Tag: retail

Look out, Amazon. Asia-based companies such as Coupang are leading the next e-commerce revolution

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If you want to understand the future of e-commerce, look to Asia. Today, Coupang went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $4.6 billion in the biggest U.S. IPO of the year (so far). The South Korean e-commerce giant’s success is a compelling reminder that many Asian companies are among the world’s leading innovators in digital retailing and beyond. In the U.S., we have all been amazed by the speed, ease, and selection of Amazon. In reality, we are three to five years behind Asia. Americans are familiar with e-commerce giant Alibaba, but a new wave of companies such as Coupang, Pinduoduo, and Bytedance are quickly transforming the online shopping experience for millions of consumers. (Softbank Investment Advisers, my firm, is an investor in Bytedance and Coupang, and Softbank Group is Alibaba’s largest shareholder.) Here are the four prominent e-commerce trends in Asia that I predict will take hold in the U.S. and around the world: From e-commerce to “AllCommerce” using social media Asia’s brick-and-mortar companies were making the transition to digital well before COVID-19 forced businesses to shut their physical footprints. South Korea’s high-density urban landscape, high mobile penetration rate ( 95 percent of adults have smartphones, more than anywhere else in the world), and culture of late-night shopping have enabled the rapid growth and success of e-commerce by connecting local brick-and-mortar businesses to the online world.   In 2020, technology platforms such as Flipkart in India and Tokopedia in Indonesia added new offerings to support the digitization of small businesses and “solopreneurs.” (I am an investor in Tokopedia and backed Flipkart, which Walmart now controls.) Tokopedia launched TokopediaByMe, which allows influencers and individuals to build their own affiliate businesses via social media. These easy-to-use tools brought an extraordinary array of businesses online, from the local warung (family-owned) shop to the neighborhood restaurant. Tokopedia also offers logistics support to help sellers deliver products and services to their customers.   I expect we’ll see more e-commerce companies integrating with social media platforms to make it easier for small merchants to sell their wares without having to build a website or digital storefront. A great example close to home is a new feature from Shopify that adds shopping functions to Facebook and Instagram pages. Look for future marriages of e-commerce tools with social platforms such as Facebook and Bytedance’s TikTok. The upshot is a future in which every social post becomes an opportunity to make a sale. It’s not e-commerce, it’s “AllCommerce.”   Live commerce Though not a term yet familiar to most Americans, live commerce is a very simple but powerful modality that has seen explosive growth in Asia. Live commerce enables purchase engagement between a customer and seller through live video and chat. For Americans of my generation, this format is best understood as the next generation of HSN or QVC on mobile platforms. Read More …

The 10 most innovative companies in robotics

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Robotics and automation have already transformed how certain industries work, like the auto industry. But the technology is still being realized in many other sectors, and some of those businesses–like retail, food, and healthcare–became more reliant on automation and robotics during the pandemic. That change is likely permanent. The fact is that there are still many, many jobs that machines can do better than humans. The companies on this year’s list not only have great technology, but they’re applying it in ways that make a difference. 1. DroneSeed For replanting fire-ravaged forests We’ve just seen the worst wildfire season on record in the United States, resulting in more than 8 million acres of land burned. On average, the world loses 18.8 million acres of forest to fires every year. Getting all that forest replanted and back to converting carbon dioxide is crucial to the environment, but in practice, it’s a costly and slow process. Seattle-based DroneSeed uses swarms of large, proprietary drones to carry seeds to burned areas and plant them in spots where they’re most likely to grow well. The seeds are delivered in “vessels” designed to keep the seed hydrated and protected from animals. The company says that it’s seen its contracts jump well into the six figures this year, and it’s now working with the Nature Conservancy and three of the five largest timber companies. Read More …

The 10 most innovative security companies of 2021

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With so many people working from home on their personal devices during the coronavirus pandemic, cybersecurity has gotten more important than ever. Security companies have developed new ways to protect people from malicious activity on their phones and computers—even when they’re on their own—by detecting phishing messages, political misinformation, denial-of-service attacks, and other types of cyberattacks. They’ve also come up with new techniques to help stop fraud by confirming that people are who they say they are without relying so much on passwords and centralized databases that can themselves be targets for criminals. And they’ve built new systems for securing people’s most sensitive business data, whether it needs to be accessible on corporate servers or on individual employee cellphones. Camille François , Chief innovation officer at Graphika. [Photo: Taylor Kay Johnson ] 1. Graphika For tracking disinformation campaigns around the world through the 2020 elections and beyond Researchers at the social network analysis company Graphika made a name for themselves in 2020 by reporting suspected Russian operations targeting conservative voters before the U.S. presidential election, flagging Chinese state efforts targeting Taiwan, and discovering global misinformation around COVID-19. Working with competing companies—including Facebook, Google, and Twitter—helps Graphika spot deceptive activities that aren’t limited to just one site and get posts taken down, rooting out online disinformation. For more on why Graphika is a 2021 Most Innovative Company, click here .  2. Identiq For using cryptography to allow companies to vouch for users without sharing personal data Identiq lets companies verify that new customers are who they claim to be based on digital references from other companies in its network. It has developed cryptographic tools to let companies confirm they’re talking about the same person without having to actually share any data with Identiq or even with each other, meaning fewer opportunities for data breaches or privacy violations. Because data comes from partner businesses’ own systems, it can essentially be kept permanently up to date. For the system to work, Identiq needs a critical mass of business, and a May 2020 virtual summit brought praise from companies like transportation booking company Gett, gift card and payment tech company Blackhawk Network, and international payment company PayU. 3. ZecOps For spotting the hacks that can cause apps to crash—on iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux ZecOps makes automated software that spots when apps crash on computers and phones, then tries to find out what went wrong Read More …

