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NOTION INSIGHTS
Build. Scale. Succeed.
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
There comes a time for every European tech
entrepreneur when they need to weigh up
the challenges of international expansion.
They have proven they are solving a problem
that is worth solving. They are solving it well
in their home market and are confident that
they know how to find, acquire and retain their
ideal customers efficiently and predictably.
They are building a company that can scale.
They want to continue to move fast and grow.
So where next?
THE JOURNEY EAST
This type of high-growth business can expand across Europe, but in many
cases the heterogeneous nature of the market, plus the relatively small sizes
of the European countries, makes that unattractive.
Clearly the next choice is the US - and for many that is the most obvious
place to go on the route to category domination. It's a massive market
and, as we detailed in "Crossing the Atlantic", there is a wealth of advice
and resources available. But there are downsides too. Talent is incredibly
expensive, especially in the hot spots such as Silicon Valley. The mature
start-up ecosystems in the US create enormous competition, so it's a tough
and expensive place to win big - and many fail.
So the mind turns eastward, to Asia. It is a huge and beguiling region with a
population in excess of 4.5bn people. The incredible shift in financial power
as a result of the rapid development of the Asian economies and the adoption
of advanced technologies makes it ever more attractive.
But if the differences across Europe are significant, those across Asia are
overwhelming for many European entrepreneurs. Europe has the cohesion
of the EU, but Asia cannot be considered in any sense a single market.
For me, this report is intended to be the first step on a journey taken by
ambitious European enterprise tech entrepreneurs. It's a journey that must
begin with building at least a knowledge of the opportunities and risks of
expansion to Asia and the people who can help you. It is our contribution
to gathering and sharing the knowledge which will help our portfolio - and
the wider ecosystem - make decisions on where to focus their efforts; and
introducing a network of experts and advisors who can help them on their
way.
As ever this is as much a learning exercise as it is a guide, so please feel free
to contribute, comment or challenge any of our assertions and assumptions.
Stephen Millard, Notion
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
There is no monolithic market known as "Asia". As a geographical
region, Asia consists of almost 50 states and there is little in the
way of economic or political cohesion that is pan-Asian. There is no
currency union and little co-operation as is found in the Eurozone;
and parts of Asia are also politically volatile. Rather entrepreneurs
must think of the region as separate countries in their own right.
This is a brief summary of the top ten Asian markets.
OVERVIEW
OF THE TOP
10 SAAS
MARKETS IN
ASIA
Henry Shi
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
JAPAN
Population
127,000,000 (11th in the world)

GDP
$4,939.4 billion (3rd in the world)

GDP per Capita
$38,895 (20th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
0.7%

Human Development Index
0.903 (17th in the world)
Oldest, most mature, and biggest SaaS market in Asia
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
Toyota Motor 249.9
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone 105.0
Mitsubishi UFJ 49.2
Softbank 82.1
KDDI 43.2
Japan Tobacco 19.7
Japan Post Holdings 123.7
Honda Motor 127.9
Keyence 3.7
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial 30.5
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The Journey East
Languages
Japanese
Ethnic groups
Japanese (99%), Other (1%)
Government
Democratic constitutional monarchy (stable)
Top industries
Consumer goods
Tech
Finance and banking
Manufacturing
Energy
Defense
A selection of SaaS companies
Cacco Inc - Process design & optimization
Freee - Accounting
Kyribba - Treasury solutions
Mazrica - Sales automation
Mobingi - Cloud application management
Money Forward - Accounting
SmartHR - HR
A selection of VC firms
500 Startups
Accord Ventures
Ant Capital
B Dash Ventures
D4V
DCM Ventures
Globis Capital Partners
Mizuho Capital
Corporate Venture Capital
31 Ventures
AG Capital
BASF Japa
Dentsu Digital Holdings
Evonik Japan Co.
NTT Docomo Ventures
YJ Capital
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees171.9
92.2
83.9
78.6
68.3
66.4
55.1
51.4
48.3
48.1
Toyota Motor
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Mitsubishi UFJ
Softbank
KDDI
Japan Tobacco
Japan Post Holdings
Honda Motor
Keyence
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial
364,000
274,844
106,800
68,400
18,000
49,000
229,421
208,000
5,000
30,000
Toyota Motor
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Mitsubishi UFJ
Softbank
KDDI
Japan Tobacco
Japan Post Holdings
Honda Motor
Keyence
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
CHINA
Population
1,379,000,000 (1st in the world)

GDP
$11,199.1 billion (2nd in the world)

GDP per Capita
$8,123 (66th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
6.4%

Human Development Index
0.738 (90th in the world)
Growing but highly competitive market - locals win
Tencent 22.8
Alibaba 21.5
ICBC 151.4
PetroChina 214.8
China Construction Bank 134.2
Agricultural Bank of China 115.7
Bank of China 113.1
China Petroleum & Chemical 255.7
Ping An Insurance Group 106.6
China Life Insurance 82.8
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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The Journey East
Languages
The official dialect of China is Mandarn, but there are also several other
major dialects in use.

Ethnic groups
Han Chinese (92%), Other (8%)

Government
Semi-presidential socialist republic (stable)

Top industries
Mining and metals
Energy
Food and agriculture,
Auto manufacturing
Electronics
Manufacturing
A selection of SaaS companies
Chinapex - customer analytics
FXiaoKe - mobile sales management
TMS - logistics and transportation platform
QingCloud - cloud computing
RootAnt - financial investment platform
A selection of VC firms
36Kr
Gobi Partners
Northern Light Venture Capital
Qiming Venture Partners
Sequoia Capital China
ZhenFund
Corporate Venture Capital
Alibaba (acquires directly)
Baidu Ventures
Ping An Ventures,
Tencent (acquires directly)
39,000
50,000
462,000
535,000
329,000
444,000
310,000
359,000
319,000
100,000
277.1
264.9
229.8
204.5
200.5
149.2
141.3
105.1
100.8
98.1
Tencent
Alibaba
ICBC
PetroChina
China Construction Bank
Agricultural Bank of China
Bank of China
China Petroleum & Chemical
Ping An Insurance Group
China Life Insurance
Tencent
Alibaba
ICBC
PetroChina
China Construction Bank
Agricultural Bank of China
Bank of China
China Petroleum & Chemical
Ping An Insurance Group
China Life Insurance
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees17
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
INDIA
Population
1,324,000,000 (2nd in the world)

GDP
$2,263.5 billion (7th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$1,741 (134th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
7.4%

Human Development Index
0.624 (131st in the world)
Strong presence of international VC firms and players
Tata Consultancy Services 17.4
Reliance Industries 41.8
HDFC Bank 11.4
ITC 6.0
Indian Oil & Natural Gas 19.9
HDFC 8.1
State Bank of India 43.7
Infosys 10.1
Indian Oil 54.1
Coal India 11.0
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
Languages
Hindi, English (Official), 23 regional languages

Ethnic groups
Indo-Aryan (72%), Dravidian (25%), Other (3%)

Government
Federal parliamentary democratic republic (relatively stable)

Top industries
Retail
Agriculture
Real Estate
Banking and Insurance
IT services
Auto manufacturing
Energy
Textiles
A selection of SaaS companies
BrowserStack - website testing platform
Fareye - mobile logistics platform
KartRocket - SME online sales optimization
Manthan - business analytics
Moengage - user analytics and engagement platform
Practo - healthcare platform
A selection of VC firms
Aavishkaar Ventures
Accel Ventures
Blume Ventures
IDG Ventures India
Kalaari Capital
Nexus Ventures
Pi Ventures
Saama Capital & Sequoia Capital
Unicorn India Ventures
Corporate Venture Capital
31 Ventures
AG Capital
BASF Japan
Dentsu Digital Holdings
NTT Docomo Ventures
372,000
250,000
84,000
26,000
34,000
84,000
210,000
200,000
33,000
310,000
Tata Consultancy Services
Reliance Industries
HDFC Bank
ITC
Indian Oil & Natural Gas
HDFC
State Bank of India
Infosys
Indian Oil
Coal India
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees74.5
71.2
57.4
51.6
37.2
36.7
36.5
34.9
30.0
27.4
Tata Consultancy Services
Reliance Industries
HDFC Bank
ITC
Indian Oil & Natural Gas
HDFC
State Bank of India
Infosys
Indian Oil
Coal India
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The Journey East
SOUTH KOREA
Population
51,100,000 (27th in the world)

GDP
$1,411.2 billion (11th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$27,359 (25th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
3.0%

Human Development Index
0.901 (18th in the world)
Funding from the SK government powers the tech ecosystem
Samsung Electronics 174.0
Hyundai Motor 80.7
SK Hynix 14.8
Korea Electric Power 51.9
Naver 3.5
Samsung C&T 24.2
Shinhan Financial Group 14.2
Posco 45.8
Hyundai Mobis 33.0
Samsung Life Insurance 24.1
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
Languages
Korean
Ethnic groups
Korean (96%), Other (4%)
Government
Presidential representative democratic republic (stable)
Top industries
Electronics
Semiconductors
Tourism
Shipbuilding
Automobile
Mining
Construction
Media & entertainment
A selection of SaaS companies
Blocko - blockchain development platform
LO Virtual Fashion - 3D garment simulation
Collabee - workflow platform
TossLab - corporate messaging platform
ZEPL - big data analytics
A selection of VC firms
Access Ventures
BAM Ventures
Bon Angels Venture Partners
Capstone Partners Korea
Fast Track Asia
KCube Ventures
Primer
Scout Ventures
Strong Ventures
Stonebridge Capital
Corporate Venture Capital
Korea Development Bank
Samsung Ventures
Softbank Ventures
309,000
80,000
22,000
21,000
2,000
13,000
13,000
30,000
8,000
7,000
Samsung Electronics
Hyundai Motor
SK Hynix
Korea Electric Power
Naver
Samsung C&T
Shinhan Financial Group
Posco
Hyundai Mobis
Samsung Life Insurance
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees254.3
34.2
32.0
25.5
24.0
21.2
20.0
19.2
18.9
18.2
Samsung Electronics
Hyundai Motor
SK Hynix
Korea Electric Power
Naver
Samsung C&T
Shinhan Financial Group
Posco
Hyundai Mobis
Samsung Life Insurance
25
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
AUSTRALIA
Population
24,100,000 (53rd in the world)

GDP
$1,204.6 billion (14th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$50,000 (11th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
2.9%

Human Development Index
0.939 (2nd in the world)
Mature SaaS market but small in size compared to rest of Asia
Commonwealth Bank 30.9
BHP Billiton 34.0
Westpac Banking Group 27.8
ANZ 26.5
National Australia Bank 24.2
CSL 6.4
Telstra 18.6
Wesfarmers 50.0
Woolworths 41.1
Macquarie Group 10.6
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
Languages
English
Ethnic groups
White (90.2%), Asian (7.3%), Aboriginal (2.5%)
Government
Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy (stable)
Top industries
Finance and banking
Mining
Energy
Industrial materials
Healthcare
A selection of SaaS companies
Atlassian - collaboration software
Culture Amp - employee analytics platform
Deputy - cloud-based workforce management
SiteMinder - hotel distribution software
A selection of VC firms
Airtree
Artesian VC
Blackbird Ventures
Brandon Capital Partners
GBS Venture Partners
SquarePeg
Talu Ventures
Corporate Venture Capital
Optus Innov8
Telstra Ventures
45,000
65,000
33,000
50,000
35,000
17,000
36,000
220,000
202,000
14,000
Commonwealth Bank
BHP Billiton
Westpac Banking Group
ANZ
National Australia Bank
CSL
Telstra
Wesfarmers
Woolworths
Macquarie Group
109.9
98.3
86.1
68.8
65.0
43.9
40.7
37.8
25.7
21.2
Commonwealth Bank
BHP Billiton
Westpac Banking Group
ANZ
National Australia Bank
CSL
Telstra
Wesfarmers
Woolworths
Macquarie Group
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees29
28
Notion Insights
The Journey East
TAIWAN
Population
23,600,000 (56th in the world)

GDP
$571.5 billion (22nd in the world)

GDP per Capita
$24,200 (33rd in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
2.5%

Human Development Index
0.882 (25th in the world)
Mature and established market but small population base
Taiwan Semiconductor 29.4
Hon Hai Precision 135.2
Formosa Petrochemical 16.9
Chunghwa Telecom 7.1
LARGAN Precision 1.5
Cathay Financial 29.0
Formosa Plastics 5.6
Nan Ya Plastics 8.5
Formosa Chemicals 9.9
Fubon Financial 15.4
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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The Journey East
Languages
Mandarin (official), Formosan, Hakka
Ethnic groups
Han Chinese (98%), Aborigines (2.4%)
Government
Democratic republic with a multi-party system.
Either favor closer ties with China (KMT) or Taiwanese independence (DPR)
Top industries
Electronics
Semiconductor manufacturing
Energy
Chemicals
Steel
Agriculture
A selection of SaaS companies
91App - bespoke applications for SMEs
EZTable - reservation platform
GSS - Cloud computing service provider
iStaging - AR staging
Parasoft - software development
A selection of VC firms
500 startups
AppWorks
Birch Venture Capital
Cherubic Ventures
Mesh Ventures
Pac-link
PTI Ventures
Yushan Ventures
Corporate Venture Capital
360ip
Translink Capital
UMC Capital
47,000
1,000,000
5,000
30,000
3,000
53,000
10,000
12,000
23,000
34,000
Taiwan Semiconductor
Hon Hai Precision
Formosa Petrochemical
Chunghwa Telecom
LARGAN Precision
Cathay Financial
Formosa Plastics
Nan Ya Plastics
Formosa Chemicals
Fubon Financial
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees161.7
54.4
33.6
26.5
20.6
19.8
19.0
18.5
17.9
16.1
Taiwan Semiconductor
Hon Hai Precision
Formosa Petrochemical
Chunghwa Telecom
LARGAN Precision
Cathay Financial
Formosa Plastics
Nan Ya Plastics
Formosa Chemicals
Fubon Financial
33
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
SINGAPORE
Population
5,600,000 (115th in the world)

