out of the studio, Associate Professor Jamus Lim from ESSEC Business School and author of "Asian Economies: History, Institutions and Structures" joined us in a comprehensive exploration of the economic foundations shaping Asia's remarkable rise. Jamus shared his story on how the Asian Financial Crisis sparked his passion for macroeconomics and development. He unpacked the critical yet often overlooked role of geography, history, and institutional frameworks in explaining Asia's immense economic diversity, arguing that abstract economic models fail to capture the real-world complexities driving regional development. Through deep dives into China's demographic transition and export-driven challenges, South Korea's state-led chaebol industrialization model, and Japan's historic shift from deflation to inflation, Jamus demonstrated how colonial legacies and historical persistence continue to shape modern economic structures across the continent. Throughout the conversation, he revealed why China's middle-income trap escape depends on building domestic consumption to absorb its massive manufacturing capacity, explained how institutional solutions that once solved problems can become growth constraints, and argued that understanding Asia's past is essential for navigating its economic future in an increasingly complex global landscape.

"The way that institutions emerge and entrench themselves and become a part of the functioning of an economy and society is because they solve some problems. So they're usually a non-market solution toward solving some problem that the economy, that the market system couldn't necessarily solve. Of course the most prominent example of an institution that solves an. Market problem in the non-market way is a firm, as Ronald Coase, of course very early on, taught us that. When a firm realizes that in some cases when transactions costs are high, you want to internalize things within the firm. That the firm is itself an institution. But these other social political institutions, they also exist to resolve some problem. And once they resolve that problem and they're resolving it adequately, then it becomes really hard to bring about change. So the institution solves a problem. So to be clear, it is better than in the absence of the institution, but it also means that without somehow breaking this institution or having some crisis that leads you to substantially reform the institution, you are going to be stuck at a suboptimal equilibrium." - Jamus Lim, author of "Asian Economies: History, Institutions and Structures"

Episode Highlights: 
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Jamus Lim
[02:27] Introduction: Jamus Lim, Associate Professor in ESSEC Business School and Author of Asian Economies
[04:38] Asian Financial Crisis sparks Jamus' macro economics interest
[07:38] Teaching in Asia reveals regional development contrasts
[09:10] Middle income trap challenges across Asian economies
[10:23] Defining Asia: beyond East Asia stereotypes
[15:10] How Geography and History are overlooked in economic discourse
[17:26] China's transformation: poverty to economic powerhouse
[24:28] Lewis turning point: China's labor transformation
[26:11] Housing boom and excess supply challenges
[29:10] Hukou system creates unequal access issues
[33:30] China shock: WTO entry transforms global manufacturing
[38:27] South Korea's state-led industrialization model success
[44:17] Japan's deflation to inflation transition challenges
[46:32] Structural adjustments in Japanese labor markets
[48:03] Institutional foundations: solving problems creates persistence
[54:04] Academic success vs. real-world policy impact
[55:00] Closing

Profile: Jamus Lim, Author of Asian Economies
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamuslim/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Asian Economies & Why Geography and History Matter More Than Economics Models with Jamus Lim

Fresh out of the studio, Craig Wiley, Senior Director of Product Management at Databricks who leads Mosaic AI, joins us to discuss the forefront of enterprise AI from model development to deployment at scale. Beginning with his career journey in ML operations, Craig explained how he recognized the critical connection between data and AI layers that could deliver order-of-magnitude acceleration in development cycles. Emphasizing the transition from classical ML operations to LLM operations, he showcased how Databricks' unified platform eliminates training-serving skew through data lineage capabilities and supports both fine-tuning and RAG approaches depending on industrial use case requirements. Highlighting compelling customer success stories including Suncorp's employee productivity platform and AstraZeneca's transformation of 400,000 clinical trial documents into queryable insights, Craig revealed a striking reality about enterprise AI evaluation - that 85% of AI use cases are being evaluated only by the engineers who built them, reinforcing that proper evaluation frameworks remain foundational for trustworthy AI implementation. He concluded by introducing Agent Bricks as Databricks' evaluation-centric approach to building production agents, emphasizing that model flexibility and rigorous testing are essential for enterprises moving from experimentation to production, while sharing his vision that the industry must evolve from the "year of agents" to the "year of evaluation and quality."

