Tech Bites: Week of May 16, 2022

Grab has announced its first quarter 2022 results, where it surpassed Q1 guidance for gross merchandise value and total payments volume of its deliveries, mobility and financial services. It’s GrabAds business also increased its advertiser base seven times compared to the same period a year ago, a result of onboarding more Grab merchants on GrabAds.

Alipay has partnered with 4DAGE for International Museum Day to create virtual tours and exhibitions of 23 museums, including the historic Henan Museum and Zhejiang Provincial Museum in China and the Hetjens Museum in Germany, through a mini program on Alipay.

Klook has created a hybrid-working initiative that enables its employees to travel and work from anywhere in the world. The travel e-commerce platform believes this initiative will allow its employees to explore their destination of choice in their spare time and immerse in the local culture.

AnyMind Group has launched new features on AnyCreator, its platform for influencers and content creators, including functions for the management of fans, chat and email communication, and creating and delivering surveys.

CleverTap has acquired San Francisco based Leanplum, a customer engagement platform for an undisclosed amount. CleverTap believes this help increase their users’ engagement, retention and lifetime value by making every user experience, personalised, relevant and contextual at scale in real time.

oOh!media has launched Poly, a creative and content innovation hub in Sydney to allow advertisers and agencies to be more creative with their out of home media and capture consumers' attention while they are on the move. 

Dataxis has found that the Australian SVOD market has increased over the last three years, more than doubling the number of SVOD subscriptions since 2018. Despite a slowdown in 2021, the market is set to reach nearly 40 million subscriptions by 2026. This is driven by Disney+, which has brought on more than two million subscribers in two years, the aggressive promotion strategy of Apple TV+ and the consolidation of Netflix's customer base.

Mediabrands Australia has launched a program to automate repetitive internal tasks at its agencies Initiative and UM, using robotic technology. This automation works across the buy/book/pay aspect of media agencies and Mediabrands’ project leader Geoff Clarke claimed it is the only one in existence in the industry.  

S4 Capital has struck a deal with Los Angeles-based software and technology consulting firm TheoremOne to grow its technology services practice, it announced on Tuesday. The advertising company will merge TheoremOne with MediaMonks, following the same deal format it has made with more than two dozen businesses since its founding.

Emplifi has released the findings of its Q1 2022 analysis of social media spend by brands worldwide including those in Asia Pacific. The year-on-year (YoY) average ad spend on Facebook and Instagram in APAC saw an 8% surge to USD1,500 per ad account per month. However, average monthly ad spend decreased 18.5% in the first quarter of 2022.

Shopline has announced a regional partnership with Atome, a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform to allow business owners on the smart commerce platformto to provide BNPL as their payment option.

MullenLowe Singapore has helped Millennium Hotels and Resorts launch M Social Decentraland. Modelled on different M Social hotels around the world, the new hotel aims to be a place for all to gather and discover the virtual reality universe of Decentraland.

Dove has created a multitasking metaverse experience called #RealMomsVillage for busy moms to immersive themselves in a whole new level of experience together with fellow moms who share the same goals and aspirations of having a breathing space while still giving the best for their children.

Esquire Singapore has unveiled a new look for its print issue under the theme of ‘The Unconventional’. The issue, which is the first for Esquire’s new editor-in-chief Rahat Kapur, will combine Esquire’s perspective on storytelling through relevant content.

APPOINTMENTS & WINS

LoopMe has announced a number of appointments across the APAC region: Daisuke Shigeishi as head of digital partnerships, Georgia Watson as senior sales director, Akihito Morita as sales director, and James Symonds as senior sales director ANZ.

Okta has appointed Celestine Tan as VP for APAC marketing. Tan will oversee the firm’s marketing function in the region including end-user, channel and field marketing, and corporate communications.

Dable has appointed Jaedo Ryu as country manager for Australia and New Zealand. In this role, Ryu is responsible for developing and executing market expansion strategies in Australia as well as promoting the adoption and optimal usage of Dable's personalised content recommendation and native ad solutions for both advertisers and publishers.

Carat has won the media business of China Merchants Viking Cruises in mainland China. Wee-Hoon Tan, senior vice president, product development & marketing, China merchants at Viking Cruises said: “We are glad to have Carat, a dentsu company, be the partner taking care of our brand publicity media. We hope to get more people to know our distinctive brand spirit, so as to learn more about our cruise routes and enjoy the experience that creates memories lasting a lifetime.”

Joy Spreader has formed a wholly owned subsidiary in Hong Kong called Joy Spreader Interactive Group (HK) Limited to run its overseas e-commerce business. It has appointed Zhang Zhidi as the head of the new subsidiary, with responsibility for the development strategy and overall operations.

Experience Commerce has won the ecommerce media mandate for Kärcher India. Experience Commerce will focus on the expansion of Kärcher’s cleaning solutions footprints across various marketplaces including Amazon and Flipkart, and any other marketplaces that they may opt-in for in the future.