GDP
$294.6 billion (39th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$52,607 (10th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
2.5%

Human Development Index
0.925 (5th in the world)
While Singapore itself is small, it is a great gateway to South East
Asia. Friendly government with a well developed tech ecosystem.
BroadCom 15.6
Singtel 12.0
DBS Group 10.0
Overseas Chinese Bank 8.6
United Overseas Bank 8.2
Wilmar International 41.4
CapitaLand Limited 3.9
Global Logistics Properties 0.9
Keppel Corp 4.3
Flextronics International 23.8
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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The Journey East
Languages
The majority of Singaporeans are bilingual in English and one of
the other three official languages: Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil.
Ethnic groups
Han Chinese (98%), Aborigines (2.4%)
Government
Stable Parliamentary Republic - led by same party for 50+ years
Top industries
Financial Services (banking + wealth management)
Biotech, Energy and Infrastructure
Tourism
Agribusiness
A selection of SaaS companies
Canopy - financial data aggregation
Ematic Solutions - digital marketing platform
Near - ambient intelligence platform
TradeGecko - inventory and order management platform
Unified Inbox - IoT messaging
ViSenze - AI visual search
A selection of VC firms
500 Startups
B Capital Group
Golden Gate Ventures
Jungle Ventures
Monk's Hill Ventures
Qualgro
Quest Ventures
Sequoia Capital
Singtel Innov8
16,000
25,000
22,000
29,000
25,000
92,000
8,000
1,000
30,000
200,000
BroadCom
Singtel
DBS Group
Overseas Chinese Bank
United Overseas Bank
Wilmar International
CapitaLand Limited
Global Logistics Properties
Keppel Corp
Flextronics International
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees87.6
43.2
34.4
28.8
35.6
16.1
11.4
9.4
8.9
8.8
BroadCom
Singtel
DBS Group
Overseas Chinese Bank
United Overseas Bank
Wilmar International
CapitaLand Limited
Global Logistics Properties
Keppel Corp
Flextronics International
37
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Notion Insights
The Journey East
INDONESIA
Population
261,100,000 (4th in the world)

GDP
$932.3 billion (16th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$3,570 (109th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
5.4%

Human Development Index
0.689 (114th in the world)
Huge market but not much tech talent - outsources talent.
Slow to adopt SaaS in part due to poor payment infrastructure.
Bank Central Asia 4.8
Telekomunikasi Indonesia 8.7
HMS Sampoerna 6.7
Bank Rakyat Indonesia 5.9
Unilever Indonesia 2.8
Astra International 13.4
Bank Mandiri 7.5
United Tractors 3.4
Bank Negara Indonesia 4.4
Gudang Garam 5.7
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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The Journey East
Languages
Indonesia (official), Javanese, Sundanese, 700 others
Ethnic groups
Javanese (40.2%), Sundanese (15.5%), Other (44.3%)
Government
Presidential Republic with parliamentary characteristics
Top industries
Agriculture
Banking
Mining
Textile and Apparel
Tourism
A selection of SaaS companies
8villages - marketing solutions
Bornevia - CRM
Kata.ai - AI tools
Pawoon - POS for SMEs
Sleekr - HR & Accounting SaaS
Talenta - HR SaaS
A selection of VC firms
Alpha JWC Ventures
Convergence Ventures
Kejora
RnB Fund
SMDV
Systec Group
Venturra Capital
Corporate Venture Capital
MDI Ventures
Oxdream Capital
Sinar Mas Indonesia
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees34.1
32.4
32.1
31.2
28.9
24.2
21.4
10.1
9.1
9.9
Bank Central Asia
Telekomunikasi Indonesia
HMS Sampoerna
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Unilever Indonesia
Astra International
Bank Mandiri
United Tractors
Bank Negara Indonesia
Gudang Garam
250,000
24,000
29,000
59,000
6,000
215,000
39,000
27,000
3,000
36,000
Bank Central Asia
Telekomunikasi Indonesia
HMS Sampoerna
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Unilever Indonesia
Astra International
Bank Mandiri
United Tractors
Bank Negara Indonesia
Gudang Garam
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Population
68,900,000 (20th in the world)

GDP
$406.8 billion (26th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$5,900 (82nd in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
3.8%

Human Development Index
0.740 (87th in the world)
THAILAND
Not many indigenous VC firms and most focused on early stage. Quite a few VCs from
2014 are no longer active today. SaaS market is still small but ecommerce is dominating.
PTT PCL 48.7
Siam Cement 12.0
Thai Beverage 5.3
Krung Thai Bank 4.8
Airports of Thailand 1.5
Siam Commercial Bank 4.9
CP All 12.3
Advanced Info Service 4.3
Kasikorn Bank 5.4
Bangkok Bank 4.3
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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The Journey East
Languages
Thai
Ethnic groups
Thai (76.4%), Thai Chinese (14%), Other (10%)
Government
Parliamentary constitutional monarchy
(unofficially military junta). Can be politically
unstable with 17 constitution changes
Top industries
Manufacturing
Mining
Construction
Utilities
Agriculture
A selection of SaaS companies
Fastwork - freelancing platform
GreenTomatoMedia - SEO + webservices for SMEs
GoWabi - spa/wellness booking platform
Indy Cloud - cloud database services for SMEs
Maninnovation - logistics platform
Transporters.io - transportation
logistics and travel platform
Trizeri - online tours/booking platform
A selection of VC firms
Bangkok Venture Club
Beacon Venture Capital
Invent
Lombard
NVest Ventures
SME bank
VNET Capital Co
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees32.4
19.1
17.1
17.0
16.4
16.1
16.0
15.0
13.4
10.1
PTT PCL
Siam Cement
Thai Beverage
Krung Thai Bank
Airports of Thailand
Siam Commercial Bank
CP All
Advanced Info Service
Kasikorn Bank
Bangkok Bank
31,000
54,000
22,000
34,000
6,000
18,000
35,000
11,000
22,000
27,000
PTT PCL
Siam Cement
Thai Beverage
Krung Thai Bank
Airports of Thailand
Siam Commercial Bank
CP All
Advanced Info Service
Kasikorn Bank
Bangkok Bank
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The Journey East
MALAYSIA
Key VCs are mostly foreign (Jungle, Golden Gate, Sequoia, etc).
Not much movement in the SaaS market currently.
Population
31,800,000 (45th in the world)

GDP
$296.4 billion (38th in the world)

GDP per Capita
$9,500 (58th in the world)
Projected GDP growth rate
4.8%

Human Development Index
0.789 (59th in the world)
Maybank 7.6
Tenaga Nasional 10.9
Public Bank 4.5
Sime Darby 10.7
Petronas Chemicals 3.3
CIMB Group Holdings 6.0
Maxis 2.1
Axiata Group 5.2
Petronas Gas 1.1
Genting 4.4
Revenue - $USD (Billions)
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The Journey East
Languages
Malay, English (recognized but not official)
Ethnic groups
Malay (50.1%), Chinese (22.6%), Indigenous
(11.8%), Indian (6.7%), Other (8.8%)
Government
Federal constitutional monarchy - multi
party parliament but the majority ruling
party has been the same since 1955
Top industries
Manufacturing (40% of GDP)
Construction
Tourism
Banking (largest center of Islamic Finance)
Energy
A selection of SaaS companies
Easystore - ecommerce enablement for SMEs
Payroll Panda - payroll SaaS solution
Piktochart - data visualization and content
Storehub - CRM & POS platforms
Supernewsroom - content management
A selection of VC firms
Axiata Digital Innovation
Fund (Fintech focused
Catcha Group
Frontier Digital Ventures
Malaysia Venture Capital Management
Market Cap - $USD (Billions)Employees20.7
17.4
17.4
14.3
14.0
10.9
10.8
10.2
8.8
7.9
Maybank
Tenaga Nasional
Public Bank
Sime Darby
Petronas Chemicals
CIMB Group Holdings
Maxis
Axiata Group
Petronas Gas
Genting
45,000
35,000
18,000
125,000
5,000
38,000
3,000
25,000
51,000
58,000
Maybank
Tenaga Nasional
Public Bank
Sime Darby
Petronas Chemicals
CIMB Group Holdings
Maxis
Axiata Group
Petronas Gas
Genting
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The Journey East


There are significant differences across the region in
terms of the scale, growth and wealth.
This is a brief summary of the top ten Asian markets and some key differences.
COUNTRY
SUMMARY
RANKINGS

China
Japan
India
S Korea
Australia
Indonesia
Taiwan
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore
$11,000bn (1)
$4,900bn (2)
$2,300bn (3)
$1,400bn (4)
$1,200bn (5)
$932bn (6)
$572bn (7)
$400bn (8)
$296bn (9)
$295bn (10)
1400m (1)
127m (4)
1300m (2)
51m (6)
24m (8 tied)
261m (3)
24m (8 tied)
69m (5)
32m (7)
5.6m (10)
$8k (7)
$39k (3)
$1.7k (10)
$27k (4)
$50k (2)
$3.6k (9)
$24k (5)
$5.9k (8)
$9.5k (6)
$53k (1)
6.4% (2)
0.7% (10)
7.4% (1)
3.0% (6)
2.9% (7)
5.4% (3)
2.5% (8)
3.8% (5)
4.8% (4)
2.5% (8)
0.738 (8)
0.903 (4)
0.624 (9)
0.901 (3)
0.939 (2)
0.689 (10)
0.882 (5)
0.740 (7)
0.789 (6)
0.925 (1)
GDP
Population
GDP per
Capita
Growth Rate
(Projected)
HSI
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20 RICHEST
ASIAN
CITIES
SUMMARY BY TOTAL GDP
Many will argue that even considering individual Asian countries
is too superficial - many of the countries are extremely large in
terms of geographic coverage as well as population sizes.

A better approach may be to consider the region
in terms of the top 20 cities as listed here.

Japan
S Korea
Japan
China
China
Hong Kong
China
China
Singapore
Japan
China
China
Taiwan
Indonesia
China
Thailand
S Korea
India
China
China
Tokyo
Seoul
Osaka/Kyoto
Shanghai
Beijing
Hong Kong
Guangzhou
Tianjin
Singapore
Nagoya
Shenzhen
Suzhou
Taipei
Jakarta
Chongqing
Bangkok
Busan
Delhi
Chengdu
Wuhan
39.8m (1)
23.5m (5)
17.4m (9)
25.2m (3)
22.0m (6)
7.4m (17)
20.6m (7)
10.9m (12)
5.6m (19)
10.2m (15)
12.1m (11)
10.7m (13)
7.0m (18)
30.5m (2)
18.4m (8)
15.0m (10)
3.6m (20)
25.0m (4)
10.4m (14)
7.5m (16)
$1617b (1)
$846b (2)
$671b (3)
$594b (4)
$506b (5)
$416b (6)
$380b (7)
$372b (8)
$366b (9)
$364b (10)
$363b (11)
$339b (12)
$327b (13)
$321b (14)
$316b (15)
$307b (16)
$297b (17)
$294b (18)
$234b (19)
$232b (20)
$40,628 (5)
$36,000 (7)
$38,563 (6)
$23,571 (13)
$23,000 (14)
$56,216 (3)
$18,460 (17)
$34,128 (9)
$65,357 (2)
$35,686 (8)
$30,000 (12)
$31,682 (10)
$46,714 (4)
$10,525 (20)
$17,173 (18)
$20,467 (16)
$82,500 (1)
$11,760 (19)
$22,500 (15)
$30,933 (11)
Population
GDP
(PPP)
GDP per
Capita (PPP)
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FLIGHT
TIMES FROM
SINGAPORE
Singapore is ideally geographically positioned to act as
a hub for all the major cities and countries.






















































































Ku
ala Lum
pu
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1hrSingapore6hr3.30hr2.30hr8hr5hr5.30hr10hrJa
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2hr4.30hr7.30hrH
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h
\
Ban
gk
ok
M
an
ila
Ta
ip
ei
Sh
an
gh
ai
M
um
ba
i
Be
ijing
\
N
ew
D
el
hi \
Hong K
ong
Toky
o
\
Seoul

Mel
bour
ne

Sy
dney
Auck
land
6.30hr55
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As an active investor in technology firms with global ambitions, it
is vital for us to understand the opportunities, challenges and risks
presented by China.

