What's more, Tan has taken Singaporean citizenship, according to a Grab filing with the Singapore government last year ... Grab's holding company lost $82.8 million in 2016, more than triple its losses in 2015, ... Grab faces strikes and protests by drivers, lawsuits in Vietnam and Myanmar, and governments still debating how best to license and tax ride-hailing companies.
* Rocket’s Lazada And Zalora Lost $235.3 Million In 2014 But Are Moving Toward Profitability—Forbes
Lazada's websites started out three years ago as inventory-based direct retailers--thus,"the Amazon of Southeast Asia" moniker. In the past year, though, the switch to a primarily "marketplace" business model was the most significant driver of revenue growth, accounting for about 70% of Lazada's monthly sales as of November last year.
* Rocket Internet – First Mover In Asia?—Forbes
So back to the "market leader" thing. The prospectus reiterates that many Rocket sites are market leaders but never defines the term. Jabong is pulling impressive user traffic in India—almost 2 million visits per day, as the data above from SimilarWeb show. But that number is nowhere near Flipkart's daily average of 2.45 million.
* Malaysia’s Patrick Grove Aims To Go Global With Iflix Video-On-Demand—Forbes Asia
By Susan Cunningham Forbes Asia (This profile appeared in the March 2017 issue of Forbes Asia. Within ten days of its March 1 publication, Richard Quest did an in-person interview on CNN with the subject. Just a coincidence?) Patrick Y-Kin Grove is leaning against the pool table in Catcha Group's headquarters in the Mid Valley... Continue Reading →
* Myanmar: 45 Million Mobile Phones and the $19 3G Smartphone
More than half of those 27 million-plus smartphone owners in Myanmar are regular data users, who check into Facebook daily and the Viber messaging and VOIP app almost as frequently. How can so many people afford phones when the average wage is $3 a day?
Susan J Cunningham 