"85% of AI use cases are being evaluated by the engineer who built it saying, 'yep, seemed to work pretty well.' If you're gonna build a system that's going to be critical to the business, that's going to be important that it gets it right, then you can't do that without evaluations." - Craig Wiley

Episode Highlights: 
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Craig Wiley
[01:21] How Craig Wiley started his work in ML Ops that led him to Databricks
[02:43] Data and AI layer connection creates order-of-magnitude acceleration
[03:47] Mosaic AI acquisition expanded Gen AI solution capabilities
[04:38] Classical ML statistics versus Gen AI evaluation challenges
[05:48] Mosaic AI covers end-to-end from data ingestion
[07:12] Training-serving skew eliminated through unified platform lineage
[08:51] Fine tuning versus RAG depends on use case
[10:49] Industrial agents benefit from fine-tuned smaller models
[13:52] Agent Bricks prioritizes accuracy over simplicity alone
[15:44] Model flexibility crucial for speed and accuracy optimization
[17:59] Suncorp and AstraZeneca demonstrate diverse AI applications
[19:37] Asia Pacific shows aggressive AI adoption strategies
[22:00] 85% of AI cases evaluated only by building engineer
[24:12] Industry terminology evolves rapidly from RAG to agents
[25:39] Customer creativity with governance capabilities inspires product development

Profile: Craig Wiley, Senior Director of Product Management at Databricks and Mosaic AI
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigwiley/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.
Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia
Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl 
Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 
Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/


#dataaiworldtour #databricks #enterpriseai #retrievalaugmentedgeneration #agentbricks #evalsAI #evaluationAI #MLOps

Agent Bricks and How Data-AI Integration Changes Everything with Craig Wiley

Fresh out of the studio, Jing Yang, the Asia Bureau Chief from The Information, shares her insights on ByteDance's pivotal moment, China's venture capital challenges, and the emerging U.S.-China competition in AI and robotics. Starting with ByteDance's latest financials, she revealed how the company now exceeds Meta in revenue but still lags significantly in profit margins, with its domestic business—Douyin and Toutiao—continuing to drive the lion's share of profits while TikTok remains unprofitable. Jing Yang explains how founder Zhang Yiming has entered "founder mode," dramatically increasing CapEx spending on AI development while ByteDance mysteriously went quiet on the AI leaderboard despite earlier dominance. Moving to venture capital, she unpacks why HongShan Capital has only deployed a quarter of its $9 billion fund raised in 2022, citing the collapse of exit opportunities, new overseas listing regulations from Chinese regulators, and the disappearance of big-ticket growth deals. She then explores the new wave of Chinese AI startups targeting global markets from day one, explaining how censorship and geopolitics force founders to choose between building for China or building for the world—they cannot do both. Finally, Jing Yang breaks down China's non-obvious advantage in humanoid robotics: not manufacturing prowess, but access to advanced manufacturing test beds where robots can be deployed, iterated, and refined at scale—an advantage The U.S. simply cannot match beyond Tesla.

“I think this is a sort of coming-of-age moment. When I say coming of age, I mean collectively for Chinese entrepreneurs. Many of these founders are my age, or even younger, and I’ve spoken with some of them. I can really relate to why they want to build businesses that target the global market instead of just China. In the past, you could build a company in China first and then think about expanding outward. That’s no longer possible. For any consumer-facing software company today, from day one you must decide: Do I build for China, or do I build for Global minus China? The examples of TikTok, Shein, and many others show that you cannot do both. It’s not possible to serve both markets at once.” - Jing Yang

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Jing Yang from The Information
[02:14] ByteDance revenue exceeds Meta, profit lags
[05:01] Zhang Yiming goes founder mode with AI 
[08:24] TikTok's significance to ByteDance's future
[10:18] China signals willingness on TikTok deal
[13:02] Chinese tech giants pivots to semiconductors, hard tech
[14:27] ByteDance's quiet AI strategy and leadership
[19:11] Why HongShan, formerly Sequoia China deploys only quarter of $9B fund
[21:00] China VC market lacks big growth deals
[24:20] New overseas listing regulations hinder exits
[26:15] Chinese VCs struggle with US investments
[29:53] Chinese founders target global markets from day one
[32:20] What forces global versus China product split
[38:28] Chinese apps feel holistic but culturally distinct
[43:00] ChatGPT arrival sparked physical AI revolution
[47:23] Chinese AI companies prioritize commercial use cases over AGI
[50:13] China's manufacturing provides crucial test beds advantage
[53:42] Redefining what constitutes a Chinese startup
[54:55] AI race between Chinese in China vs US
[58:00] Closing

Profile: Jing Yang, Asia Bureau Chief from The Information
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jing-yang-33548123/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Why Data Streaming Is the Secret Weapon for AI Success with Kamal Brar

Fresh out of the studio, Yuying Deng, Co-founder and CEO of Esevel, shares her transformative journey from corporate lawyer to healthcare operator to tech entrepreneur with our guest host, Yana Fry from  @yanatvsg .  Yuying discusses how the pandemic's sudden shift to remote work in April 2020 revealed critical gaps in IT infrastructure for distributed teams, inspiring her to launch Esevel—a platform now serving companies across 88 countries. She reflects candidly on the hardest lesson from her first startup: the importance of listening to customer feedback rather than being defensive about her vision, a mistake she refuses to repeat. Yuying challenges the traditional HQ-centric worldview, advocating that "HQ should be a mindset, not a location," and shares how Esevel deliberately builds leadership opportunities for talented professionals regardless of whether they're based in Manila, Singapore, or São Paulo. Last but not least, Yuying shares what great would look like for Esevel's future: becoming the indispensable tool companies think of first when scaling global teams, while proving that talent and performance matter more than location.