THE CHINA TECH SCENE
Starting at the top, there are three companies you really need to
know: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent - commonly referred to as BAT.
Baidu dominates search, Alibaba has cornered e-commerce, and
Tencent is the king of social media and gaming.
Each of these companies is incredibly powerful and frequently
makes strategic investments in international businesses - from
executing Joint Ventures with international companies coming
to China, through to investing in international venture funds.
Competition is intense. Each move these tech titans makes sends
ripples through the rest of the Chinese tech industry; and they are
all hungry for more growth. They set the trends in the market.
While most historical tech investment and focus in China has been
on B2C, B2B is increasingly of interest; there is particular appetite
for B2B2C players. This is really just a natural development of the
domestic economy as labor wages rise, producing an increasing
requirement for operational improvement. Some of the largest
funds operating in China (including Softbank and Sequoia) are
putting a lot of time and effort into B2B investing.
REFLEC-
TIONS ON
CHINA
Patrick Norris, Partner at Notion
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It is imperative to develop a small number
of high value relationships in the region
before you make any major investments.
ABOVE ALL, FIND A LOCAL
For foreign startups looking to break into the
market, it is imperative to develop a small number
of high value relationships in the region before
you make any major investments. Access to the
right people is hard to achieve but worth the
effort - it will save you a lot of time and money.
Chinese government members and powerful
family connections are still incredibly important
to accessing and successfully operating in China.
A highly influential local partner is critical.
Identifying and connecting with trustworthy
local investors is more important than ever to
doing business in China (i.e. a fund or family
office). It is particularly helpful to do extensive
due diligence on local teams that you may be
seeking to work with, as legally, to operate in
China, you will need to conduct a JV or acquire
a Chinese company. In addition, since by law
51% or more of a JV must be owned by a Chinese
company, there are a plenty of horror stories of
international companies losing out in dramatic
style.
A FEW WORDS OF CAUTION
There are further considerations to bear in mind
when expanding into the Chinese market:
- The Chinese government has stated a domestic
strategic goal to cease relying on international
technology companies by 2020 in favour of
domestic firms making up the bulk of service
providers. The regulatory deck is often stacked
against foreign tech ventures in favor of
domestic players. This factor deserves serious
consideration when looking at the long term
suitability of China as a place to do business.
-
In order to gain access into the Chinese
market, large foreign technology companies
are often required to base very high value
R&D roles within China. For example, the
government demanded that Microsoft's source
code for Windows and Office be developed
in China. As these burdensome demands
have continued to increase from the Chinese
government, large tech companies from the
US have left the country for IP safety reasons.
However, these companies have also left
large teams of former employees comprised
of Chinese nationals in-country. They have
in-depth IP knowledge and are starting to
build very cutting edge copycat products. Just
as China has long been known for copycat
hardware and products, the same trend
now extends very much to all technologies.
- Lastly, the degree of competition is incredibly
high and exceeds anything in terms of
development speed, resource and intensity that
most of us have ever experienced in Europe,
the US, or even the hotbed of Silicon Valley.
The work hours in Chinese tech companies are
referred to as the "996" - working from 9am to
9pm, 6 days a week - something unheard of in
other tech centres around the world.
Elsewhere in this study, every one of our
commentators with experience of China has
noted the importance of local connections and
patronage, both culturally and in the enforced
system of JVs. But perhaps most exciting is
the pace of change here. The government,
particularly under President Xi's ambitious
and unfettered plans, is connecting talent
with funding to accelerate China's technology
expertise beyond all expectations.
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THINK-
ING
ABOUT
ASIA


Currencycloud is a cloud based, cross-border payment engine. In
the complicated payments processing ecosystem, its clients are
businesses who want to build an international payment component
into the transactions that they handle.

With international payments at the heart of the business, it is no
surprise that the company has made inroads into Asian economies.
CEO, Mike Laven, says, "For 2017, Currencycloud is on track to
generate a modest amount of revenues from Asia-based companies
who are buying services that we offer out of the UK and the US.
These include Australian, Singaporean, Chinese, and Hong Kong
based entities, but we see enormous potential and it's a major focus
for us - and a personal objective for me - to expand our share of
revenues to more than 10% from Asia in 2018 and 20% in 2019."
Like many high-growth businesses, the key challenge is resourcing.
Interview with Mike Laven
CEO of Currencycloud
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The one thing I truly believe is that for
any company such as ourselves to
succeed in China - or in any of the Asian
countries - is to get local investment.
Our current levels of staffing and investment mean we can't do as
thorough a job as I would like", says Mike. "We have allocated some
resources to the region and have gained 25 customers, but it is
nowhere near enough. To do Asia seriously, we need to come up
with a comprehensive strategy and finance it accordingly. This
especially applies to China as it grows we will also have a support
requirement that we won't be able to service from Europe. As a first
step we established a Singapore subsidiary two years ago that will
act as our hub for the region."
Initial forays have been via partnerships and direct-to-client, but
Currencycloud's ongoing approach is to formalise a market strategy.
Mike says, "We have signed a significant partnership with a Chinese
firm who specialises in supporting international Chinese students
and we have scored a big deal with Hyundai in Korea which is
exciting. However, while we have made many trips to China most
of our deals have been scattered amongst different clients. We have
just recently in February 2018 formed a working group, laid out a
detailed plan and started to push."
"The thing that has changed the most in recent years in Asia is the
opportunity of China, which overwhelms everything else.
Currencycloud is quite late to address this, but that's not necessarily
a bad thing."

A REALISTIC APPROACH TO ASIA
Laven's experience has led him to consider Asia as four distinct
regions that must be approached differently. Even within these
regions, there are of course many more local nuances and
challenges; but for simplicity the overriding territorial segments
are:
1. English speaking - Australia, NZ, HK, Singapore.
2. ASEAN - Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia,
and the Philippines
3. North Asia - South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan
4. China
1. ENGLISH SPEAKING
The Asian region is enormous and incredibly diverse. However, as
a European company, one of the main starting points is to think
about the markets represented by English as the first or dominant
language.

"Australia and New Zealand are two obvious starting points and the

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entry point for many European and US companies. Talent is good,
and there is a strong similarity in terms of culture. But as individual
economies, they are small by Asian standards and quite distant
from the other Asian hubs."
"Hong Kong and Singapore are both interesting, with English as the
business language. Both have quite distinct advantages and
disadvantages - Hong Kong as a possible entry point to China and
Singapore as a route into South-East Asia. Singapore in particular is
very accessible, indeed welcoming, to international companies and
both are actively building vibrant start-up ecosystems."

2. ASEAN - THE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
Since its formation on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, the ASEAN organisation's
membership has expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar and Vietnam.
"The stated purpose of this group is to accelerate the economic
growth, social progress and cultural development in the region
through joint endeavours. And while that is the case, these
countries are still very different and best served through Singapore.
3. NORTH ASIA KOREA, TAIWAN, JAPAN
"Japan is of course one of the world's largest economies. But it is a
very difficult market to address with linguistic, technical and
regulatory obstacles. As I have a lot of experience opening in Japan,
early on we sought a Japanese investor who could help us to open
the market when I felt we were ready. We will be able to focus on
Japan this year and our investor - Rakuten - is helping us.

Along the same lines, we sought a partnership in South Korea and
now have a developing relationship with Hyundai.
Both of these markets are large and rewarding, but difficult; and for
us best approached with a partner.
The stated purpose of this group is to
accelerate the economic growth, social
progress and cultural development in the
region through joint endeavours.
4. CHINA
"There are major cash flows from Asia to the West and vice versa
and most revolve around suppliers in the east fueling consumption
in the West. In China alone, there are over 10,000 companies re-
selling their goods on Amazon!"

"Though consumer finance in China is quite automated and
supports rich suites of online services through giants like Tencent
and Alibaba, B2B banking is still fairly backward. Also, the
regulatory environment is very obscure. Though the opportunity
for moving funds to/from China dwarfs all other Asian markets
and even the US or Europe, we need to enter carefully for regulatory
and compliance reasons. For the past year, learning about China
has been a major focus: with multiple trips, participation in events
and working with key customers. We're now working on our
market plan."

"The one thing I truly believe is that for any company like ours to
succeed in China - in fact in any of the Asian countries - is to source
local investment. We were fortunate to have Rakuten come in on
our C-Round and they are proving invaluable to us as we navigate
the opportunity, but at the next round we will ideally need a
Chinese investor."
ACCORDING TO MIKE
1. Secure local investment partners.
2. Create a local strategy and finance accordingly
3. Strategy starts with 'who's the customer' - for example we only
do business with companies doing global trade east / west
which narrows it down.
4. Establish a presence in Singapore to service the region
5. Enter, learn and only then expand.

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JUMPING THE
TENTH
PARALLEL:
Australia is often considered a stepping stone to South East Asian
markets. For businesses incubated in Australia, South East Asia
is as natural a progression as Europe is for UK businesses; so
companies looking to move into the SEA region can find plenty of
experienced talent (and horror stories) Down Under.
Australia is, of course, also English-speaking and Westernised,
and a significant market in its own right; so it is a gateway to
SEA with its own deep pockets. For an insight into the leap from
Australia to SEA, we spoke to Tim Andrew, CEO of Localz.
FROM AUSTRALIA TO SOUTH EAST ASIA
Interview with Tim Andrew
CEO of Localz
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join the first JLab program in London (the John
Lewis Partnership's startup incubation scheme
focused on the retail technology horizon). We got
through to the top five and went on to win the
whole thing.
That project opened a lot of doors, and not long
after we started landing clients like DPD, the
courier. That early success was a catalyst to move
back to London, and shortly after we raised a
Series A round with Notion.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM
YOUR TIME IN AUSTRALIA?
"The Aussie roots thing is interesting because
we clearly share certain characteristics with
other start-ups from that part of the world. First,
we focus on building an awesome business and
we're not 'hype merchants'. We also believe in
GDP: "the global domination package"; which is
typically Aussie, as you generally need to grow
outside of Australia to build a big business.
Time and again, we've seen SaaS companies
from Australia like Atlassian, Envato and more
recently Canva, do things the GDP way: focus
on building awesome global businesses first and
then if big opportunities come along, we'll have a
crack at them. When the opportunity to join JLab
came along, we were actively planning to focus
on South East Asia; it is only circumstance and
the remarkable opportunity presented by JLab
that led us to London instead.

Another Aussie trait that we share is the
relationship-led approach to business. This is
partly due to the fact that, despite Australia being
a huge country, it only has a small population.
From the beginning, an Australian entrepreneur
knows that to build a big business, they will
have to service customers at a great distance
domestically and then leave the country. To do
that, you have to focus on building relationships
through partnerships and JVs.
Localz provides a location orchestration platform
that powers the "last mile" experience, helping
clients deliver goods and services to their
customers using the most efficient and effective
means possible whilst providing a high degree of
transparency along the way. Made in Melbourne,
Australia, but sold globally, Localz makes last
mile innovations work for enterprises in the real
world, at scale.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE...
"I was finishing university and working on a
ferry out of Portsmouth when I met my future
wife - an Aussie - who's visa was about to expire. I
ditched my plans to open an 8-ball pool bar in the
Caribbean and followed her back to Australia. I
figured I'd stay for a few months, but I came back
20 years later with my wife Tam and four kids
in tow!

My first job in Melbourne was with Cricket
Australia,
selling sponsorship/media rights,
before being recruited to NAB to head up their
sponsorship team. I then spent eight years
moving around and upwards in the bank.
While I was there, I realized that there were
only two meetings that were actually directly
impacting on the immediate performance of the
bank: those involving pricing and those involving
risk. And as I wasn't the leader of either, I decided
to move on.

I left to set up Split It - a transparent commission
marketplace to split deals with consumers and
raised some money to get the operation started.
It was reasonably successful but not brilliant,
and I spent a little under three years there before
deciding to sell the business.

As that was wrapping up, I started Localz with
my co-founders, CTO Melvin Artemas and
Product Director, Pete Williams. Within the
first six months we were invited to pitch to
HOW WOULD YOU THINK
ABOUT SOUTH EAST ASIA?
"South East Asia is hard. People who don't
understand it refer to it as an amorphous blob.
You may think you've got "a strategy for Asia",
but it's a region of very large and very different
countries. While we felt we had an advantage
when looking at Singapore as the next place to
expand, once the JLab opportunity came along,
the UK seemed the right place to start.
Now our plan is to expand out of the UK to the
US first and then cycle back to target one or two
specific countries in South East Asia. We believe
our strength lies in our skills in commercializing
opportunities and building strong partnerships,
so far from having a locked down roadmap or
geographical plan, we will be led by market
conditions and partner opportunities.
And those partnerships are essential in the
SEA region. Those who don't understand the
cultural and commercial nuances in these wildly
different countries often try to set up standalone
operations. But I don't know of anyone who has
succeeded in the region without a local partner to
lead or JV with.
WHICH ASIAN COUNTRIES
WOULD YOU TARGET?
"From Australia, it's key to establish a base within
hopping distance. Singapore and Hong Kong
both have highly developed ecosystems and are
both startup-friendly. However, you run into the
problem of both being small addressable markets;
so while you may start there, you will quickly
have to broaden elsewhere in the region.

Vietnam and Indonesia are interesting because
of their rapidly growing tech sectors and their
enormous populations. With a large and emerging
middle class, and their comfort with ecommerce,
they are a burgeoning delivery market. Their
focus on mobile experience - like many Asian
territories - is allowing them to leapfrog the
market in terms of last-minute delivery, but
Localz can deliver huge improvements in
capability.
Both have their complexities too. For example,
while Indonesia has a huge 200 million
population,
it's spread across hundreds of
islands with awful traffic in the big cities. And
parochialism can be challenging. I worked at one
stage with an Indonesian who started a business
selling flights online. Yet he still had to set up a
network of individual travel agents, who would
then sell to their local communities. Customers
did not trust buying from a website with no local
presence for recourse in case something went
wrong.

