SEA Connect
Why Southeast Asia is becoming a test market for Chinese luxury brands
New-format jewellery stores in Singapore and Bangkok show how Chinese consumer brands can test premium retail concepts before wider international expansion.
Southeast Asia Connect Editors
SEA Connect
Asia’s deal market split into different speeds in the first half of 2026
Headline deal value remained large, but sponsor activity, strategic buying and Southeast Asian market conditions moved at different speeds.
SEA Connect
Ant International raises US$1.2 billion for cross-border payments expansion
The Singapore-headquartered fintech company says its first external equity round will support merchant payments, account services and agentic commerce products.
SEA Connect
Tech Data adds Wasabi cloud storage for Singapore and Malaysia partners
The distribution agreement gives resellers and managed-service providers local access to object storage, backup and cyber-resilience products for data-heavy workloads.
SEA Connect
Sea reports 48% revenue growth as Shopee and Monee expand
Second-quarter revenue reached US$7.8 billion, while Sea raised Shopee investment and kept its full-year profit target as a forward-looking goal.
SEA Connect
PhilWeb says digital gaming solutions drove second-quarter growth
Revenue reached 352.4 million pesos and the digital solutions segment contributed 57%, while the company described AI work as an operating initiative rather than a completed outcome.
SEA Connect
ESR and INA start two logistics developments near Jakarta
The partners broke ground on one Cikarang facility and announced a second Cibitung hub, with completion planned for 2027 and 2028 respectively.
SEA Connect
Agentic marketing needs measurement controls before more autonomy
AppsFlyer’s Ziv Peled argues that autonomous marketing systems need trustworthy data, activity labels and governance before teams let them make more decisions.
SEA Connect
Vietnam fines Grab over data consent and consumer disclosures
The VND1.36 billion penalty covers six consumer-protection breaches, including consent and disclosure requirements, according to reports citing Vietnamese authorities.
SEA Connect
Indonesia launches its first physical gold ETF
The stock-exchange launch connects a physically backed investment product with Indonesia’s wider bullion-market and capital-market reform agenda.
SEA Connect
Singapore industrial AI collaboration targets autonomous facility inspections
Avnet and Weston Robot say their edge-computing and robotics platform is designed to inspect factories, utilities and transport sites. The plan matters because it moves Singapore-developed physical AI toward commercial industrial use.
SEA Connect
Singapore SME AI adoption tripled, with a 14 August proof deadline approaching
Why this matters: IMDA says AI adoption among Singapore SMEs rose from 4.2% to 14.5% in one year. Its first SME AI Impact Awards close on 14 August, shifting the immediate test from experimentation to measurable business outcomes.