"Many companies that say they do distributed and remote work actually still have a very HQ-centric worldview. That means leadership is in HQ, strategy is formed in HQ, and high-impact jobs are in the HQ as well. So when they hire remote and distributed teams. For example, in the Philippines, Brazil, and India they use these more as back-office functions. So you have very talented people who join them there, thinking that they could rise in a global company. But very soon they find that they hit a glass ceiling and are no longer able to advance, and so they move on to another firm. I think that’s a massive waste of talent, especially if you’re talking about here in Asia. This is the world’s fastest-growing region. People are ambitious, people are bright, and they are able to take on leadership positions if they’re given the opportunity to. This is one thing that we have really tried to reverse at Esevel. You do not have to be at HQ in order to rise into a leadership position. As long as you perform your job and perform it well, we look at performance more than location. So I think that is one thing that has to shift: HQ shouldn’t be a location. HQ should actually be a mindset. And I think that’s something that a lot of remote companies or distributed work companies have correct when it comes to that."

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Deng Yuying
[02:00] Introducing Yuying Deng, CEO of Esevel
[02:25] From lawyer to operator to founder
[03:32] MBA at INSEAD shaped entrepreneurial journey
[03:53] Built community care division for Orange Valley
[05:44] Esevel: IT operations platform for distributed teams
[07:56] Company DNA shaped by pandemic remote work
[10:16] Managing operations across 88 countries globally
[12:39] Failure is a feature, not a bug
[14:33] Operational complexity and doing boring work well
[16:35] Future of hybrid and remote work
[19:48] HQ should be a mindset not location
[21:25] Characteristics needed for remote work success
[22:40] Growth opportunities regardless of employee location
[26:14] Support network essential for founders
[29:31] Ethical principles learned from parents
[30:33] Vision for Esevel and family independence
[32:28] Partnership requires mutual support for success
[36:34] Legacy focused on happy, independent children

Profile: Yuying Deng, CEO of Esevel: https://esevel.com
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuyingdeng/

Guest Host: Yana Fry from Yana TV: @yanatvsg  
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanafry/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

How to Scale Global Teams Without an Office through Esevel with Deng Yuying

Fresh out of the studio, Ling Hai, President of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa at MasterCard, joins us to explore how payment networks are evolving to embrace stable coins, AI agents, and the future of digital commerce across diverse global markets. He shares his career journey from management consulting to retail banking and eventually to MasterCard. Ling Hai shares that MasterCard is a global technology company that creates interoperability and universal acceptance, with technology services like cybersecurity, data insights, and consulting increasingly contributing to revenue beyond traditional payment processing. He highlights compelling innovations from Asia Pacific leading the way, including Singapore's nationwide open loop transit system and MasterCard's approach to stable coins as settlement vehicles alongside traditional currencies, while emphasizing how the company bridges the DeFi universe with the physical merchant world through on-ramp and off-ramp solutions for crypto adoption in markets like Latin America. Closing the conversation, Ling Hai shares what great looks like for MasterCard to become the operating system of commerce and the digital economy.

“MasterCard, in the end, is a global technology company. We run a global network, and we’re very much a data company. So, in all of this, when we handle people’s money and when we handle people’s data, trust is the most important thing. If we lose that, we lose our business. For us, that trust factor is absolutely critical — it’s embedded in everything we do.As the world evolves, we’ve gone from handling payments in the physical world, to e-commerce in the digital world. Tomorrow, with AI, it’s going to be agentic — agents will be doing commerce for us. But the common thread across all of this is still safety, security, trust, and also ease of use.Today’s consumer doesn’t want to trade off between convenience and security — they want both. So when we think about our solutions and services, that’s part of our design thinking. We must ensure they are easy, convenient, safe, secure, and trusted by everyone.” - Ling Hai

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Ling Hai
[01:00] Introduction: Ling Hai
[03:00] Overview of Mastercard and balancing global consistency with localization
[06:00] MasterCard's vision: inclusive digital economy for everyone
[09:13] Open loop transit leading digital payment adoption
[11:14] Asia Pacific: most advanced multi-payment region globally
[14:03] MasterCard is a global technology company focused on trust.
[16:00] Stable coins create more use cases for MasterCard
[20:38] Two universes: DeFi and traditional finance will coexist
[21:07] Payment secret sauce: resolving disputes when things fail
[24:00] Stable coins stronger for B2B, wholesale settlement use
[25:38] Be at the table or you're on table
[29:00] AI enables personalization beyond one-size-fits-all marketing
[31:24] Agent commerce requires new rules and payment standards
[32:23] Tokenization and authentication: no regret moves for future
[34:16] MasterCard network supports real-time payments beyond cards
[35:00] What does great look like:: Operating system of commerce and digital economy
[36:00] Closing

Profile: Ling Hai, President of Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Mastercard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ling-hai-a7952ab8/