And then there's Thailand. It's home to many
Australian ex-pats, plus they have incredible
technical resources and a massive market
opportunity, but low GDP per head.
KEY LESSONS
1. Don't think of Southeast Asia as a whole:
these are massive, distinct, and very
different markets and you will need the
help of local people to navigate the market.
2. Work with people you trust. Take the long
view and build up relationships over time.
3. You will need to localize your product/
service for each market. This may
require structural changes to both
product and commercial approach.
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Frank Meehan is Founder and CEO of SmartUp, a mobile-first
"micro-learning platform for the smartphone generation" which
counts the employees of some of the world's largest brands among
its learners.
Born and raised in Australia, Frank is a global citizen having
garnered commercial experience on four continents before the age
of 30. "I did a degree in mechanical engineering in Sweden after
a short stint at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sydney", he
says. "My first job was as a coder and troubleshooter for Ericsson
in Sweden, from where I was sent around the world to hack into
switches and fix things on the side. By the time I was 25, I was
building phone surveillance systems for governments in Asia and
South America, which was an interesting start to my work life."
His career accelerated with the birth of 3G. Today, we have a
good idea of what new iterations in bandwidth and capacity will
achieve, but 3G's unveiling was a free-for-all between companies,
governments and regulators - often all with embryonic knowledge.

Interview with Frank Meehan
CEO and Founder at SmartUp
LEARNING
HOW TO DO
BUSINESS IN
ASIA
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Frank had a knack for telling a story and found himself in
Singapore, lobbying for European 3G networks trying to crack
the Asian market ahead of their US competitors. "We formed a
massive marketing conference to visualise what 3G could do and
coupled it with a roadshow which was very successful. By the time
I was 28, I was in charge of sales for 3G in the UK with a team
of 200 people and my first job was to cut the workforce in half.
I was also in charge of bidding for licenses in the 3G spectrum
auctions. Hutchison won the contract and recruited me to run
their engineering function in order to make 3G work with Lucent,
Nortel, Ericsson, and Nokia devices. From there, I worked with a
large team of engineers and UX designers while being responsible
for all their handsets built around the world, bouncing back and
forth between Hong Kong and the UK."
His globetrotting continued at Horizon Ventures in Hong Kong
("where I got to see a lot of good and bad things about working with
family offices and tech around the world") and SparkLabs Global
Ventures, now the dominant startup player in Hong Kong, Korea,
China, and Taiwan, before leaving to launch SmartUp.
As an entrepreneur with a global footprint, Frank has a particularly
balanced perspective and says that despite the heterogeneous
nature of the Asian region, there is plenty to support the spark of
a high-growth business. "I have often found it easier to do business
in Asia and in the US than in Europe, because things just move
faster", he says. "The workforce is less hierarchical and people are
prepared to make decisions. There's a pressure to move fast, so
people get things done."
That's not to say each territory is the same, or even worth the
effort. Meehan finds India particularly challenging. "In India,
everything is about price - it's always a race to the bottom", he says.
"It reminds me of the saying 'to know the price of everything, but
the value of nothing' - which makes differentiation particularly
hard in technology. While I was at Ericsson, we spent a lot of time
working on a value add pitch and got nowhere. Eventually we gave
Business in China is focused
around Shenzhen, Shanghai, and
Beijing. . In all three, expect to
find plenty of talent and ambition.
in and focused on selling handsets at the lowest
price point even if they weren't new - and sold
them by the lorry load."
Meanwhile, he has some quick tips on other
countries in the region:
SOUTH EAST ASIA
"It's a massive region, but 80% of large South
East Asian companies are headquartered in
Singapore. The countries are relatively similar
but it can be challenging to get your money
out. Corruption levels can also be high, so to do
business, it is really about who you know."
CHINA
"In general, the Chinese really understand
the concept and impact of a product's value
rather than focusing on just the price, so
understanding value in the market is crucial to
making money. However, it requires excellent
in-market knowledge - and be sure to work
with high quality business partners. Business in
China is focused around Shenzhen, Shanghai,
and Beijing. In all three, expect to find plenty
of talent and ambition: China is no longer
focused exclusively on hardware; software is
now booming, too. For technology, you probably
want to focus on Shenzhen more than Beijing
because you can move to Hong Kong more
easily. If you aren't ready to tackle China, just
as with the SEA region, establish a base in
Singapore first: it's rich in talent."
HONG KONG
"Having mentioned Hong Kong, whilst it's
a strong and unique market with the ex-UK
connection, it's not the place for a home base
in China. Hong Kong has very little start-up
mentality because their focus is entirely in the
traditional property and banking sectors."
KOREA
"Korea is tremendously interesting and vibrant.
There are plenty of young founders who have
been well educated in the US and moved back
home with all that knowledge and an incredible
work ethic. They work extremely hard and want
to conquer the world. They also understand
China very well."
JAPAN
"Japan has always been a technology
powerhouse, but that doesn't make it an easy
sell. The country's business structure is very
inward focused and still dominated by major
family-run concerns, plus it is culturally unique;
so it is extremely hard for outsiders to gain a
foothold."
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
"Finally, these huge countries. They will give
you a false sense of promise, because whilst
they're culturally familiar, the markets are small.
And they will involve feats of travel to manage."

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DOING BUSINESS IN
CHINA
Tradeshift is a cloud-based business network connecting buyers
and suppliers around the world. It was founded in Copenhagen in
2010 by Christian Lanng, Mikkel Hippe Brun and Gert Sylvest.
All three have hugely entrepreneurial backgrounds: Mikkel
co-founded one of the first catalogue and database publishing
companies to leverage XML technologies before working with the
Danish government to roll out technology-driven services across
the country. He was Denmark's XML guru and, with Christian,
built Danish invoicing infrastructure e-billing systems for both
business to government (B2G) and business to business (B2B).
Interview with Mikkel Hippe Brun,
Co-founder and SVP APAC, Tradeshift
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It made obvious sense to leverage all the knowledge
they had on ebusiness and ecommerce from both
the entrepreneurial and regulatory standpoints,
and so Tradeshift was born. Says Mikkel, "We
didn't want to just be the best e-billing business,
we wanted to be the best business to business
platform for commerce around the world. We
knew that this could be huge and from really
early on we decided we would not settle for
second place: it wasn't about the money but about
creating something unique and enduring."
Today, Mikkel has particular responsibility for
Asia, serving as Tradeshift's Senior Vice President,
APAC. Singapore-based Scentan Ventures made
a significant investment in Tradeshift, which
included rights to operate the platform in Japan;
so Mikkel's focus has been expansion in Greater
China.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY INTO CHINA
"We started looking at China four years ago. We
were incredibly excited that if we were going to
make one big bet, it should be on China. So we
created an R&D hub in China and engaged a local
government affairs firm to advise us on how and
where to set up."
"We wanted to locate somewhere with the best
talent, but we wanted to avoid the Silicon Valley
salaries found in Tier 1 cities - along with the
talent retention problem that environment
creates. We chose Suzhou, a Tier 2 city (still 13m
inhabitants strong!) which benefits from being
just outside Shanghai. Another attractive city is
Hangzhou - where Alibaba was founded - just
half an hour out of Shanghai by bullet train."
"Tradeshift's reputation was helpful. Being a
Silicon Valley startup meant it was attractive
to prospective employees to leave their jobs at
Microsoft or Oracle to work for us and get all the
benefits of a hot Silicon Valley startup: the pool
table and ping pong etc. Plus, we have a flexible
working regime."

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE LOOKING
FOR JOINT VENTURE PARTNERS?
Tradeshift spent the first two years in China
learning, building a network, and looking for a
JV partner. Mikkel explains, "A big part of our
value proposition is invoicing, which is very
sensitive: only Chinese companies can access the
"Golden Tax System", a government controlled tax
infrastructure where all invoices are registered
centrally in real time. So we needed a JV to
validate our proposition in China."
"Tradeshift is now the only western company
with access to the Chinese Golden Tax System;
through our JV partner."
Tradeshift is now the only
western company with access to
the Chinese Golden Tax System
through their JV partner.
Mikkel continues, "On the flip side, doing a JV
is high risk. You rarely hear about successful
Chinese JVs in tech because they often go sour.
It can be difficult to find a good partner: We have
met many potential JV partners, where it turns
out that we have different goals for the business,
so it can be a difficult territory to navigate for a
foreign company.
Furthermore, the whole JV process can be a very
long. At one stage we were in conversation with
a company offering a global satellite network
for broadband who were looking for a business
partner to connect their customers all around the
world. It made sense, but we were just a smaller
part of their plans so we ended up working in
circles. The final goal of the potential partnership
was always three months away, plus there were
technical integration barriers. In the end, I
stopped the negotiations and started from scratch
to find a partner with a more equal balance of
power."
When China was approaching the deadline for a
major tax reform, Tradeshift was approached by
a company called Baiwang. "Mikkel says, "They
had access to the Golden Tax System, but needed
a tech partner. So we entered a JV with them."
HOW DID THE BAIWANG RELATIONSHIP GO?
Baiwang - and its clients - were not familiar with
cloud or the notion of a platform. Mikkel says, "In
China, especially in traditional business, what you
do as a tech company is what the customer wants.
Since customers wanted their own data centres
and customisations, we focused on delivering
that instead of a single technology layer"

"Tradeshift was born in the cloud, but suddenly
we found ourselves building products in private
clouds and managing multiple on-premise
systems with no access to the data centres. These
implementations cost us hugely on maintenance,
but we have been following the traditional
Chinese way of doing business and following the
customers wishes.

Even though this is not the way we usually would
do it, we went along with it, thinking we could
migrate customers to the cloud at a later stage.
We were working insanely hard to go live across
China in May 2016. We succeeded, but due to
the on-premise solutions the revenue did not
materialize.
At a certain point we found the JV structure
difficult, and we decided to restructure to align
better with our global values.
Our philosophy had been that we would operate
and support their business, but our focus needed
to be Tradeshift."

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Tradeshift has now restructured to place the
"Baiwang Tradeshift Joint Venture" underneath
Tradeshift China.
He continues, "Moving the operations under
Tradeshift China was challenging, but we are
now achieving major milestones. We've rolled
Tradeshift out with Amazon, we've secured new
global corporate customers and some big local
Chinese companies such as Sunwoda, Dahua and
Zijin Mining."

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?
"In China, people look for an edge. Any book on
doing business in China will tell you this. There
is no such thing as being a friend with your
partners: it's just business. They will always look
for the upper hand and you must do the same.
So, to succeed in China you need a strong
Chinese team and to pursue your own agenda.
We have no Westerners in leadership positions,
but I hand-picked everyone as I believe the most
important thing you can do is to find people you
trust. Then, learn and come up with your own
strategy."
HOW ARE YOU SUCCEEDING IN CHINA?
Notwithstanding the challenges, Mikkel
is
adamant Baiwang has been a really good choice.
He explains, "Baiwang are closely associated
with the tax authorities, so being associated with
the brand opens a lot of doors for us. As a result,
we have access to the finance leaders in all of the
biggest companies. Creating familiarity is critical
and this partnership has done that for us."
"Next, you need to understand what's really
important in the local market. For our clients, it's
ensuring that there are no fake invoices on their
system, it's a simple as that. We keep CFO's out
of jail which is a pretty strong value proposition
for any executive, but especially a CFO from a
western country."
HOW DO YOU SELL?
"With locals. We have 5-6 deals using five
Chinese engineers who have cross-trained into
salespeople, plus one Account Executive in
Stockholm supporting them. Imagine if we had
real sales people in China!"

WHAT'S NEXT?
Tradeshift is moving to the next phase of growth.
Mikkel continues, "We have product-market fit
and so we are hiring 30 people in sales in China.
There is a long ramp in China, but the sky's
the limit. We have a window of 18-24 months
before any of our other major competitors have
significant access. Our JV with Baiwang and the
If you plan to do business in China
you'd better read The Art of War
by Sun Tzu. Five or six times.
access it gives to the Golden Tax System gives us
a good shot at the market"
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TEAM.
"We have now reached a size where we really
need a local leader. Until six months ago, my plan
was to hire the GM early, but my government
affairs advisers told me that was a dangerous
move. We interviewed a few people, but the
salary expectations were exorbitant: they all had
US college degrees and wanted out-of-this-world
benefits. They also want to bring in their own
team."
MIKKEL'S ADVICE IS TO HIRE A GREAT TEAM,
BUT RETAIN OVERALL CONTROL.
He explains, "Hire a deputy GM, and retain
overall authority but give the team autonomy.
And don't do a matrix organisation: we started
with a matrix and it didn't work. You will hear
again and again "you don't understand China" -
which is frankly correct!"
"So our priorities right now are building out a
team and creating a strong culture that works."

MIKKEL'S CHINESE TAKEAWAYS
Be skeptical about the people you meet. "I'm a
trusting person, but in China I have become a
lot more wary."
Read Doing business in China for Dummies. I
had a checklist of mistakes that I really didn't
want to make, but I still did.
Tenacity is key. Most companies would have left
after what we've been through, but I won't give
up. That said, if you don't have the long-term
vision to warrant fighting even with a bloody
nose, then don't do it. We are determined to be
the one-in-a-thousand success story.