The 10 most innovative Asia-Pacific companies of 2021

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While China remains a powerhouse of innovation in Asia-Pacific—both Tencent and the Alibaba-backed cold-chain logistics startup Cainiao are on our list—companies across the region found game-changing solutions to difficult problems. South Korea’s Seegene helped the world diagnose the novel coronavirus quickly and effectively. India’s MilkMantra allowed the country’s small-scale dairy farmers to bring their products to market, while ensuring quality control. And Australia’s ProAgni has cleaned up the food chain by developing antibiotic-free supplement for cattle and sheep. Read on for more of this year’s best in Asia-Pacific. 1. Seegene For producing a COVID-19 diagnostic test and taking it global, sending more than 55 million test kits to 67 countries The biotech company built a molecular diagnostic test for the COVID-19 virus, which helped South Korea contain the virus in the spring of 2020: 80% of South Korean COVID tests taken in April were made by Seegene. As the coronavirus spread, the company went global, sending over 55 million test kits to 67 countries. 2. Milk Mantra For partnering with USAID to launch an initiative that lets small-scale dairy farmers access their payments digitally Odisha, India-based Milk Mantra sources, packages, and sells dairy products to more than 10,000 independent retailers and subscribers. The company works with farmers to process and test the milk to control product quality. This year Milk Mantra partnered with USAID to launch an initiative to let farmers access their paychecks digitally (previously, some had to travel long distances to access their finances). Milk Mantra also reduced its payment cycle to five days—from 10—to help farmers access their funds faster and avoid disrupting their operations Read More …

The 10 most innovative enterprise companies of 2021

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In a year when businesses of every size and description in all sectors were forced to adapt to unprecedented global upheaval, these 10 companies offered innovations that helped enterprises not only to survive but to thrive. 1. Twilio For facilitating face-to-face communication during an era of social distancing and global lockdown During the pandemic, usage of Twilio ‘s omnichannel (voice, text, chat, video, email) communications applications doubled; after receiving expedited HIPAA certification in March, the company became the go-to choice for much of the healthcare industry and began offering its video platform for free to organizations dealing with COVID-19 restrictions. The video business unit has seen a 540% year-over-year increase in weekly minutes. 2. Cloudflare For providing free security during a very insecure year One of the few U.S. internet firms doing business in China, Cloudflare expects its partnership with JD Cloud to lead to 150 new data centers on the mainland. During the COVID-19 crisis, the company offered Cloudflare for Teams to small businesses for free and also offered a free suite of its products to government agencies. Another free suite of services, Cloudflare for Campaigns, protected candidates from cyberattacks and hackers during the election cycle. The company’s largesse did not hurt its bottom line: Q2 revenue exceeded $100 million, up 48% year over year. 3. Elastic For making search faster and more secure The search technology utilized by many major companies (Cisco, Pfizer, Shopify, and Walmart, to name a few), Elastic last year released four new versions of its machine learning-native core stack and partnered with Defending Digital Campaigns, providing free endpoint security to presidential and congressional campaigns. The company’s revenue grew by 44 percent year over year. 4. Honeywell For advancing the state of quantum computing Last year, this hundred year old company came out of nowhere to launch what may be the most powerful quantum computer in the world. Honeywell ‘s Quantum Solutions utilizes a “trapped ion” process that is slower but more accurate, and since its launch in March 2020, the company has grown its share of voice within the quantum computing industry from 1 percent to 25 percent. 5. Microsoft For democratizing at scale the ability of non-coders to build apps Six years after its initial launch, Microsoft ‘s Power Platform has continued to evolve and expand to empower employees to build web and mobile apps without having to write any code. From automating workflows to building chatbots, the four pillars of the Power Platform—Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents—have facilitated workplace innovation at a time when companies of every size have had to adapt to a disruptive global crisis. 6 Read More …