#mastercard #stablecoins #agenticai #payments #finance 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Mastercard and The Future of Money: Crypto, AI Agents & Digital Payments with Ling Hai

Fresh out of the studio and we hit our 500th episode milestone, guest host Yana Fry from Yana TV turns the tables on Bernard Leong, CEO of Dorje AI and host of Analyse Asia, in a special ask-me-anything format. We start with Bernard's journey from finding his first guest to navigating 11 years of podcasting, revealing his 12-word life philosophy: "Learn from everyone, follow no one, observe the patterns, work like hell." Following on, Bernard shares how his theoretical physics background provides the tools on everything from digital transformation to building Dorje AI's vision of reimagining ERP systems. The conversation dives deep into Bernard's pragmatic idealist worldview, product management philosophy and focus on the future. Bernard announces a major rebrand: Analyse Asia is dropping "Asia" to become the Analyse Podcast as it expands to a global audience, marking a new chapter in the show's evolution.

"For Dorje AI, what great looks like is being able to solve the ERP problem for businesses. It could take five years, ten years, or even two decades — because every technology adoption cycle takes time. We’re at the beginning of a massive shift, but many still cling to the old ways of doing things. The one thing I’ve learned about digital transformation is this: everyone loves transformation, but they hate to change. Everything that people say will happen in two years usually takes five.When I think about Analyse Asia, greatness for me is being able to do an interview without looking at a set of questions — to tease out a guest’s story authentically, without prejudice, without being a fanboy. Just getting the story out. If I can do that, that’s great. Of course, hitting a million subscribers would be fantastic — that’s the next milestone I’m chasing. But for me, it’s always: ‘I’ve reached this milestone — what’s next?’When you think about frugality at the highest level, it’s not about resources — it’s about time. The real measure is how much time you can spend doing what truly matters. That’s what great looks like for me: asking, what’s the minimum amount of time I can make the maximum impact? Maybe I’ll never fully get there. But if we can say we lived this life without regret — that’s enough." - Bernard Leong

Episode Highlights:[00:00] Quote of the Day by Bernard Leong[01:00] Introduction: Yana Fry (Guest Host) and Bernard Leong[02:05] Early Days of Analyse Asia Finding first guest was biggest initial challenge[04:30] Looking at Everything from a corporate executive like a theoretical physicist[06:23] Podcast interviews are combinations of science and art[08:19] Pragmatic idealist philosophy shapes Bernard's worldview[10:17] 12 Word Advice: Learn from Everyone, Follow No One, Observe the Patterns & Work like Hell[13:00] Dorje AI solving fundamental ERP ledger problems[16:15] Attacking competitors' strongest strength - Lessons of history from Kublai Khan[21:34] New is Easy and Right is Hard for Product Management[24:00] Audio to video was hardest podcast pivot[29:25] Japanese craftsman approach keeps Bernard going[33:09] Analyse Asia rebranding to Analyse Podcast globally[39:55] Father's 50-year loyalty shaped Bernard's management philosophy[44:00] Asia is diverse cities, not monolithic continent[46:00] Most problems aren't AI problems after questioning[51:00] What does Great Look Like for Dorje AI, Analyse Asia and Bernard Leong?[52:10] Closing

Profile: - Bernard Leong, Host of Analyse Asia Podcast, CEO of Dorje AI https://dorje.ai, Adjunct Associate Professor from NUS Business School & Institute of Systems Science. 
- Guest Host: Yana Fry from ⁠ @yanatvsg ⁠ which we highly recommend and subscribe to: https://www.youtube.com/@yanatvsgLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanafry/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

500 Episodes Later_ What I Learned From 11 Years of Podcasting with Bernard Leong

Fresh out of the studio, Ralph Haupter, President & CRO, Small Medium Enterprises and Channels at Microsoft, joins us to explore how Microsoft is empowering 400 million small and medium businesses globally across 56 counties through a partner-first strategy that combines platform standardization with deep specialization. He shares his career journey spanning over 20 years at Microsoft, from running Europe to leading Greater China, building Asia's geographical operations in Singapore, and eventually taking on global SME strategy. Ralph explains that Microsoft's unique advantage lies in being a platform company at its finest, offering a complete technology stack from productivity to infrastructure, security, and applications—all with core AI integration—while relying on a specialized partner ecosystem to deliver local expertise and support. He highlights how partners are creating entirely new business models on agentic AI while emphasizing the four critical partnership moments from transaction to ongoing support that most companies neglect. Closing the conversation, Ralph shares what great looks like for Microsoft. 