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Triptease is the global champion of the hotel direct booking
movement, with more than 17,000 hotels on their platform around
the world. Naturally, that has required many of the senior team at
Triptease to travel extensively, and Peter Crosby, the company's
former CRO has good form in this area - in his previous role as
Chief Emerging Markets Officer at Viadeo, he travelled to China
40 times in 52 weeks.
At Viadeo, the social networking platform out of France, Peter
was responsible for opening up multiple new markets. He says,
"Of all my international activities, my time working in China was
the most incredible."
BUILDING
PLATFORMS
IN CHINA


Interview with Peter Crosby
Former CRO, at Triptease
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"It was brutal but so much fun. I had already worked in Russia
and Africa, yet China couldn't have been more different. We had
acquired Tianji (a business social networking site) in 2008, and I
acted as interim CEO for 8 months while we hired a new local
leader."
"As we now had two platforms: one outside the Chinese firewall,
and one inside, we had to build an invisible platform beneath
which deployed selected features to one, the other, or both. This is
really important because even at a high level, the user expectations
of an online experience in China are very different than those in
the West. Chinese users, for example, like to see a lot on the page,
while the trend in Europe is towards pages which are very clean.
It's a huge cultural difference.
Aside of UX expectations, the very function of a site (particularly
a social media venture which can fill many roles in users' lives)
can be different. Says Peter, "People were using our network for
dating - which had never happened before in other markets - but
when you understand the social backdrop, it made a lot of sense.
Users were most likely an only child, and were also looking after
their ageing family. In addition, because there is such pressure
to succeed, they were also likely to work incredibly long hours.
Finally, because of the one child policy, China also ended up with
more men than women; so both men and women were using our
network for dating. And why not?"
Every entrepreneur expects a new country to have its own culture
- both for customers and in the office. Peter says that China's
culture is best described as intense: "When I went to France, I
couldn't believe how employees behaved in the workplace, and yet
it worked. The same can be said for China. It's simply a different
culture with different norms and behaviours. No quarter is given
in life or in business: everyone is up for a fight, everyone is trying
to move faster.
"And local startups have access to more money
than you, so if you are entering the market you
will have to execute ruthlessly. You must have
strong partners, because the power of your
network is critical. The wheels of commerce are
entirely about who you know. Similarly, if you
try to expand your business in China without
making an acquisition, you will fail."
"Finally, remember the sheer scale of the country.
When a company opens up in Beijing, they are
not servicing China. They are only in Beijing.
The distance between Beijing and Shanghai is
enormous, so in many ways you are better off
treating them as distinct markets."


PETER'S CHINESE TAKEAWAYS
1. The working culture is different. Embrace it.
2. Competition is ruthless, so prepare for the
pressure.
3. Competitors move fast and will be better
funded, so consider carefully whether you
can really succeed.
4. Everyone is up for a fight.
5. Think of Chinese cities as distinct markets
rather than trying for the whole country.
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John Eng is CMO of NewVoiceMedia and has almost 20 years'
experience doing business in China. Thanks to top-tier experience
in some of the world's best-known technology businesses, he was
able to give us an invaluable primer into working in the world's
largest market.
"I started my career as a product specialist with Microsoft in 1999,
working with Bill Baker creating programmes for global execution
on the launch of SQL Server Business Intelligence. In 2005 I
moved to a field operations role in the US, responsible for demand
generation, where I experienced first hand the challenges of
executing global programmes in the field and being accountable for
a bookings target. This was followed by a stint at Microsoft France
kicking off SQL Server 2005; again evangelising and building the
market."
"In 2007, presented with the opportunity of a stint in Eastern
Europe or China, as a second generation Chinese immigrant and
native speaker, I jumped at the chance at the latter. So followed a
two year crash course in how to do business in China."
BREAKING INTO
THE CHINESE
MARKET
Interview with John Eng
CMO of NewVoiceMedia
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"As the Chief of Staff to Tim Chen, CEO of
Microsoft China, I had a front row seat in
the highest level discussions in the region; as
Microsoft tried to legitimize their business -
fighting piracy and persuading customers to
buy software licenses legally. While Microsoft
had a very high market share, and nearly every
developer was using .NET and SQL Server, almost
no one was actually paying for it."
CRACKING CHINA
"We understood that our best bet was to pursue
a strategy of aligning ourselves to the objectives
of the Chinese government. At the time, a key
objective of China's route to becoming a major
world player was to gain soft power through
vehicles like the World Trade Organization.
So we worked with the government and
with various large organisations such as the
telecommunications providers to help them
raise their visibility with the WTO. Within three
years, China was the best performing subsidiary
in Microsoft."
"We quickly learned that China was unique in
many ways. What worked in other territories
didn't work there; and equally, what worked well
in China would not translate into other regions.
And as a new entrant, you need to work this out
fast. Key lessons include:
1. The combination of a strong and centralized
government system with a capitalist
mentality means that when both aspects are
being satisfied, change can happen very fast.
2. Solution-selling does not work: it was - and
is - all about relationships. We hired lots of
people purely for their contacts and often
one phone call was all it took to open a door.
In China it really is all about two things -
understanding the government agenda and who
you know.
EXPORTING THE SAME PHILOSOPHY
TO LINKEDIN APAC
"I joined LinkedIn in 2011, as the company's
sixth employee in the APAC HQ, responsible for
expansion and monetization. One of my key tasks
was to help the company succeed in Australia,
India, China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and
other growing parts of Asia; and I combined
many of my lessons from Microsoft to help
LinkedIn develop a strategy that again aligned
with government priorities. I worked with a
talented multi-functional 'China' team in HQ and
in-region so that we could understand the market
requirements and act with precision."
"I strongly recommend that anyone considering
entering China familiarize themselves with the
five year plans - in particular the 11th, 12th and 13th
- this is how you align with government priorities.
"At the time we were entering the market, there
was a big focus on upward mobility as workers
moved from factory-based, low-skilled work to
an information and talent based economy. There
was encouragement for stronger international
connections between English-speaking Chinese
China's Five Year Plans are formalised and highly publicised government
strategic commitments. They are effectively inviolable, so companies
which visibly contribute to the Plans will be welcomed, and those which
don't will have a (probably impossible) mountain to climb.
The Five Year Plans are strong expressions of economic and social
ambition; for example highlights of the 13th Plan (2016-2020) include:

-
Innovation: moving from heavy industry to providing digital
services

- Welfare: redressing the balance between urban and rural

- Environment: promoting green culture and business

- Entrepreneurship: "Everyone is an entrepreneur, creativity of the
masses"

- Manufacturing: a "Made in China 2025" policy, with particular focus
on product quality and the nurturing of academic research into
commercial success

- Society: "Economy needs a Rule of Law"
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executives and their peers around the world, in particular North
America."
"At LinkedIn, we knew that we were well positioned to help on
both of these counts. However, we also understood that there
were some areas of our product that were not acceptable to the
Chinese ethos, such as any form of news feed and, at that time,
video; so we removed those features from the product.
IN THE END WE HAD TWO PARALLEL WORK STREAMS:
1. Help Chinese multinationals recruit and build their brands
outside of China; and
2. Develop the Chinese professional social network market
and build our monetization for the domestic China market.
We started engaging professionals with colleagues and contacts in
other countries and focused on helping them hire internationally
- and the strategy worked.
We couldn't actually sell in China as we didn't have a legal entity;
so we set up a legal entity in Hong Kong, based our go to market
teams out of Singapore and Hong Kong and flew in and out.
Within a few years we had tens of millions of subscribers.
FIVE KEY LESSONS FROM JOHN ENG
ON DOING BUSINESS IN ASIA...
1. There is no monolithic market called 'Asia'. Europe is hard, but
at least there is economic alignment. In Asia there is no such
thing. Different markets are at different points of maturity
and they are all culturally very different - each with different
government agendas that can either help or hinder foreign
investment.

2. Many technology companies eye China
first, as it has the largest potential market;
but I would advise that you enter the China
market carefully and only after you've
been successful in Australia, SEA, etc. It's
fraught with risk, especially as China wants
Chinese technology, which is making things
even harder. Only enter China when you're
resourced to do so and when you have a
great partner - and that might mean last of
all.
3. Identify a favourable target addressable
market (TAM). It should be large but
narrowly defined. Focus on one or two large
TAM geographies at a time.
4. Put your people in-country in the largest
TAM, not necessarily in a jump-off hub like
Singapore, though that may be the home of
your legal entity. It's essential for delivery
teams to be close to their customers.
5. Lastly, because of the complexity of the
market, you will need plenty of management
maturity paired with highly experienced
and local people. Let them learn, and trust
them to run the business because they will
appreciate local nuance much faster than
those based in HQ. Therefore, finding those
with leadership capacity and the ability to
be agile can make a huge difference. Local
competition is fierce and can be much more
agile and advanced than you might think.
...and some country commentary
ANZ is a strong early-adopter IT market.
Many tech companies test their 'version
one' products in ANZ as they have a strong
propensity to adopt early and buy SaaS. It
represents a highly addressable TAM.
Japan is incredibly quality-oriented and a
naturally late adopter. It is therefore possible
to go in too early with a product that just isn't
ready. It is better to learn about the market
first and adjust your product to fit local
requirements as there will be Japan-specific
preferences. Go there with a mature 'version
3' product.
Korea may be an outlier. Generally, I found
millennials there to be very open to adopting
new platforms. On the flip side, those just
slightly older tend to be more conservative
and not as open to foreign tech brands.
In conclusion, many make the mistake of
thinking of Asia as a monolithic market. It's not.
It's a multi-local market with different nuances,
cultures, business norms and needs. There is no
'right' way to attack Asia, but a strong strategy
might be to put people in Australia for a couple
of years and then a second large TAM for a
couple of years too. Then, when you need a hub,
build a HQ in a connected centre like Singapore
to support the rest of the region. From there,
you can overlay functions like regional finance,
HR, operations, marketing, sales, support, etc.
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Parisian-born Serge Zloto is CTO of Scortex, but has spent several
decades travelling the world, building technology solutions in an
extraordinary range of B2B contexts. Unlike some of our other
contributors, his experience in Asia has come from a range of
different commercial engagements, ticking boxes for software,
hardware and mobile. Today, he is embarking on Asian expansion
for Scortex and plans to take the popular route of establishing a
hub in Singapore.
Scortex uses artificial intelligence to offer "Quality Control as a
Service" for manufacturing industries (automotive, steel etc.). While
traditional visual inspections - things like checking barcodes,
making sure screws aren't missing, fluid levels, etc. - are left to
manual or already highly automated operations, Scortex speeds
up complex, expert-level inspections where previously automation
was not possible. For example, the company runs inspections on
assembled car interiors, to spot issues with dashboards and metal
forged parts. Current clients include major manufacturers across
Europe, and the team has grown from five to 14 in one year.
THE
SINGAPORE
HUB
Interview with Serge Zloto
CTO of Scortex
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TELL US ABOUT YOUR CAREER...
"I've spent 22 years of my life outside Europe. I
started off in the telecommunications industry,
designing graphical interfaces for the US Army
on a Department of Defence contract in Boston.
I really enjoyed my time there, and it shaped my
liking for embarking on international ventures.
From there I left for a consultancy and services
company, again designing graphical interfaces.
They had a lot of Pan-European involvement
which led to plenty of travel for me and some
tricky coordination issues. Eventually, I wanted
more sun; so I moved to Sydney where I met my
future wife and worked for Telecom Australia."
"After we got married, we moved to the US west
coast for five years (Cisco and Oracle), then back
to Sydney (Oracle again) and finally Singapore
came calling. I worked on a job designing targeted
data packages for advertisers to reach mobile
users, which was a huge success; but it was hard
to convince the network operators (Singtel etc.)
at that time, because they were milking the SMS
cash cow and didn't see the mobile internet as a
source of revenue. We even launched in Thailand
and achieved 40,000 subscribers within a week -
but ultimately the project ran out of funding."
"I got further experience in Asia by making
a business out of my hobby of building and
flying model helicopters and planes. I designed
a gyroscope for better flight performance and
commercialized it with manufacturing in China
and Malaysia (while carefully keeping the
software and IP local!). I made a pretty good living
out of it, selling around 400 per week, but I wound
it down to pursue a CTO role with a financial data
company. Things were going well and we secured
$1.8M in private investment, but the CEO took
the money and fled overnight to India leaving
us high and dry! It even became an Interpol case
and he's still in hiding to this day. After one more
Ukranian/Singaporean joint venture, we moved
back to France where I joined the co-founders
of Scortex and that - after three continents - is
where I am today."
HOW IS SCORTEX PLANNING
TO TACKLE ASIA?
"Since we're dealing with quality, Japan is an
obvious target market for Scortex. That said, we're
not ready yet to take on that expansion, since we
want establish ourselves on demonstrable success
in Germany first. Currently we're focusing
on manufacturing industries, but our tech is
versatile enough to be applied to other sectors
too; like the agri-food business, pharmaceuticals,
etc. We know it will take some time to crack
manufacturing, so we're wholly focused on that
for now."
"That's why we haven't pushed into Japan yet,
but our CEO has traveled to both South Korea
and Japan to establish initial contacts in each
country. We focused on those specific territories
because of their large and established profiles in
manufacturing."
WHAT STEPS SHOULD COMPANIES MAKE
IN PREPARATION TO EXPAND TO ASIA?