“The partner program for us is a place where we want to have expertise for our customers. The only way to make that happen is to standardize on portfolio and standardize on offering.If you don’t provide standardized offers — if the experience in Word, for example, is different in one country than in another — you can’t build an ecosystem that helps partners scale with expertise. I call that a platform company at its finest.We have the full assortment — from the productivity world to infrastructure, security, and applications. And if you’re a small or medium enterprise, the last thing you want is to have four meetings with four people, serving four different types of coffee to four different vendors, just to get a full-stack solution for your business.” - Ralph Haupter

Episode Highlights: 
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Ralph Haupter
[00:54] Ralph's 20+ year Microsoft career journey from Europe to China to Global
[02:19] Ralph's Experience in Microsoft Greater China
[04:24] Giving space to local country leaders
[06:16] Career advice: Get out of comfort zone
[08:02] Microsoft's 400 million SME customer opportunity
[11:00] AI accessibility for small business competitiveness
[13:09] Satya's vision: Empower every organization globally
[15:00] Microsoft as AI platform company strategy
[17:24] Standardization enables partner ecosystem at scale
[21:22] Security partners drive consultative innovation
[25:15] Full stack portfolio simplifies SME technology
[28:00] Training investment for partners and customers
[32:00] Four critical partnership moments: Sales to support
[35:00] Local partner presence matters by geography
[40:36] Scale requires clarity, simplicity, and standards
[42:36] Global Leadership Lessons: Learning from positive performance signal deviations
[45:22] Customers should ask partners for expertise
[47:34] What does Great Look Like for Microsoft SME & Channel Globally
[48:00] Closing

Profile: Ralph Haupter, President and CRO, Small Medium Enterprises and Channel (SME&C), Microsoft 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphhaupter/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Microsoft's Global Partner Strategy_ 400M Businesses & 1 Platform with Ralph Haupter

Sameer Singh, our first guest on the podcast, joined us to discuss all things business and technology from Alphabet to Uber. We began instead with an interview our host of the show, Bernard on his reflections on the first year of Analyse Asia to the future plans of the podcast including the upcoming launch of a new podcast entitled 15 Minutes. Then we dived deep into our usual major topics: (a) the implications of Alphabet to Google and its impact in Asia, (b) the Apple Watch sales and what will be happening on the upcoming Apple event rumored on 9 Sep, (c) the eventual fate of Samsung and (d) analysing Uber's financials and scrutinising whether it's really growing with a justified valuation.

Episode 55: From Alphabet To Uber And 1 Year On With Sameer Singh

The Sentient Startup: Building Companies in the Age of AI with Arnaud Frade

Fresh out of the studio, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the e-Conomy SEA [Southeast Asia] Report with Sapna Chadha from Google, Florian Hoppe from Bain & Company, and Cassie Wu from Temasek, celebrating a decade of tracking Southeast Asia's digital transformation. The panel reflected on the region's remarkable achievement of reaching $300 billion in GMV—exceeding the original $200 billion goal by 1.5x—alongside revenue growth of 11x over the past decade. The panellists examined pivotal themes including Southeast Asia's position as the world's most AI-curious region with three times more interest than elsewhere, the explosive rise of video commerce and the maturation of digital financial services. The conversation explored the expansion from SEA-6 to 10 ASEAN countries, the ecosystem's resilience through multiple crisis cycles, and the shift from growth-at-all-costs to sustainable profitability. The episode concludes with each panellist sharing their vision for 2030, emphasizing building trust in AI adoption, creating an inclusive AI economy that benefits SMEs alongside large platforms, and navigating the AI transition gracefully to unlock innovation while addressing employment challenges—underscoring Southeast Asia's evolution from digital catch-up player to global innovation leader rewriting the playbook for digital adoption.

"We set this audacious goal of 200 billion by 2025. People told us we were crazy. In 2016 when we put that ambition out there, we've actually reached 1.5x that and we've hit 300 billion. And so it's just reflective of this incredible economy." - Sapna Chadha

"Indonesia e-commerce still I think is larger or about the same size as all of India e-commerce. And yet the attention tends to be a little bit veering away from Southeast Asia, but this is actually a real economic powerhouse I think for all of Asia Pacific." - Florian Hoppe

"Southeast Asia as a region, as we think about digital economy adoption, we are not playing catch up anymore. In many ways we're leading the digital adoption. We're writing how digital economy, how digital adoption could look like for a population and demographic like us." - Cassie Wu

Profiles: 
Sapna Chadha, Vice President Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier, Google Asia Pacific
Florian Hoppe, Partner at Bain & Company
Cassie Wu, Director, Southeast Asia at Temasek
e-Conomy SEA 2025: https://economysea.withgoogle.com/

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Sapna Chadha, Florian Hoppe & Cassie Wu
[01:17] 10th anniversary of e-Conomy SEA Report
[03:00] Digital economy hits 300 billion, exceeding goals
[04:09] Ecosystem resilience through multiple crisis cycles
[06:10] Report expands from SEA-6 to ASEAN-10
[08:13] Southeast Asia most underappreciated AI opportunity
[09:31] Indonesia e-commerce matches all of India
[10:04] Region leading digital adoption, not catching up
[12:13] Cash no longer king, payments fully inverted
[13:00] Revenue growth 11x over past decade
[15:00] 300 billion GMV despite headwinds and tariffs
[16:00] Video commerce grew 5x in three years
[19:03] Digital payments north of 60% of transactions
[23:32] Super apps unique to Southeast Asia ecosystem
[25:45] Data center capacity growing faster than anywhere
[27:01] Lower labor costs delayed AI adoption initially
[31:00] Ecosystem healthier than ever before
[33:08] Talent is the critical AI bottleneck
[35:19] Digital infrastructure must align with green economy
[39:00] Southeast Asia remains globally underappreciated
[40:39] Can Southeast Asia leapfrog into AI era
[43:00] Closing

#economysea #southeastasia #digitaleconomy #google #temasek #bainandcompany #ai #generativeai 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Southeast Asia's Digital Economy 2025 with Sapna Chadha, Florian Hoppe & Cassie Wu

Fresh out of Oracle AI World 2025, Chris Chelliah, Senior Vice President of Technology and Customer Strategy for Japan and Asia Pacific at Oracle, joins us to unpack how Oracle is positioning itself as the definitive enterprise AI platform across the region. He shares his career journey from a computer science geek working on distributed databases to leading technology strategy across a market representing two-thirds of the world's population. Chris explains Oracle's comprehensive four-tier AI stack—infrastructure, data platform, applications, and agentic orchestration—emphasizing how this unique full-stack ownership enables enterprises to consume AI out of the box and extend seamlessly without ripping and replacing existing systems. He highlights compelling use cases from financial fraud detection and healthcare automation to precision agriculture and energy grid optimization. Closing the conversation, Chris shares his vision for what great Oracle will look like in Asia Pacific, continuing its 50-year legacy as the behind-the-scenes platform provider powering everything from OpenAI and TikTok to global banking infrastructure.

What's been consistent for Oracle is to be a platform provider that helps organizations unlock full value of their data. Today it is all about AI and unlocking the value of your data in AI, and cloud is a mandatory enabler. With AI and agentic AI, an agent is effectively an employee—it's an automated employee, a process, a workflow. You want your employees to be within your ecosystem, within your firewall. AI thrives at the edge because that's where inference happens. With AI and agentic AI, an agent is effectively an employee—it's an automated employee, a process, a workflow. You want your employees to be within your ecosystem, within your firewall. AI thrives at the edge because that's where inference happens. - Chris Chelliah

Profile: Chris Chelliah, Senior Vice President of Technology and Customer Strategy for Japan and Asia Pacific at Oracle https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischelliah/

Episode Highlights: 
[00:00] Quote of the day by Chris Chelliah
[02:10] Chris's journey from computer science to enterprise tech
[03:13] Technology tinkering and Oracle's innovation culture explained
[04:17] Two-thirds world population drives APJ market potential
[05:06] Career advice: Find passion, own your brand
[06:54] Oracle's mission: Unlocking data value for enterprises
[07:58] 47,000 customers, 44% yearly consumption growth in JPAC
[08:51] Oracle AI World 2025: AI changes everything announcement
[09:12] Four-tier stack: Infrastructure, data, applications, agents
[11:25] AI Data Platform enables production-grade AI systems
[14:14] AI Agent Studio and Marketplace solve scaling challenges
[15:12] Agents as higher-level abstraction for enterprise automation
[16:27] Real-world AI use cases across industries shared
[18:49] Multi-cloud strategy accelerates enterprise AI adoption
[21:16] Partners enable scale with 100 marketplace solutions
[23:01] Convergent AI: Consume applications then extend capabilities
[26:51] Multi-cloud and multi-model future requires strong governance
[27:31] Four-tier security isolation from infrastructure to applications
[29:57] AI agents need enterprise-level data residency controls
[31:02] Using AI to accelerate cloud migration skills
[[33:08] Design thinking to working prototype in days
[36:10] Success metrics: Beat your personal best daily
[39:55] Why Oracle differs: Only four-tier stack player
[43:01] What great looks like for Oracle in the Asia Pacific
[45:51] Closing 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

How Oracle Became the Backbone of Enterprise AI with Chris Chelliah

Simon Milner, Vice President of Public Policy for Asia Pacific at Meta, joins us to explore how Meta's deliberate commitment to open source AI is reshaping innovation across the world's most diverse and dynamic region. He shares his journey from the BBC to nearly 14 years at Meta, where he built policy teams from the ground up to lead Meta's Asia Pacific strategy. Simon unpacks Meta's open source philosophy behind the Llama models, explaining how openness accelerates innovation through community scrutiny, provides governments greater control over sensitive data, and enables local developers to fine-tune models for languages like Korean, Vietnamese, and Bahasa Indonesia. He highlights compelling use cases across the region in Japan and Korea. Looking ahead, Simon reveals why the future of AI isn't on our phones but in wearables like AI-enabled glasses that create always-on assistants seeing what we see and hearing what we hear, enabling us to be more present in the world while Meta supercharges its family of apps serving billions globally. Last but not least he shares what great looks like for Meta in the Asia Pacific on open source AI. 