"In general, Singapore is a great place to start
out because of its strong legal framework and
supporting business ecosystem. The government
is incredibly pro-business with lots of grants, tax
breaks, funding, etc. - they are even prepared to
match seed investments 1:1! Extraordinarily, even
if only your parent company is in Singapore and
you own subsidiaries in other Asian countries,
you can still get government support."
"There are other advantages too: everyone
speaks English, and it's convenient to travel from
there to other Asian countries, which is crucial
as face-time is of paramount importance in Asian
culture."
"One drawback is that we found it surprisingly
hard to hire the local technical people we needed.
This need is mitigated by the fact that it is very
easy to get work visas for Singapore, in order to
recruit talent from other countries."
ANY WORDS OF CAUTION FOR
THOSE SEEKING TO GO TO ASIA?
"Each Asian country is different from the next.
My wife is Japanese, and when we moved to
Singapore, she remarked that it was her first time
living in Asia! Each country is highly distinct
and you must adapt your strategy and tactics
appropriately for each culture."
"Employee turnover is very high in both
Singapore and India. People won't hesitate to
switch jobs for a $50 a month difference in salary,
without even telling you or trying to negotiate
with you beforehand. That can make it hard to
conduct business because you may find yourself
having to replace your workforce constantly.
Sometimes locals will change jobs just to get an
upgrade in job title. It's all part of the culture of
prestige there."
"If you manufacture in China, be sure to show
your face often, because serious quality issues
will manifest if you leave processes alone, there.
One of my companies, for example, was sent
batches of product that were simply unusable.
The mentality is just to send you another batch -
no big deal - but of course you would prefer it to
be right first time. For more peace of mind, you
may explore manufacturing in Taiwan. Also, be
very protective over your IP - this can get very
tricky in China."
ANY LAST WORDS OF ADVICE?
"For now, capital is more readily available in the
US than in Asia. In Asia, banks and investors
still ask for comparatively more guarantees and
they're more risk averse. You have to show them
real revenue generation and prove yourself. This
attitude is slowly shifting but culturally it is still
prevalent. That said, it is still easier to access
capital in Asia than in Europe.
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GETTING
ON
MESSAGE
ALLISON+
PARTNERS
Interview with Susie Hughes
Allison+Partners
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Allison+Partners is a new kind of global communications agency,
with 29 offices and more than 300 employees worldwide. The
business was named Holmes Report's 2017 "Digital Agency of the
Year," 2016 "Asia Pacific Corporate Consultancy of the Year" and
2015's "Most Innovative Agency of the Year," as well as PRWeek's
2015 "Midsize Agency of the Year."

Susie Hughes has been with Allison+Partners for more than ten
years. She started in the San Francisco headquarters in 2007,
and since then has worked all around the world. She opened the
London office in 2011 - then Allison+Partners' first office outside
the US - and joined the Singapore office in 2016 to support the
growth of the technology practice; where she now serves as Vice
President.
WHAT IS THE TECHNOLOGY SCENE IN SINGAPORE LIKE?
"In terms of getting involved in the tech scene in Singapore,
I've done a lot of the same things that I did in London. There
is an enthusiastic and fast-growing start-up and technology
scene- as there was in London in 2011. There are many events
and networking opportunities, and people are keen to learn
from each other and exchange ideas. Singapore has long been
recognized as a hub for global business, particularly banking,
and now it is rapidly emerging as a technology hub and an
early adopter of smart technologies such as AI, deep learning
and driverless cars. There is also a lot of support from the
government."

One of the advantages of Singapore is that it's very compact.
Susie explains, "If you take the time and pay it forward, you can
build a great network very rapidly. I have learned a lot from
my network about doing business in Asia, and I've shared my
insights about the tech and media landscapes in the US and UK."
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ALONG THE
WAY?
"Having now worked in three tech markets-
San Francisco, London and Singapore- I
can see that they have a lot in common,
particularly in the early stages. There is a lot
of support and people take pleasure in the
success of others. There is a lot of camaraderie
and sharing of lessons and best practices.
Everyone
participates
and
contributes,
including government bodies. Singapore-
grown companies are starting to have real
impact around the region and the world; and
large markets such as China and the US are
taking an interest."
"There is also a better understanding of
what it means to be a start-up entrepreneur.
Singapore is traditional in many ways and
there's an expectation that young people will
go into traditional professions such as law and
accounting. This is rapidly changing, however,
thanks to government support and the success
of young companies like Carousell."
"Singapore is in an amazing location, surrounded
by many fast-growing and emerging markets
where adoption of mobile technologies is
happening at a staggering pace. There is plenty
of opportunity to use technology to tackle
the challenges that come with this, such as
connectivity and infrastructure, which makes
this a great place for evangelists and tech
enthusiasts."
WHY SHOULD EUROPEAN TECH COMPANIES
CONSIDER ASIA?
"It's a mistake to think about Asia as a single
entity, the same way that it doesn't make sense
to think about Europe as one single addressable
market. There are differences in language,
infrastructure, culture, religion, etc., and so
business leaders who want to set up here need to
take time to get to know it and to avoid making
any assumptions."

"The mobile-first approach to adoption in
places like Indonesia and Philippines means
that they are naturally primed for certain types
of technology businesses. As the middle class
continues to emerge and opportunities grow
for B2C, the opportunity will translate into B2B
sectors too."

"One major challenge of selling B2B tech can be
a lack of infrastructure, and sometimes those
who are tasked with tech adoption and making
decisions for their organizations still need to
be educated about what their businesses need.
That will change, however, as the younger,
'digital-native' generation takes more managerial
responsibility."
WHY SINGAPORE?
Location, location, location. Susie continues,
"600M people are within approximately three to
four hours flight of Singapore, and China is also
very accessible. Within six hours of flying or so,
that number grows closer to 1 billion people."

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As the start-up scene grows, particularly with government
support and initiatives like Smart Nation, Singapore is very open
to companies from elsewhere in the world making their Southeast
Asian or Asian headquarters here. Susie says, "Companies like
Transferwise and Stripe have done exactly that in recent years, so
there's demonstrable track record."

HOW CAN COMPANIES ASPIRING TO COME
HERE UNDERSTAND THE REGION?
"One easy way to become informed is to read local news, such as
Singapore's national dailies, The Straits Times and The Business
Times. Regional news outlets include ChannelNews Asia, and the
BBC has a dedicated news segment about Asia every day- Asia
Business Report."

"There are also a number of professional organizations whose
role is to help establish partnerships and provide support to new
foreign business entities. These include UK Trade & Investment,
the British Chamber of Commerce (BritCham), American Chamber
of Commerce (AmCham) and others."

YOU'RE A COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONAL. HOW IS THE
MARKET DIFFERENT? WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?
"The media landscape is very competitive in Singapore as it's so
small, and like everywhere in the world, news consumption is
changing rapidly."

"However, local, regional and global publications are all open to
news from companies setting up in the region. Look to understand
how some of these publications covered the arrival of other foreign
businesses so you can see what interests them."
"It is very important to have robust, authentic messages as to what
you do, why you are entering the market, why Singapore is a
great place to be for your company and what you
intend to achieve."
WHO HAS MADE THE TRANSITION WELL?
Susie rates Stripe as a great example. "Stripe
arrived from the US a couple of years ago.
Stripe's approach was not to make a lot of noise
when they arrived, but rather to put a regional
head in the market, and then spend time building
partnerships and relationships in advance of
making any kind of announcement."

SUSIE'S CRITERIA FOR DECIDING ON YOUR
ASIAN ROOTS:
1. Talent: First of all, talent availability
is critical; and is a big issue. There is a
technology talent shortage in Singapore
just as in other markets around the world.
In addition to attractive global players
like Facebook and Google, all industries
- law, retail, healthcare - are undergoing
transformation and need tech talent to
help them do that, making it a challenge for
startups to attract people.
2. Government support: In many countries
across Asia, there are major government
initiatives to drive tech for social and
economic good. In Singapore, this is the
Smart Nation initiative. In India it's Digital
India, and in Malaysia, these include the
Transformasi Nasional 2050 and various
other initiatives supported by the Malaysian
Investment Development Authority.
3. Consumer tech adoption trends: For example,
in Indonesia and the Philippines, mobile
is already ubiquitous and commoditised.
Consumers execute most of their
communication on mobile and may never use
a desktop or browser to access the internet.
4. Infrastructure and support for early stage
start-ups: Put simply, how well-trodden
is the tech path? What ecosystem is
already in place? Singapore is a leading
example in the region for this.
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Richard Goddard is the COO and Global Managing Partner
Technology for Selecture, a specialist Digital, Consulting and
Technology advisory and search boutique operating out of
regional hubs in London (Europe), Singapore (Asia) and Melbourne
(ANZ). He has been recruiting since 1991, originally covering the
semiconductor and component markets across Europe and Israel
from his base in the UK.
In 1999, he moved to Germany to open up and build out a business
in Frankfurt and Munich, during which time he also launched
and led the Global Technology Practice for a UK listed recruitment
organization. The business was unified by a focus on specialization
and collaboration across Europe and fledgling operations in
San Francisco and Singapore, to match the dramatic growth of
technology ventures.
In 2006 he moved to Singapore, following many of his clients
into the high-growth Asia markets. Again, he was the pioneer,
opening offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai in response to a need
from clients for leadership hires, especially in the fields of general/
sales management, organizational development and succession
planning to meet high growth opportunities throughout Greater
China and the wider Asia region.
RECRUITING
IN ASIA
Interview with Richard Goddard,
Managing Partner Technology,
Selecture
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Richard says, "Throughout my career, I have opened offices and led
and scaled teams across Asia and Europe. It's a degree of experience
that enables me to understand and address the challenges faced
by clients and candidates as they build out and scale their own
operations. The first half of my career was heavily focused on the
semiconductor and hardware ecosystem whilst the second half
of my career (to-date!) has been focused on enterprise software,
with a specialization in SaaS. As technology evolves, so do I, and
increasingly these two worlds draw ever closer and closer"
SCALING UP IN A FAST-MOVING MARKET
The market has changed as rapidly as the technology. Says Richard,
"The sheer scale of the market is incredible, but also daunting, and
it's been interesting to see it evolve through the lens of the people
I've placed. Companies started by building up their manufacturing
teams. They moved from there to R&D; and now to increasingly
cutting edge deep technology and software. So the region has
come a long way. And over the course of my time in Asia, China
has exploded as a global economic powerhouse with a burgeoning
middle class; India is also growing in the same direction. Every
country is embracing and investing in the impact of technology."
Ten years ago, companies might have felt comfortable approaching
the region with a 'cookie cutter', but these new economic and
technology frontiers demand more nuance. "Companies are taking
the time to understand the markets better, considering not just the
opportunity but also the political and corporate landscapes", says
David Lancefield, Selecture Singapore. "It can be a real minefield.
But along with the need for bespoke treatment of each territory,
there is renewed pressure for speed of execution. It started in mobile
and then spread to e-commerce and now into the enterprise: Asia
loves tech and competition demands breakneck speed. Everyone
has a smartphone. Everyone can complete transactions and pay
with their phones. Everything moves at a pace: the opportunity for
success and failure is everywhere."
Richard believes that to bridge the gap between experience and
execution, high-growth businesses should hire executives who
have already scaled - and perhaps failed - in the region. "They need
to have some battle scars", he says. "Asia is a market where the
sheer pace of growth and diversity of the region means that often
there is a great deal of experiential learning. Failure is often a key
ingredient to succeeding here."
KICK-START YOUR FIRST HIRE
As with all international expansion, there is exponential value in
existing relationships. Richard says "Look for some beachheads:
logos that you can leverage from your domestic market. It's always
worth going after low hanging fruit, to build reference cases and
generate early revenues".
Those beachheads may be cultural as well as commercial. "So
for example ANZ and Singapore are mature economies, but they
understand what a start up does, how cloud businesses work and
why and how they should work with them. So a certain level
of evangelism has already taken place for both customers and
employees."
"Then get a good Business Development specialist who understands
the technology and has a good network; and focus them on some
very tight markets and opportunities. They must learn, adapt and
be seen to be consistent. You can't just fly in and out. Your BD
pioneer must be capable of not only selling, but truly educating
prospects; building relationships and going the extra mile. Asians
expect you to travel to meet them and establish a personal
connection. Committed tenure within Asia is key."
"They must also understand the different sales models needed
for different markets across the region. For example; Australia,
Singapore and Hong Kong are typically more 'value selling'
markets: an understanding of the business case is essential for
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success. China, India and ASEAN are typically more partner
'relationship' driven markets; deep relationships with partners and
customers is essential for success. Korea and Japan, meanwhile, are
typically hybrid markets: leader must both create value and have
deep executive-level relationships with customers. ServiceNow
are doing this really well. James (Jimmy) Fitzgerald, former Head
of APJ for ServiceNow and responsible for scaling in the region
is my exemplar. But there are others such as Salesforce, LinkedIn
(Microsoft), Netsuite (Oracle), Vmware (Dell), Red Hat, Genesys,
Workday that have scaled and executed well. Other major players
such as Adobe, AWS, Dell, Google, HPE, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle,
SAP are also omni-present and successful throughout the region".
"It's also important to look at government programmes, especially
in China with its five year plans, or Singapore's economic strategies
such as Smart Nation and so on. Understanding these programmes
will provide valuable strategic insight and help shape your company
roadmaps". That said, China can still be daunting. Richard advises
startups - especially software vendors - to build a track record in
the rest of Asia; where there is plenty of opportunity for growth,
before tackling the dragon.
Indeed, there has been an explosion of start-up tech oriented
ecosystems in cities across Asia, attracting both home-grown and
international young, tech savvy talent. Along with Singapore,
Stephen Wilson, Selecture Australia recommends Sydney and
Melbourne. ("strong tech hubs with very interesting projects
around fintech and blockchain related technologies"); Jakarta,
Bangkok, Manila etc. are all growing as well.
Even so, Richard still sees Singapore as the gateway to the
wider region. "It's extremely 'plug-and-play'. You'll need either
a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident, or an Employment
Pass holder, who could be a local director nominated through
the holding company. After that, you get a rock-solid corporate
environment that operates much like the UK, alongside a very
active incubator and venture landscape supported by Government
backed initiatives which are committed to making Singapore the
technology start-up hub in Asia. The only trade off is that it's an
expensive place to live!"
The talent market has cooled in recent years, with fewer new
senior players coming to Singapore from abroad; this is mainly
a function of the strong .existing pool of executive talent within
region. However, the urban lifestyle and commitment to technology
means Singapore is seeing an increasing influx of talent in their late
20s and early 30's from across the globe. A strong entrepreneurial
mindset shared amongst millennials both locally and from abroad
is also helping to fuel and staff the startup ecosystem. Says Richard,
"It's a cocktail of talent to be mixed under the right leadership."
THE ASIA TALENT POOL
Naturally, as an executive recruiter, Richard has ample appreciation
of the regional skills base. "The good thing about Asia now is there
is a great pool of talent", he says. All the large enterprise players -
Dell, HPE, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP etc. - have been here a long
time; and they have been key to developing talent in Asia. This has
been supplemented with progressive young talent coming out of
the UK, Europe, the US and ANZ. The result is a very strong pool
of talent."
However, there are even more opportunities, and what has come to
be called a "war for talent" is extreme, particularly as home-grown
whales like Australia's Atlassian compete with local start-ups and
high-growth newcomers. To win that fight, incoming ventures
need a clear vision as to what the wealth creation opportunity for
senior executives looks like. Says Richard, "You must take a broad
and deep approach. Look at your competitors and find the real
success stories. It takes a lot of research to understand what people
have really achieved. And don't discount long-term employees in
the big companies like IBM etc.: they have often moved through
multiple roles and geographies, and I have met many who have
highly entrepreneurial backgrounds and tremendous potential."
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GROWING
BUSINESS
ACROSS
THE
REGION

Arnout Mostert completed his MBA at Insead in 2003, spending
part of his time on the course at their Singapore campus. He had
visited before whilst working for Shell and soon set down roots.
In Singapore for 15 years, he has married, had two children and
set up AccelerAsia, a business development firm that drives the
expansion of fast-growing tech companies into Asia-Pacific and
the Middle East.
"I worked for Interbrand, undertaking brand valuations across
Asia before joining Fallon, an advertising agency, as a Regional
Account Director", says Arnout. "Both companies were quite
regional and this gave me the idea to set up a business in 2006. At
the same time, I got married and my wife had our first baby; so it
was good timing!"
"That business was an internet marketplace focused on the
conference industry, bringing organisers and delegates together
and enabling delegates to make bids for seats. We struggled. The
industry was too fragmented, plus the financial crisis took the
bottom out of the market. We folded that business in 2009 and set
up AccelerAsia; basically talking to companies in the Netherlands
(my home country) not yet doing business in Asia and asking how
we could help them."
"I could post-rationalise our success, but in reality the growth was
very organic. My partners and I all needed to generate income,
but were not at all sure that there would be a long-term market
for our services". There is indeed a strong market for commercial
acceleration in the region, but Arnout puts his success down to
three key factors:
Never using the 'consulting' word: "We are all about no
nonsense growth - rolling up our sleeves, selling stuff and
impacting the top line"
Recruiting the best: "We have surrounded ourselves with good
people, and good results have followed".
Arnout Mostert
AccelerAsia
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Prioritising connections and relationships: "We have built
a very strong network of technology decision-makers in
multinational corporations across the region".
AccelerAsia has focused on enterprise technology companies that
are ready and able to scale in the region - and Arnout feels that the
business is really only scratching the surface of what's possible.
He also says that success in AsiaPac is a sign of global resilience:
"There is no doubt that if you are a company in Western Europe
and you can show that there is demand in AsiaPac, then you can
demonstrate that there is opportunity on a global basis", he says.
"If a company can crack SE Asia then it is a good sign that they are
really offering enormous value."
Perhaps most usefully, his team has treated each client engagement
as a learning opportunity in its own right:
Blue Jeans: "A great early customer for us, with excellent
technology that combined multiple communications platforms
like Skype, Webex and Hangouts. We learned a lot from them
in 18 months, as they were so focused and aggressive."
Media Monks: "A Dutch business that has acquired digital
production houses all over the world. They sit between ad
agencies and production agencies and coordinate resources to
bring costs down tremendously."
Tigertext: "A messaging platform for the healthcare industry,
allowing confidential patient information to be sent to a private
email or phone and then be automatically wiped."
We've worked with companies for whom we have built a
team around a founder, whereas with others we have taken
responsibility for all business development in the region.
KEY LESSONS, JUST DO IT!
"The best way to get started in Asia is to dive in. People will look
at lots of different data points, analyse markets and rank and
prioritise. We simply recommend starting with customers. We
make some calls, reach out to our contacts and set up a week of
meetings for a new customer (which they pay for) and we meet
with 15-20 customers in the week. At the end of the week, we will
analyse those conversations and make some recommendations."
DON'T OVER ANALYSE, JUST GET ON WITH IT.
Asia is not a market.
"We are always open to the fact that we might
not know the market and its opportunities as
well as we thought. We've become ever more
humble over the years and learned more about
the profound differences that exist across the
regions, countries and cities. Our philosophy is
simple. Asia is not a homogenous market; it's
extremely diverse and also very interesting."
Let's learn and find out.
GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER.
"When considering new customers to do
business with, we always take the time to
understand their strength in their home market.
If a company does not have a smooth running
domestic business with strong leadership, then
expansion into Asia will always fail. We really
grill them: how ready are they? Do they have the
right to expand to Asia?"
ARE YOU REALLY READY TO TAKE THIS ON?
Arnout's requirement for strength at home is
well justified, as there are some uphill struggles
ahead for businesses seeking to establish a
foothold in some Asian territories. China comes
with particular caveats: "I can fly to Bangkok
tomorrow and see all the biggest companies and
do business really quickly", he says. "In China,
that's just not possible. In many ways they are
ahead of the West - it is so competitive. But it
is incredibly protracted and bureaucratic to do
business there. There are also huge concerns
around IP and competition."
India, similarly can be frustratingly difficult - but
Arnout sees opportunity there. It is, of course,
a huge market, but whilst growth in China in
many sectors and macroeconomically is slowing,
in India growth continues to be high.
ASIA TECHNOLOGY TRENDS TODAY
Large multinationals, banks and consumer
companies around the region are now well
aligned with cloud and SaaS technologies,
so there is a good opportunity for enterprise
technology providers today.
"There are a few companies right at the cutting
edge of technology", says Arnout. "But in general,
many multinationals are behind the curve; for
example in terms of marketing and consumer
insight. The majority of local companies are still
operating 1990s marketing techniques. But now
there is a big focus on engaging effectively with
the massive flood of consumers, so marketing
teams are increasingly at the forefront of
technology adoption. Leading brands, banks and
telcos are looking closely at this. Fintech is also
hot."
"There is a big focus on employee engagement:
the onboarding of employees and engaging
with them. And finally, of course the consumer
adoption of mobile technology and mobile
payments is driving significant innovation into
that business."
ARNOUT'S ADVICE

Don't over-think the market: talk to
customers and learn.

Respect market differences: they are what
makes working here so rewarding!

Learn fast and keep learning
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TO CONQUER
ASIA, FIRST GO
DEEP IN ANZ
THE
AUSSIE
GATEWAY
ServiceNow was founded on the simple and very SaaS-aligned
idea that work should be easier; that getting simple things done
shouldn't be hard and that complex stuff should be manageable.
Based in Singapore, Jimmy Fitzgerald was Vice President of
ServiceNow for the Asia-Pacific / Japan region from 2013 to early
2018 - growing the business from 15 to 1,000 employees and from
one office to fifteen and with data centres across the region.
Says Jimmy, "We started with IT, creating a 'System of Action' to
streamline and automate unstructured work, eliminating the back
and forth emails, phone calls, and manual processes that waste
time, money, and sap productivity. Today, your entire enterprise
- HR, customer service, security, and beyond - can tap into the
power of the Now Platform to create a better experience for
employees, users, and customers, and transform the way work is
done".
Jimmy Fitzgerald
Global Vice President
Professional Services, ServiceNow
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"why are you not in Asia?". I put up my hand and
moved to Singapore in January 2013."
HOW DID YOU GROW THE
BUSINESS IN ASIAPAC?
"I was head-down in the region for four years;
and I think, in hindsight, we took an unusual
approach. We didn't pilot anything: we went
'all in'. As a company, when we commit, we
lean in and don't do anything by half measures.
The company had confidence that the value
proposition would equally apply to the Asia
Pacific market and was looking to that market to
drive further acceleration in growth.
"On the eve of going public, we were hitting
approximately $200m in revenues around the
world and the challenge from the market to
us was was simple: "your proposition applies
horizontally so you need to grow faster!".
"For the first 18 months, I focused almost
exclusively on people; and we added talent very
fast. During that entire period, I had to do a
weekly headcount forecast. I started by building
an AsiaPac leadership team with senior and
experienced individuals, but who were often
HOW DID YOU END UP IN ASIA?
"I spent my early career with Accenture, IBM and
Shell, all the time working on SAP programmes.
Shell took me to the Netherlands and then
to Australia. I then joined Siebel Systems in
Australia as one of their first employees in the
region, initially as a technical account manager
and then ultimately taking responsibility for
growing and running technical business services
across the region. Along the way, I moved to
Tokyo and then to Singapore; and soon became
known as a guy who knows how to get things
done in Asia.
"Siebel moved me back to Europe to run the
Professional Services business in the region; and
then globally through the acquisition by Oracle."
"I heard about the new CEO at ServiceNow, Frank
Slootman, in 2011 (he is now the Chairman). I
wrote a letter to Frank saying that I could mature
the Professional Services and Partner ecosystem
on the back of our initial coverage from Gartner
who had suggested that this was an area of
improvement, so I ran their Professional Services
business for about two and a half years. We were
doing the IPO roadshow and people were asking
I'd push any start up entering the
Asian region to go big in Australia.
young and on their first major job. So they had
a lot to learn, but also a lot to gain. And those
people built out the teams underneath them.
"Australia and New Zealand quickly became
our #2 market, bigger even than the UK. I'd
push any start up to go big in Australia. Once
we had success in one bank, three months later
everyone in the sector knows you. Also, ANZ is
leaning into cloud in a big way. As a market, I
can't say enough good things about the region.
"I'd push any start up entering the Asian region
to go big in Australia."
"So don't ignore ANZ: it's a relatively easy market.
There may be only ten big companies, but the
deeper you go, the more success you will have.
We were lucky in that we got a great leader in
ANZ, David Oakley, who has now been MD of
ServiceNow in ANZ for five years. He helped us
build a great culture, with a focus on diversity
and high performing teams.
DID YOU MAKE ANY MISTAKES?
"Our biggest mistake was to initially treat the rest
of Asia as one big market. We started selling into
Indonesia and the Philippines and reacting to
inbound leads. If I had my time again, after ANZ,
I would just focus on making Singapore a success
for a couple of years and ignore everything else."
JIMMY'S ADVICE FOR SUCCESS IN ASIA:
1. Pick one, maximum two markets. Focus on
ANZ first and go deep.
2. Focus on one or two markets at a time for
one or two years each.
3. Build a world class team.
4. Define success before you enter each market:
what are the key verticals, and across your
chosen markets which are the 10 'must-
win' logos? This will help you identify what
success looks like across 18-24 months.


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Is it possible to summarise the Asian startup process in less than a
book? We gave the challenge to Gilbert Leong, Senior Partner in
the IP & Technology Practice at leading law firm, Dentons Rodyk.
To start with, let's be clear: there is no monolithic market known as
"Asia". As a geographical region, Asia consists of almost 50 states
and there is little in the way of economic or political cohesion
that is pan-Asian. For example, there is no currency union or co-
operation as is found in the Eurozone; and parts of Asia are also
politically volatile.
AN
ASIA
STARTUP
PRIMER
Interview with Gilbert Leong
Dentons Rodyk
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Ignoring the Middle East which traditionally stands alone
and the nearer parts of Asia which border Europe, you
can most easily think of the market in terms of three or
possibly four regions:

- South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka;

- South East Asia: the ten ASEAN countries (Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Philippines) and
Timor Leste;

- North Asia: China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong
SAR and Macau SAR; and

- ANZ: Australia and New Zealand. Although not
usually considered to be geographically a part of "Asia",
most companies would put Australia and New Zealand
into the mix when considering expansion in Asia.
It is perhaps possible to treat the ANZ region as a single
market because of the cultural and linguistic similarities
between these two countries and the relative size of the
New Zealand market.
It would be far better for entrepreneurs to think of each
country, or better still the major cities within those
countries, as distinct markets; and plan and prioritise
accordingly. In each of them, you need to think carefully
about the opportunities and the risks. For example, there
are major challenges in moving capital in for some, and
more importantly out of other Asian countries. Asia is
huge, beguiling and offers much promise, but demands a
lot of thought.
A PATH WELL TRAVELLED
Here is a typical and well-travelled process:
Start by registering a representative office in
Singapore, staffed by a representative of the head
office, to conduct market research, feasibility
studies, and evaluate the viability of doing business
in the region. These representative offices are
allowed to operate for a maximum of three years;
and to qualify for registration, you must have a
sales turnover of more than US$250,000 and
have been established for more than three years.
Once you have identified an opportunity,
wherever in South East Asia it may be, you can
set up a Singapore-incorporated private limited
company which can be 100% owned by the foreign
parent, provided at least one director is ordinarily
resident
in Singapore.
Singapore citizens,
Singapore
permanent
residents,
EntrePass
holders or, subject to compliance with certain
laws and regulations, employment pass holders,
qualify for such requirements. If necessary, you
can raise money locally through the Singapore-
incorporated company or get the foreign parent
to inject capital via shareholder loans.
With the Singapore-incorporated company set up,
you can then use Singapore as a base to explore
opportunities in the region, taking advantage
of the competitive tax rates and double tax
agreements with more than 50 treaty partners
including India, Thailand, China, South Korea,
Australia and New Zealand.
Furthermore, Singapore inherited the English
common law tradition characterised by the
doctrine of judicial precedent and this legal system
will be familiar to UK and European companies.
Take the time to understand the political,
infrastructural, legislative and cultural differences
across the region before honing in on any specific
country:

- Some countries have more political challenges
than others and may also have less advanced
infrastructure.