"We believe that openness is actually a really key feature of accelerating innovation because it fosters inclusion, it builds trust, and it ensures that the benefits of AI are more evenly distributed around the world.The openness of models allows other people to, as they were, push and pull and prod at the models at a fundamental level in order to see where might the problems be. And so that kind of community, the developer community scrutiny around open source is fundamental to spotting issues and addressing them quickly.Actually, the story of AI is about yes... that is important. The investments that companies like Meta and others are making is important, but actually, it's really about local ownership and local innovation." - Simon Milner

Episode Highlights: 
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Simon Milner from Meta
[01:37] Simon's journey: BBC, BT, Meta's 14-year evolution
[03:12] Navigating diverse regulatory landscapes across global markets
[05:24] Career advice: Take risks, embrace unexpected opportunities
[07:54] Open source AI democratizes access and innovation
[10:21] Meta sparked open model trend, others followed
[14:49] Open models enable faster innovation through community
[16:21] Government control and data sovereignty with open
[19:13] Governance mechanisms: transparency, red teaming, community engagement
[22:49] Meta learned responsible AI through 20 years experience
[25:49] Singapore, Japan, Korea developers using Lama locally
[28:26] AI isn't just big companies, local innovation
[31:15] Keeping AI open prevents fragmented national bubbles
[34:01] Governments balancing open innovation with national interests
[37:00] Future AI: wearables and glasses, not phones
[38:19] Always-on AI assistants seeing and hearing you
[41:35] Supercharging Meta apps and building new products
[42:00] Closing

Profile: Simon Milner, Vice President of Public Policy for Asia Pacific at Meta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-milner-4790205/

#meta #opensource #ai #publicpolicy #sovereignai #asiapacific 

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Open Source AI: Faster Innovation Through Community Across Asia Pacific with Simon Milner

Fresh out of the studio, Karen Hao, investigative journalist and author of "Empire of AI" joined us in a conversation to unravel how companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI have become modern empires reshaping society, labor, and democracy itself. Karen traces her journey from mechanical engineering at MIT to becoming one of the tech industry's most critical voices, sharing how Silicon Valley's innovation ecosystem has distorted toward self-interest rather than the public good. She unpacks the four characteristics that make AI companies mirror colonial empires: resource extraction through data scraping, labor exploitation of annotation workers, knowledge monopolies where most AI researchers are industry-funded, and quasi-religious quests to build an "AI God." Throughout the conversation, Karen reveals OpenAI's governance dysfunction stemming from its contradictory non-profit-for-profit structure and shares the inspiring story of Chilean water activists who successfully blocked Google's data center from draining their community's freshwater resources. She explains how Sam Altman's plans for 250 gigawatts of data center capacity—equivalent to four dozen New York Cities—would be environmentally catastrophic, while demonstrating how China's export restrictions paradoxically spurred more efficient AI innovation. Last but not least, she argues that empathy-driven journalism remains irreplaceable and calls for global citizens to hold these companies accountable to the broader public interest.

"These empires are amassing extraordinary amounts of resources by dispossessing a majority of the world. That includes like the data that they're extracting from people by just scraping it from online or intellectual property that they're taking from artists and creators. Most AI researchers now work for the AI industry and/or are funded in part by the AI industry. Even academics that have stayed within universities are often funded by the AI industry, and the effect that that has had on knowledge production is akin to the effect we would imagine if most climate scientists were bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry. I cannot stress enough how much they genuinely believe that they are on the path to creating something akin to an AI god, and that this is going to have cataclysmic shifts on civilization." - Karen Hao, Author of Empire of AI

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Karen Hao
[00:47] Introduction: Karen Hao, Author of "Empire of AI"
[01:44] From MIT engineering to investigating AI journalism
[02:51] Silicon Valley distorts innovation toward self-benefit
[04:12] AI companies as modern empires of power
[06:00] Four traits of Empire: extraction, exploitation, monopolies, ideology
[09:01] Quasi-religious movements driving Silicon Valley AI development
[10:04] AGI believers speak specialized fanatical vocabulary
[11:16] OpenAI founding: nonprofit facade, profit ambitions
[13:53] Sam Altman firing: board's failed governance attempt
[17:13] Fragmentation: every billionaire building their own AI
[19:06] China's export controls sparked efficient AI innovation
[21:57] Silicon Valley lacks American democratic values entirely
[23:31] AI supply chain: annotation workers, content moderators
[25:06] Chilean activists successfully blocked Google's water extraction
[28:51] Altman's 250 gigawatts: four dozen New York cities
[31:21] Scaling continues despite base model asymptote reached
[32:53] Benchmarks faulty: training data unknown, results unreliable
[36:32] Empathy essential tool for investigative journalism process
[39:11] Success: sparking conversation about AI's human costs
[39:40] Closing