- Certain countries in the region, such as Japan
and Thailand, operate under a civil law regime
rather than common law.

- Cultural nuances like the use of respect and
deference can be important.

- Personal connections are of particular
significance in the Chinese business
environment.
Last but not least, relationships and networks are
of vital importance and will take time to establish.
With these in mind, consider using the Singapore-
incorporated company to enter into joint ventures
with local players to support your expansion into
the region.
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Clearly, there are no definitive rules to growing a business or
entering a new market; however we have distilled ten pieces of
advice from our experts that hopefully will help you on your way.
10
STEPS
ON YOUR
JOURNEY
EAST
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The Journey East
118 Notion Insights
It's vital that any company considering Asia as a target market
dispels any consideration of addressing it as a single market. Each
country is distinctly different, so narrow your focus to a couple
of priority countries, perhaps even one to two cities in the first
instance. Prove your product-market fit and go deep, building
on your success in one territory to forge ahead in others.
ASIA IS NOT A
MARKET
1
Think global, but act local. There will be different requirements and needs across
the region and you must align your business and proposition accordingly.
"Our biggest mistake? We treated Asia as one big market. We started
selling into Indonesia and the Philippines and reacting to inbound
leads. If I had my time again, after ANZ, I would just focus on making
Singapore a success for two years and ignore everything else."
Jimmy Fitzgerald, ServiceNow
"To start with, let's be clear, there is no monolithic market known as "Asia". As a
geographical region, Asia is made of nearly 50 states and there is little in the way of
economic or political cohesion that is pan-Asian. For example, there is no currency union
or cooperation like the Euro zone and parts of Asia are also politically volatile."
Gilbert Leong, Dentons Singapore
"People who don't understand it refer to it
as an amorphous blob: "I've got a strategy
for Asia"... but it's a vast region of very
large and very different countries."
Tim Andrews, Localz
"Many make the mistake of thinking of Asia as a monolithic
market. It's not. It's a multi-local market with different
nuances, cultures, business norms and needs."
John Eng, NewVoiceMedia
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Take time to understand the differences: cultural, economic, political,
social, and technological.
UNDERSTAND THE
DIFFERENCES
2
Understand the macro as well as the micro factors. Country-wide
or regional initiatives can have a big impact, particularly in China,
Singapore or India; and the more you understand what really matters
at the highest levels, particularly in China, the more success you are
likely to have.

In each country there are major government initiatives. For
example, Digital India, is a major initiative; as is Smart Nation in
Singapore. These initiatives are in place all over the region and in
China it is critical that you understand the government agenda at a
country, regional and city level. The reality is that all the governing
bodies in Asia have some kind of drive towards using tech.
Susie Hughes, Allison & Partners
There are many ways to narrow your focus in any market; language is a good place to
start for many.

I think about Asia as four distinct regions that must be considered differently:

English speaking - Australia, NZ, HK, Singapore.

ASEAN - Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

North Asia - South Korea, Taiwan.

Japan and China.
And even within these regions there are many more details you need to consider.
Mike Laven, Currency Cloud.
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SECURE
YOUR FIRST
CUSTOMERS
3
Secure your first customers from your home market whilst building your
network before committing too much resource, if possible before any staff
are on the ground.

Start by winning those first customers. Win some logos in Europe
that have divisions or departments in Asia and then cross sell
from there. Then, get a great Business Development talent who
understands the technology and who has a good network, and
focus them in some very tight markets and opportunities.
Importantly you need to learn and adapt; and you must
be seen to be consistent. You can't just fly in and out.
You need someone on the ground who can not only sell,
but also educate prospects. Build the relationships and
be seen to go the extra mile. Asians expect you to travel
to meet them and establish a personal connection.
Richard Goddard, Selecture
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AND FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS.
IDENTIFY
YOUR 1-2
TARGET
ADDRESSABLE
MARKETS
4
In some ways, the easiest way to enter Asia is when and
where you have some existing customers that you can
leverage. So, look for beachheads. Like any business,
it's good to go after some low hanging fruit first.
Richard Goddard, Selecture.
Pick one, maximum two markets - if I had my time over I'd focus
only on ANZ and Singapore - for one or two years each. Define
success before you enter each market: what are the key verticals, and
across your chosen markets which are the 10 'must-win' logos? This
will help you identify what success looks like across 18-24 months.
Jimmy Fitzgerald, ServiceNow.
Stay uncomfortably narrow, understand the customers and markets
and ignore the temptation to spread yourself too thin.
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MAKE SURE
YOU HAVE A
PRODUCT-
MARKET FIT
5
ANZ is an early adopter market. Many tech companies test
their V1 products in ANZ as they have a strong propensity
to adopt early and buy SaaS. That would be my first bet as a
TAM. Japan, on the other hand is a super-high-quality and
late-adopting market, so go there with a mature V3 product.
John Eng, NewVoiceMedia.
Even at the highest levels, user experience expectations in China
are very different to what we are used to in the West, and that's
before we consider actual product features. The Chinese like to
see a lot of content on the page, for example, while Europeans
want the page very clean. So be prepared for a big difference.
Peter Crosby, formerly Triptease.
Consider cultural differences carefully when it comes to early stage adoption,
as there are plenty of different attitudes to SaaS across the region.
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...BUT REMEMBER, IT'S A SMALL MARKET.
SINGAPORE
IS PROBABLY
THE BEST
HUB...
6
Location, location, location! 600M people
are within approximately three to four hours
flight of Singapore, and China is also very
accessible. It's 3.5 hours to Hong Kong and
3.5 hours to Shanghai. So within a six hour
flight time you can reach 1B people.
Susie Hughes, Allison + Partners.
With a Singapore-incorporated company set up, you
can then use Singapore as a base to explore further
opportunities in the region, taking advantage of the
competitive tax rates and double tax agreements with more
than 50 treaty partners including countries such as India,
Thailand, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Furthermore, Singapore inherited the English common law
tradition characterised by the doctrine of judicial precedent.
This legal system, similar to the English common law
tradition, will be familiar to UK and European companies.
Gilbert Leong, Dentons Singapore.
In general, Singapore is a great place to start out, because of its strong legal framework
and supporting business ecosystem. The government is incredibly pro-business with
lots of grants, tax breaks and funding, etc. They even match seed investments 1:1! Even
if only your parent company is in Singapore and you own subsidiaries in other Asian
countries, you can still get government support - which is incredible! Of course, the fact
that everyone speaks English and it's convenient to travel to other Asian countries from
there also helps; it's crucial in Asian culture where face-time is of paramount importance.
Serge Zloto, Scortex
As a hub for the region, there are two choices: Hong Kong and Singapore. Location-
wise, Singapore wins unless the main focus is China. From a tech ecosystem
point of view, Singapore is hugely advanced and has many advantages.
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BUILD A
WORLD
CLASS
TEAM
7
&
CULTURE
As in every aspect of business, the key to success is great people, not
just the people you hire but the partnerships you build.
We built a great culture, with a focus on diversity and high performing teams.
Jimmy Fitzgerald, ServiceNow.
This is a new economic frontier, with a huge explosion in terms of technology and speed
of execution; and doing business here can be a real minefield. That means you ideally need
people who have scaled (and failed) in the region. They need to have some battle scars.
Richard Goddard, Selecture.
Because of the market complexity you need a lot of management maturity.
Highly experienced and local people can make a huge difference.
John Eng, NewVoiceMedia.
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ADAPT
& LEARN
8
When I worked in France, I couldn't believe how
they behaved in the workplace. And yet it worked.
The same went for China: it's a different culture
with different norms and behaviours. No quarter is
given in life or business. Everyone is up for a fight.
And moving faster. Plus, start-ups have access to
more money. So if you are entering the market, you
have to execute ruthlessly.
Peter Crosby, Triptease.
The scale of competition is incredibly high and exceeds anything in terms of speed and
intensity that most of us have ever experienced in Europe, the US, or even in the hotbed
of Silicon Valley. The work hours in technology companies in China are referred to as
the "996": working from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week - something unheard of in other
technology centres around the world.
Patrick Norris, Notion.
The markets, the people and the cultures are all different; and the speed is dizzying,
especially in China, so you need to be constantly learning and adapting.
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RAISE
LOCAL
INVESTMENT
As you grow, raising local investment will
become increasingly important.
9
Identifying and connecting with trustworthy local
investors is more important than ever to doing
business in China, either a fund or family office.
Every one of our commentators with experience of
China has noted the importance of local connections
and patronage, both culturally and in the enforced
system of JVs. But perhaps most exciting is the pace
of change here. The government, particularly under
President Xi's ambitious and unfettered plans, is
connecting talent with funding to accelerate China's
technology expertise beyond all expectations..
Patrick Norris, Notion
The one thing I truly believe is that for any company such as ourselves to succeed in China - or in fact in any
of the Asian countries - it is essential to get local investment. We were fortunate to have Rakuten come in
on the C Round and they are proving invaluable to us as we navigate the opportunity, but at the next round
we ideally need a Chinese investor.
Mike Laven, Currencycloud.
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LEAVE
CHINA
TO
LAST
Why? Because it's hard.
10
And you'd better understand the bigger picture. The Chinese government has stated domestically
a goal to stop relying on international technology companies by 2020; replacing them with
domestic technology companies as the bulk of service providers. The regulatory deck is therefore
often stacked against foreign technology companies in favor of domestic firms. So consider
this factor when looking at the long term suitability of China as a place to do business.
Patrick Norris, Notion
Enter China last of all. It's so hard and fraught with
risk. China wants Chinese technologies, so it's also
getting ever harder. Enter Japan second to last,
and Korea third from last. There is fierce and very
entrenched competition in each of these markets.
John Eng, NewVoiceMedia
China is open to acquisition or partnerships in areas that are strategic. You can increase your
chances of success when you have strong local partnerships, networks and funding.
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RESOURCE
GUIDE
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Contributors
Notion
Stephen Millard - Chief Platform Officer - smillard@notion.vc
Patrick Norris - Partner - pnorris@notion.vc
Henry Shi - APAC Advisor
Notion Portfolio
Frank Meehan - CEO and Founder, Smartup
John Eng - CEO, New Voice Media
Mike Laven - CEO, CurrencyCloud
Mikkel Hippe Brun - Co-Founder, Tradeshift
Peter Crosby - Former Chief Revenue Officer, Triptease
Serge Zloto - CTO, Scortex
Tim Andrews - CEO, Localz
Partners
Arnout Mostert - Partner, AccelerAsia
Richard Goddard- Managing Partner, Selecture
Susie Hughes - VP, Allison + Partners




AccelerAsia: the Asian go to
market specialists.
Contact Arnout Mostert
arnout@accelerasia.com
Allison + Partners: global
communications providers.
Contact Harry Ronaldson
harry.ronaldson@allisonpr.com
Selecture: specialist recruiters for
enterprise SaaS execs across Asia.
Contact: Richard.Goddard@
selecture.com.sg
Experts
Jimmy Fitzgerald - Global VP, ServiceNow
Gilbert Leong - Senior Partner (IP & Technology Practice), Dentons Rodyk
Great people
In the process of growing many businesses in the region, Notion and its portfolio of businesses
have made excellent connections with some exceptionally talented and capable people.
Here are a few of the people who belong in your 'little black book' for the region:

Barbara Guerpillon - Global Marketing, Unilever Foundry
David Fowler - Senior Manager, PwC Ventures
Elise Tan Yee Ling - Funding Manager, EF Singapore
Elsie Yim, Department for International Trade, British High Commission, Singapore
Francis Goh - CEO, Heshed Consulting
Heng Soon Pang - Director of Investments, SG Innovate
Jacqueline Pak - Head of Corporate Relations, Michael Faith Consultants
Jason Edwards - Partner, Qualgro
Jocelyn Faith Yap - COO, Michael Faith Consultants
Jonathan Kok - Partner, RHTLaw Taylor Wessing
Keith Warburton - Director, Global Business Culture
Marianne Tan - Head of Partnerships, ACE Singapore
Michael Lints - Partner, Golden Gate Ventures
Michelle Ng - Manager, ACE Singapore
Patrick Yeo - Venture Hub Lead, PwC Ventures
Pieter Kemps - Principal, Sequoia Capital Asia
Seow Hi Lim - Deputy Director, Spring Singapore
Sharon Teo - Counsel, JLC Advisors
Steve Leonard - CEO, SG Innovate
Reading List
'Doing Business in China for Dummies' Robert Collins, Carson Block
'Tech in SEA' www.slideshare.net/JungleVentures
'Doing Business in China' Keith Warburton
'The Art of War' Sun Tzu
'The Chinese Five Year Plans'
ALLISON+
PARTNERS
Special thanks to our partners
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For decades, success for European enterprise technology
companies has been found in North America, and for most will
remain the first port of call.
However Asia is calling out to many entrepreneurs, as a region
that once took centre stage is rising to dominate global politics,
commerce and technology.
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