Profile: Karen Hao, Author of Empire of AI and Investigative Journalist LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karendhao/
Personal Site: https://karendhao.com/


The AI Industry Is Building Modern Empires with Karen Hao

Raghav Kapoor, CEO & co-founder of Smartkarma, joined us for a conversation on the launch of PvtIQ and the structural transformation of Asia's private markets. Drawing from his experience building Smartkarma's independent research platform, Raghav explained how client demand for pre-IPO coverage led to creating PvtIQ, an intelligence platform designed to bridge the critical information gap in Southeast Asia's private markets. We discussed the striking imbalance where $74 billion has been invested into the region's tech ecosystem but only $23 billion has been returned through exits, highlighting the urgent need for better data infrastructure and price discovery. Raghav shared unique insights on how families dominate the region's investment landscape, why private and public markets are converging into one, and his vision for PvtIQ to become the intelligence backbone supporting companies, investors, and regulators in bringing more transparency and efficiency to Asia's rapidly evolving private market ecosystem.

"Public markets are behaving more like private markets. Private markets want to behave more like public markets. So actually, they're just one market.What's not the same is the level of research, information, data disclosure. Correct. That's the only difference. It's this information gap that, to us, is the single biggest opportunity now.We think over the course of the next five to 10 years, there'll be more trading venues, more liquidity providers, more market makers, more investor types—all of that. And I think what Smartkarma has always done is be the information flow for part of capital markets.In fact, that sort of 74 billion number, I think, is quite conservative. I've seen other estimates that are close to 120 billion. So it depends on what you see as sort of growth and what you see beyond. But regardless, I think it’s very large numbers, and the ratio of exit to invested capital is extremely low. A 50 billion hole is a pretty big hole." - Raghav Kapoor, CEO of Smartkarma

Episode Highlights:
[00:00] Quote of the Day by Raghav Kapoor
[00:57]] Smartkarma launches PvtIQ for Asia's private markets
[03:11]] Investors requesting coverage three years before IPO
[04:08]] Supporting MAS equity market development program
[05:24]] Singapore's public markets languished despite private growth
[06:13]] Path from fundraising to public listing explained
[08:37]] $74 billion invested, only $23 billion exits
[09:45]] Companies need support to achieve IPO readiness
[11:00]] Capital chasing deals shifted to improving disclosure
[11:57]] Southeast Asia's extreme market fragmentation challenges
[13:23]] Families dominate and influence Southeast Asian markets
[14:38]] Lack of data creates serious structural challenges
[19:01]] Private market investors transitioning from momentum investing
[20:18]] Digital banks provide disclosure model for research
[21:24]] Late stage private rounds resemble public IPOs
[23:26]] Liquidity without information is just volatility
[24:06]] Private and public markets converging into one
[25:30]] Information gap is the single biggest opportunity
[27:00]] Private market research TAM already $8 billion
[28:57]] What great looks like: intelligence backbone for Asia's private markets
[30:57]] Closing

Profile: Raghav Kapoor, CEO and co-founder #Smartkarma
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ragkap/

Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. 

Solving Asia's Private Market Information Crisis with Raghav Kapoor

Scott Livingston, a senior associate at SIPS, joined us on a discussion starting from a hypothetical question, "What are the requirements do Facebook need to satisfy in order to access into China's market?". By navigating through this question, we gain an in depth understanding to how US tech companies should navigate China which combines legislation and policy to regulate the Internet and their ever changing media regulations. Scott explored the deeper questions on the Chinese government's concept of cyber-sovereignty & internet power. Through looking at the lens of the Chinese government, we discuss the conditions to how a US tech company can succeed in China. 

Episode 108  How Can A US Tech Company Succeed In China With Scott Livingston

Eva Chaewon Yoo from Technode joined us in a conversation to discuss the South Korea technology startup ecosystem. She offered a comprehensive overview in how one can navigate the startup ecosystem from Seoul to Pusan, the five booming startup verticals, the key investors from angel investors to venture capital and the interaction with the Chaebol such as Samsung or major conglomerates in Korea.

Analyse Asia with Bernard Leong

Episode 148: The South Korea technology startup ecosystem with Eva Yoo

In episode 305, Robert Greene, author of the famous "48 Laws of Power", joined us in a conversation to discuss his latest book "The Laws of Human Nature". We dived deep in Robert's background and how he was inspired to write the "48 Laws of Power" and subsequently his other books that led eventually to "The Laws of Human Nature". We discuss how business leaders can learn to lead in difficult times and how to navigate the current climate of populism by understanding the laws of human nature.

Analyse Asia

The Laws of Human Nature with Robert Greene

The Analyse Podcast, formerly Analyse Asia, is a weekly show that dissects the pulse of business, technology, and media across the world. Hosted by Bernard Leong, it features in-depth conversations with leading journalists, senior executives, visionary authors, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who shape industries and ideas. Each episode dives into the most important trends and stories redefining how the world builds, scales, and innovates — from Asia to the globe.

analyseasia

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks