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Category: General

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest General Retail news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Alleged fastest messaging app adds new privacy features

    Alleged fastest messaging app adds new privacy features

    Messaging app Telegram features end-to-end encryption for messages, and claims to deliver said messages faster than any other app. It has no limits on the size of media sent using the service, and is free. Today, Telegram announced a new privacy feature. Users can now delete, if they so desire, any message sent or received in a private chat. Telegram says that deleted messages will disappear from both sides of the conversation and there will be no trace of them left at all.
    This new functionality is basically an expansion of the “unsend” feature that Telegram first debuted two years ago. This originally limited “unsend” to be used by a Telegram user who sent a message, and only for the first 48 hours. Now, with two taps, users can remove any message they sent or received with no time limit. The messages are erased from both the sender’s and recipient’s device.
    In addition, Telegram is limiting who is allowed to forward messages you’ve sent. When a user toggles on the new anonymous forwarding feature, forwarded messages won’t be linked back to the sender’s Telegram address. Instead, an unclickable name will appear in the “from” field. Messages a Telegram user forwards will no longer be linked backed to his or her account.
    Telegram has also added a search option for settings, allowing members to quickly find the particular setting that they want to change. It will also answer users’ questions based on the app’s FAQ page. Speaking of search, the emojis and GIFs search feature has been upgraded. Any selected GIF can be previewed by tapping and holding on the image. On Android, keywords can be used in multiple languages to help find a specific emoji. When typing a message, a list of emoji related to the context of the message will surface. And on Android, if you send an emoji without any text, it will appear larger in the chat. This will soon be available for the iOS app.
    Lastly, Telegram has added VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android, which are both controlled by gestures. Both provide spoken feedback so that Telegram can be used without seeing the screen on a mobile device.
    Telegram is available on iOS and Android, where it has over 100 million installs.
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  • Police smash massive China counterfeiting gang

    Police smash massive China counterfeiting gang

    Police have shut down a huge China counterfeiting ring estimated to have raked in some US$15 million.

    Chinese police have arrested 32 people believed to be part of the operation, which focused on counterfeiting luxury-branded goods.

    The Shanghai raid led to the seizure of more than 4000 items of luxury apparel and accessories bearing Louis Vuitton, Kenzo and Loewe labels, among other top brands. Two assembly lines producing the counterfeit items were shut down.

    The raid was in response to a tip-off to the Shanghai Qingpu district public security bureau that fake Louis Vuitton bags were selling on Chinese social media platform, WeChat.

    Estimates held that the ring had sold more than 100,000 fake luxury items at a value of around RMB100 million (US$14.9 million). Each item would have cost around RMB200 ($30) to produce.

    The rise of online markets all over the world has been blamed for a general increase in fake products sold globally. The counterfeit industry is now worth an estimated $590 billion a year, and accounts for around 3.3 per cent of total international trade.

    According to customs officials, the most frequently seized fakes are items of footwear, clothing, leather goods and IT equipment. China is by far the world’s largest source of pirated goods.

  • Hanoi plans to offer 15-day free travel on first metro line

    Hanoi plans to offer 15-day free travel on first metro line

    The Hanoi People’s Council has proposed 15 days of free travel after the first metro line opens. The proposal, released for public comment Friday, will apply once the Line 2A: Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway starts operating commercially.

    The city also plans to subsidize 50 percent of the monthly fare for students, workers from industrial parks, and senior citizens. Officials and employees working outside industrial zones would get a discount of 30 percent if they buy group monthly tickets.

    Individual passengers can buy monthly season tickets for VND200,000 ($8.61) or daily tickets for VND30,000 ($1.29), both allowing unlimited trips. Single trips will cost from VND7,000-15,000 ($0.3-0.65) per person depending on the distance travelled.

    Tickets can be paid for with cards or cash. Card payments will get discount of VND500 (2.2 cents) per single trip. Although the price is higher than a bus ticket, the train runs twice as fast. From one end of the 13km Cat Linh – Ha Dong route to the other, the journey takes just 22 minutes, he said.

    The route runs from Cat Linh Station in downtown Dong Da District to the Yen Nghia Station in the south-west Ha Dong District. The Chinese contractor of the metro, China Railway Sixth Group Co., Ltd, plans to finish trial runs this month, and begin commercial operations in April.

    However, according to a recent inspection by the Ministry of Transport, installation of devices and machinery on the metro line is only 90 percent complete.

    Vu Hong Phuong, deputy director of the metro project, said several parts of the project, including sanitation, air conditioning, water supply system and drainage system in stations along the line have not been completed.

    Hanoi, a city of more than 7.5 million people, has 5.2 million motorbikes and around 550,000 cars, besides some 1.2 million vehicles brought by non-residents, according to police figures.

  • Cebu Pacific offers P299 promo fare for all domestic flights

    Cebu Pacific offers P299 promo fare for all domestic flights

    Cebu Pacific on Friday announced a P299 seat sale promo for all domestic flights as part of its “Super Seat Fest” that kicked off on March 1.  Flights to all domestic destinations are available for as low as P299 from March 1 to March 2, the country’s largest carrier said in a Twitter post. No promo code is needed to book discounted seats.

    Travel period for the availed flights are from April 1 to July 31, 2019, the airline said.

    Cebu Pacific earlier said “1 million seats and deals” would be available for the entire month of March to mark its 23rd anniversary.

    Philippine Airlines, meanwhile, announced a P78/$78 base fare promo for domestic and international flights to mark its 78th anniversary.

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  • South Korea’s SK Group to buy $1 bln stake in Vingroup

    South Korea’s SK Group to buy $1 bln stake in Vingroup

    South Korean conglomerate SK Group plans to acquire a $1 billion stake in Vietnam’s largest private  conglomerate Vingroup. SK plans to make the investment as early as next month, it said. Vingroup recently sought its shareholders’ vote on a plan to raise at least VND25 trillion ($1.08 billion) through a private placement to five foreign investors.

    It plans to sell the shares at a minimum price of VND100,000 ($4.32) and stipulate a lockup period of one year, during which time the shares cannot be resold by the buyers.

    It plans to use VND10 trillion ($432.34 million) of the proceeds to restructure its debts, VND6 trillion ($259.41 million) to invest in its auto company VinFast, technology firm VinTech and smartphone maker Vinsmart.

    Vingroup is Vietnam’s largest listed company by market capitalization and is worth VND377 trillion ($16.23 billion).

    Last September SK Group acquired a 9.5 percent stake in Vietnam’s diversified business Masan Group for $470 million.

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  • Why does the Vietnam Economy lags behind?

    Why does the Vietnam Economy lags behind?

    The core of the doi moi (renovation) in Vietnam is the shift from single-ownership into a multi-ownership economy, where the central planned regime no longer exists. The 1987 Law on Foreign Investment, the 1990 Corporate Law & the Law on Private Enterprises, and the 1999 Enterprise Law have encouraged the development of Vietnam’s private economic sector.

    One of the revolutionary viewpoints of the 1999 Enterprise Law was that ‘people can do anything that are not prohibited by the laws’, rather than ‘people can only do the things allowed by the laws’, which was one of the major reasons hindering economic development in many decades before.

    Khai then set a goal that Vietnam would have 1 million businesses by 2010.Soon after the Enterprise Law took effect, the then PM Phan Van Khai set up a task force in charge of implementing the Enterprise Law, which deserved credit for removing half of sub-licenses, considered obstacles on businesses’ development way.

    However, the business environment did not improve as expected to pave the way for the development of private enterprises. The ask-and-grant scheme still existed and businesses still had to ‘ask for grant’ from state management agencies.

    News vendors also had to obtain licenses valid for 3 months and scrap dealers needed to have licenses for six months.

    Old sub-licenses were removed, and new licenses have come out. One chocolate bar must obtain 13 kinds of licenses to be able to hit the market, while farmers complain that it takes longer to obtain a license to sell chicken than to raise chicken.

    As a result, the private enterprise network is shrinking and their competitiveness is getting weaker, while Vietnam is more deeply integrating into the global economy.

    The 2017 master economic survey conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) found that as of January 1, 2017, Vietnam had 517,924 operating enterprises. Vietnam had 800,000 enterprises already in 2008.

    The GSO’s report on the socio-economic situation in the first 11 months of 2018 showed that the number of businesses suspending operation or awaiting to get dissolved increased sharply by 64 percent, while the number of newly established businesses increased by 4.5 percent only, compared with the same period 2017.

    The report pointed out that the number of small & medium enterprises (SMEs) increased sharply, now accounting for 98 percent of total enterprises. Of SMEs, 74-75 percent are micro businesses.

    The Communist Party Politburo Resolution No 39 released on April 17, 2015 said that the number of state officers must be cut by 70,000 a year, or 140,000 after two years, to streamline the civil service However, in reality, the number of officers has increased by 96,000.

    As a result, the ratio of civil servants per 1,000 people in Vietnam is 43, not including policemen and military officers, much higher than other countries. In the Philippines, there are only 13 civil servants, including policemen and military officers for every 1,000 people.

    Vietnam has 30 ministries and ministerial-level agencies, while Japan has 11, Singapore 15 and China 20.

    Vietnam has more than enough deputy heads of divisions. A report shows that there are 81,492 ‘deputy heads’, from deputy head of divisions to Deputy Minister, accounting for 21.7 percent of total civil servants from the central to district levels.

    The cumbersome apparatus requires a huge budget to feed it. In 2011-2015, regular spending accounted for 65 percent of total spending, increasing by 2.2 times compared with five years before.

  • AppsFlyer Performance Index puts Facebook and Google on top

    AppsFlyer Performance Index puts Facebook and Google on top

    acebook and Google may rule the rankings but persistent challenges and rampant fraud are mixing things up, according to the latest Performance Index from Appsflyer.

    According to Appsflyer’s study, Apple Search Ads and Snap are continuing to grow despite trailing behind the reigning champs. Meanwhile, high fraud rates are hitting rankings and budgets all around, encouraging a re-evaluation of strategies like affiliate marketing.

    The mobile attribution and marketing analytics company looked at mobile activity in the latter half of 2018, drawing on 370 media networks, examining 20 billion app installations and 39 billion app openings, across 11,500 apps. It was a worldwide study spanning North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. App categories surveyed included shopping, utilities, lifestyle and culture, and gaming. Gaming was split into subcategories of casual, mid-core and strategy, and social casino apps.

    Shani Rosenfelder, head of mobile insights at AppsFlyer said, “As marketing campaigns become more dynamic, complex, and transcend various media platforms, marketers are looking for ways to engage audiences across a diverse range of media sources, regions, platforms and channels in order to build messages that resonate — and to connect the dots across the user journey.”

    The other main findings from the study are as follows:

    Continuing its success at sustaining user demand for games, Facebook held onto its position as the top network for mobile apps, driven by its performance in gaming. Google, meanwhile, saw higher growth in non-gaming apps compared to the social media giant, likely a reflection of Google’s search intent model.

    The search giant’s 190%  jump in its share of the app retargeting landscape marked an impressive showing for Google, while Facebook maintained its No. 1 perch on this metric.

    AppLovin cemented its No. 3 spot in gaming rankings behind Facebook and Google, having made significant strides the last two years in its share of the gaming app install pie. When it comes to driving gaming app installs, ironSource has almost doubled its market share, surpassing Unity Ads with the 4th largest piece of the pie. Having said that, Unity Ads held its #4 position in the universal power ranking in the gaming category overall, compared to ironSource’s 5th spot.

    Among the networks to see the biggest changes were Snap, which rose to fourth place from ninth in the non-gaming ranking, while declining from the top spot to No. 12 in casual games; CrossInstall, which plunged from first to sixth in universal gaming; and Vungle, which rocketed from 12th to fifth place in universal gaming.

    Among the networks appearing in AppsFlyer’s previous Growth Index, which showcases performance of up-and-coming media sources in a specific region, 40% saw absolute negative growth, and only 10% remained in the rankings of the current and previous editions of the Index. All were emerging media sources.

    At 30% worldwide, app install fraud remained high, impacting some rankings and underscoring the magnitude of the threat to marketers’ budgets and decision-making based on polluted data.

    Amid growing attention to mobile ad fraud, the second half of 2018 saw a shift away from the affiliate model, with a 12% drop in affiliate-driven app installs, even as overall app installs increased by 32%.

    Making its first appearance on the index, the Africa/Middle East region showed substantial growth, reflecting the region’s continued economic development. As the number of smartphone owners increases in the area at breakneck speed, the region represents fertile ground for marketers vying to attract and retain new customers.

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  • Microsoft Asia’s senior director of comms Andrew Pickup to exit after many years

    Microsoft Asia’s senior director of comms Andrew Pickup to exit after many years

    Microsoft Asia’s senior director, communications, Andrew Pickup (pictured) will be leaving the company after 26 years of service. Pickup said that in June 2019, he will be leaving Singapore for personal reasons and is looking forward to new adventures in the UK. He said, “I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed every day of my long career at Microsoft (not necessarily every minute or hour because there are always challenges in any job). But every day? Yes.”

    Helming the role of a senior comms director for six years, Pickup was in charge of leading the communications for Microsoft in Asia. He covered the Asia Pacific region, as well as Japan, India and China. According to his LinkedIn, his responsibilities included managing all media relations, analyst relations, internal and executive communications, crisis and change management and government/citizenship outreach. He was also managing the regional team in Singapore and led a community of 40 communications professionals across 17 countries in Asia. 

    Previously, Pickup was chief marketing and operations officer, a role he held for five years focusing on the ASEAN and ANZ markets. He was responsible for the revenue, market share and P&L performance of all Microsoft Business Groups for the Asia Pacific region and the overall orchestration of regional go-to-market sales, marketing and services plans.

    Pickup also oversaw the long-term growth planning, the management of the regional core business processes – business and marketing planning, target setting, marketing budget management – market intelligence, competitive initiatives, integrated marketing communications and public relations. He had a team of 32 reporting directly to him.

    Prior to this, he was chief of staff, Microsoft Asia Pacific, for over two years. The role tasked him to establish core process infrastructures to support executive decision-making(fiscal-planning, process-management, governance and operational models) and manage large-scale projects (geographic expansion). Before this, in 2003, he was chief marketing and operations officer of Singapore operations. 

    Some of his previous accolades with the company include head of desktop marketing, group marketing manager and relationship marketing manager in the UK. Before joining Microsoft, Pickup had a stint with Saatchi & Saatchi in 1988. Helming the role of senior account director, he was responsible for maximising revenue, profitability and client satisfaction from existing blue-chip accounts, as well as identifying and winning new business. At that point in time, he handled clients such as British Airways, Vodafone and Avis.

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  • Google’s new lab lends news publishers a hand in digital subscription

    Google’s new lab lends news publishers a hand in digital subscription

    Google News Initiative is preventing traditional print publishers from dying with the launch of the GNI Subscriptions Lab. In partnership with the Local Media Association and FTI Consulting, the lab seeks to develop a sustainable and thriving business model for newspapers across North America powered by digital subscriptions.

    While Local Media Association president Nancy Lane noted in a post on Google’s blog that publishers have been putting digital subscription at the center of their business transformation, she said that there has yet been “a clear template at the metro and local levels.”

    “One local publisher told me that his organisation’s existence is being threatened like never before, and that seeing his community lose the kind of journalism they produce is not an option. Another said if we as an industry can’t figure out the digital subscription model, then the end could be near,” added Lane.

    Eight publishers will be chosen to participate in an experience designed by the GNI Subscriptions Lab addressing every step of the digital subscriptions process. They are said to “represent a cross-section of the local news industry, with a mix of both chain-owned and independent community and metro titles,” said the blog post. On the selection criteria, Lane said that the publishers must be ready to involve their higher management and be dedicated to figuring out a subscriptions strategy.

    Over six months, the publishers will undergo a mix of quantitative and qualitative market research in existing and potential reader segments to understand the market, readers willingness to pay and more. The learnings will be shared with the industry at large, including at the LMA-LMC Elevate Summit in September, through experiential learning, playbooks and conference workshops. Lane said,

    The future of community journalism is indeed at stake. I can’t think of a project more important at this moment in time. This is a powerful group effort, and our expectations are high.

    Google teams will be supporting the initiative with its expertise in data, technology, product and subscriptions, while FTI Consulting will perform a full diagnostic evaluation of each participating publisher across multiple dimensions. Additionally, FTI Consulting will provide a detailed scorecard to show how each publisher sizes up, and a dashboard for measuring ongoing progress.

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  • Why you need to change your Facebook and Instagram password

    Why you need to change your Facebook and Instagram password

    If you didn’t think that Facebook could go lower than sharing personal information from 87 million users with third party sites, violating a signed FTC consent decree in the process, maybe you’re not giving the social media company enough credit. Hundreds of millions of Facebook users could have had their passwords discovered by Facebook employees. These passwords were stored by the company in plain text dating back as far as 2012. Facebook engineers noticed the mistake when reviewing new code back in January of this year.

    While 2018 was not a great year for Facebook, 2019 has started just as poorly for the company. Earlier this month, the company was accused of using data provided by subscribers for two-factor authentication, like phone numbers, for advertising and marketing purposes. And The New York Times revealed last week that Facebook is the subject of an investigation for deals it made with other tech firms for data.

    We don’t know if this is going to make you feel better, but an internal investigation by Facebook reveals that there is no sign that employees took advantage of this oversight. Still, if you are a Facebook or Instagram user, or even if you were a Facebook or Instagram user and still have an active account, it might be a good idea to change your password now.  Facebook does not feel that such a move is required and company engineer Scott Renfro said, “We’ve not found any cases so far in our investigations where someone was looking intentionally for passwords, nor have we found signs of misuse of this data.” Still, the number of accounts that are involved could number somewhere between 200 million and 600 million, and the number of Facebook employees with access to them was approximately 20,000. We’d suggest that you ignore Facebook’s recommendation and change your password.

    “We’ve not found any cases so far in our investigations where someone was looking intentionally for passwords, nor have we found signs of misuse of this data,” Renfro said. “In this situation what we’ve found is these passwords were inadvertently logged but that there was no actual risk that’s come from this. We want to make sure we’re reserving those steps and only force a password change in cases where there’s definitely been signs of abuse.”-Scott Renfro, engineer, Facebook

    A statement made by Facebook says that it plans on notifying “hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users.” But when it comes to Facebook and its associated apps and sites, your best bet is to get out in front of whatever privacy issue the next shoe to drop will expose.

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  • Li & Fung Announces 2018 Annual Results

    Li & Fung Announces 2018 Annual Results

    Li & Fung Limited, the world’s leading supply chain solutions partner for brands and retailers, today announced its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2018.

    For the year under review, the Company was affected by the rapidly changing retail landscape, with record store closures and customer bankruptcies. Owing to the Company’s investments in a speed-enabled supply chain, its customers have been able to reduce their inventory levels, although this produced short-term negative impacts on the Company’s turnover. The ongoing US-China trade war had a minimal impact on Li & Fung’s business due to the company’s diversified sourcing network outside of China.

    On a like-for-like basis and excluding the impact of the strategic divestment of the three Product Verticals in April 2018, which triggered a one-off disposal loss of US$114 million, core operating profit (“COP”) of Continuing Operations decreased by 20% to US$285 million. This was largely due to decreases in turnover and total margin in the Supply Chain Solutions business, as well as continued investment in digitalization in line with the Company’s long-term strategic plan. Turnover decreased by 6.2% to US$12.7 billion, mainly due to customers’ ongoing destocking, customer turnover and bankruptcies. Total margin percentage improved by 0.4% to 10.6%, primarily a result of the increased contribution from the higher-margin Logistics business. Adjusted Profit Attributable to Shareholders decreased 15.9% to US$117 million, excluding gain on remeasurement of contingent consideration payable. Profit attributable to shareholders for Continuing Operations decreased by 26.2% to US$126 million. The Board of Directors has proposed a final dividend of 4 HK cents (2017: 2 HK cents). This brings the full-year total dividend to 7 HK cents per share.

    Spencer Fung, Group CEO of Li & Fung, said: “2018 was a demanding year and we’ve made a fundamental reorganization of our business in line with our Three-Year Plan to build the Supply Chain of the Future. We initiated a structural change with a new management team to focus on our core customers and operational excellence. This includes a new Group President, a new Chief Operating Officer and an entirely new Chief Digital Officer position. We have the right strategy, and now the right structure and people in place. With all three elements in place we have built the right foundation for the future. I am confident that we are on the right track.

    Mr Fung continued, “Group President, Joseph Phi, has a strong track record having organically grown LF Logistics over the past decade. In his new role, Joseph will focus on account management and business development. As a team, we are focused on driving greater productivity in our global production platform by truly leveraging the scale of Li & Fung for our customers, capitalizing on our clear leadership in 3D design, and accelerating the build-out of our end-to-end digital platform. These initiatives are already helping to strengthen relationships with core customers and to convert new customers.”

    The Logistics business continued to grow organically with double-digit increases. With strong demand for in-country logistics services, turnover and COP increased 10.2% and 14.6% to US$1.13 billion and US$86 million respectively. The growth of the Logistics business continued to be driven by strong growth momentum in China; e-logistics growth; accelerating growth in ASEAN across all services; and rapid expansion in the newer geographies of Japan, Korea and India. To further accelerate the pace of its growth, preparation is underway for the potential spin off and separate listing of LF Logistics to take place in 2019 depending on market conditions and other factors.

    In addition, 2018 was a turnaround year for the Onshore Wholesale business in the Americas, Europe and Asia with its turnover increasing by 7.4% to US$1.7 billion with recovery at major US customers and growth in the Asia onshore wholesale business. Furthermore, operating costs as a percentage of turnover improved by 80 basis points.

    Joseph Phi, Group President of Li & Fung, said: “The strong organic growth of LF Logistics is due to active engagement with our people and close collaboration with our customers. At Li & Fung, we are well positioned to integrate logistics with our traditional sourcing and supply chain solutions offering. This provides a faster and more digital supply chain, enabling us to cultivate closer and longer-lasting customer partnerships. We are pursuing market share gain and pipeline conversion as the twin drivers for our growth.”

    Group Chairman, William Fung added, “With ongoing trade uncertainties, we continue to help existing and new customers optimize their production across over 50 countries of export. This provides the best defense against fluctuations in trade policy and mitigates any negative impact from tariff increases. I am confident that our new leadership team and organizational structure will help us drive productivity, strengthen customer relationships and, in turn, grow market share.

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  • MSIG Insurance celebrates 10 years of growth in Vietnam

    MSIG Insurance celebrates 10 years of growth in Vietnam

    General insurer MSIG Vietnam celebrated its 10th anniversary recently at the Sheraton Hanoi Hotel and Hotel Nikko Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) on 11th and 12th March 2019 respectively. More than 500 partners, customers and staff attended the celebrations which mark the success of MSIG Vietnam that could only have been achieved with the strong support of its partners and customers over the years.

    It was an honour to also have guests-of-honour, Mr. Phung Ngoc Khanh, Director General of Insurance Supervisory and Authority, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Kunio Umeda, Ambassador of Japan in Vietnam, and Mr. Junichi Kawaue, Consulate General of Japan, grace the occasions.

    Celebrating the occasion with kagami-biraki or traditional Japanese sake barrel-breaking ceremony – an auspicious ceremony that represents good harmony and fortune. From L to R: Mr. Alan J. Wilson, CEO, MSIG Asia; Mr. Hideyuki Tanaka, Chairman, MSIG Asia; Mr. Yujiro Sobajima, General Director, MSIG Insurance (Vietnam) Co., Ltd.; Mr. Noriyuki Hara, President and CEO, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd.; Mr. Kunio Umeda, Ambassador of Japan in Vietnam; Mr. Phung Ngoc Khanh, Director General of Insurance Supervisory and Authority, Ministry of Finance.

    MSIG has been doing business in Vietnam for over 25 years, beginning with a representative office of the Tokyo-based Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance in Hanoi in 1994. In 2009, a subsidiary office was established and that marked the beginning of MSIG Insurance (Vietnam). The company started out by supporting Japanese corporate clients, and within 10 years, laid the foundation to also expand its business to offer insurance solutions to non-Japanese clients and develop its bancassurance channels.

    “Since its establishment, MSIG Insurance (Vietnam) has been contributing to the development of the Vietnamese economy by supporting the expansion of Japanese corporate businesses through 2

    general insurance solutions. Today, we also support Vietnamese corporate businesses and the portfolio of non-Japanese clients have increased to 20%”, said Mr. Noriyuki Hara, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd.

    Mr. Noriyuki Hara, President and CEO, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd.

    “Among our global activities, our main focus is on Asia. We are the largest non-life insurance company in the region to operate in all 10 ASEAN countries. Among these countries, Vietnam is one of the most noteworthy. We will continue to push ourselves to achieve more and provide the highest level of service quality to our clients to contribute to the further development of Vietnam. We truly appreciate the continuous guidance and encouragement from all our clients and partners”, Mr. Hara continued.

    During the celebrations, the Minister of Finance also presented MSIG Vietnam with a “Certificate of Merit” to recognise the company’s efforts in contributing to the development of Vietnam’s insurance industry from 2009 to 2018. The recognition is testimony of the strong relations that MSIG has in the country and encourages its staff to continue to go above and beyond to serve the needs of their customers in Vietnam.

  • Single-Use Plastic Ban, Food Waste and Local Produce Top Priorities in Centara’s 2019 Sustainability Plan

    Single-Use Plastic Ban, Food Waste and Local Produce Top Priorities in Centara’s 2019 Sustainability Plan

    Centara Hotels & Resorts, Thailand’s leading hotel operator, is focusing on three key sustainability initiatives as part of the company’s recently announced 2019 Sustainability Plan: eliminating single-use plastic products; reducing its food waste footprint; and expanding its support of local farming and produce-growing communities.

    1. No Single-Use Plastic Products by end-2019

    The elimination of single-use plastic items is part of the “Centara Earth Care” programme aimed at encouraging hotel guests and tourists to be proactive about energy saving, waste reduction and sustainable environmental tourism. The sustainability plan covers five types of single-use plastic items, including drinking straws, laundry bags, take-away food containers, fitness centre and poolside plastic bottles, and plastic guest room amenities. They are being replaced with items made from materials designed to minimise environmental impact.

    “Centara strives to operate ethically and sustainably in a balanced manner across the entire portfolio whilst providing an exceptional level of Thai hospitality,” said Thirayuth Chirathivat, Chief Executive Officer. “We are committed to selecting environmentally friendly produce which, in turn, enables us to further incorporate sustainable strategies and development into our products and services, creating shared value at an environmental, social and economic level wherever we operate. We are also committed to ensuring a respectful, safe and healthy environment to the larger society and our future generations.”

    Centara began phasing in its elimination of single-use plastic products in 2018 across all 39 of its operating properties. Under the plan, alternative products which are reusable and made from environmentally friendlier materials, including plant-based, compostable and bio-degradable plastics, will be fully phased in by year-end.

    • Phase I, targeting the elimination of plastic straws, began in August 2018. The single-use plastic straws being eliminated take up to 200 years to decompose; the new bio-straws replacing them decompose within six months. Once the change is fully enacted throughout all Centara properties, the reduction in plastic straw consumption will total nearly 2.2 million straws per year.
    • Phase II, eliminating the use of plastic laundry bags, began in December 2018.  Moving forward, these practices will also become Centara’s standards for all existing and new properties.
    1. Food Waste Reduction

    Centara’s new and continuing food-related sustainability initiatives include:

    • further reducing food waste and minimising each property’s carbon footprint with expanded purchasing of fresh local foods from herb, fruit and vegetable growers
    • making same-day donations of surplus food to charities located near each property
    • providing local farms with pre-separated organic waste for composting
    • transforming waste at select properties into biogas fuel, a blend of mostly methane and carbon dioxide gases which can be used in place of fossil fuels.

    In 2018, Centara supported the Bangkok-based foundation Scholars of Sustenance (SOS Thailand) by making same-day donations of more than 28,000 kilogrammes (kg) of quality surplus food. The donations provided over 86,000 servings to those in need, while the reduction in Centara’s food waste saved over 54,000 kg of GHG equivalent emissions.

    Both Centra by Centara Maris Resort Jomtien and Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket have biogas machines on-site capable of converting 30-100 kg of organic waste each day into an equivalent number of litres of organic compost and biogas comparable to nearly five kg/day of LPG fuel. Since July 2018, the Cowtec Composting & Biogas Production Machine installed at Centra by Centara Maris Resort Jomtien has been processing organic waste from the property’s kitchens, staff canteens and landscaping works. By the end of 2018, the machine had composted more than 5,700 kg of organic waste and produced 262 kg of biogas equivalent LPG.

    1. Strengthen Local Communities

    Centara’s 2019 Sustainability Plan further expands the company’s support for local communities’ small farms and producers who grow food for Centara hotels and resorts in their area.

    The company attributes much of its carbon footprint reduction to making approximately 70% of total produce purchases from local sources. Beyond the economic benefits to the community, expanding farm-to-table dining enables each property to provide the freshest available food items to guests.

    The company’s ongoing engagement with EarthCheck, the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for travel and tourism, continues to yield consequential improvements in key sustainability metrics. To date, 15 Centara hotels and resorts have achieved EarthCheck certification and another four properties are enrolled in  EarthCheck’s Evaluate Plus programme, leading to significant reductions in carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions across a number of Centara’s certified properties.

    Most recently, the company’s leadership in environmental sustainability was recognised by the Stock Exchange of Thailand, which awarded Centara Hotels & Resorts (CENTEL) its “Thailand Sustainability Investment (THSI)” designation, an annual recognition for listed companies that operate with responsibility for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aspects.

    Further recognition for properties includes the “Green Hotel 2018 Award” from the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion at Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, awarded to Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin and Centra by Centara Maris Resort Jomtien.

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  • Garuda Indonesia Cancels 49 Boeing 737 MAX Orders

    Garuda Indonesia Cancels 49 Boeing 737 MAX Orders

    Breaking news coming from Jakarta that Garuda Indonesia has canceled their order for 49 Boeing 737 MAX placed a few years ago. This comes after two disastrous 737 MAX crashes and a worldwide grounding of the aircraft for safety reasons. Garuda operates over 70 737NG aircraft. As such, the 737 MAX was a natural addition to the fleet and part of the 737NG replacement plan. At face value, Garuda’s order was worth $4.9 billion.

    Garuda made the following comments upon ordering the 737 MAX:

    The Cancellation

    Garuda Indonesia’s President Director, Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra, announced the cancellation on Thursday, March 21st. In his comments, he specifically stated that the 737 MAX 8 suffered from bad publicity that spooked travelers from choosing the 737 MAX 8. Specifically, Garuda Indonesia believes there is no longer passenger confidence in the aircraft, so they are cancelling their order.

    This isn’t a major issue for Garuda Indonesia since they only have one 737 MAX 8. Depending on how long the groundings of MAX aircraft last, Garuda could find a new buyer or lessor for that specific aircraft. They could also sell it back to Boeing as part of a deal. Garuda Indonesia is already an Airbus customer. They operate both the A330-200 and 300 widebodies. In addition, Garuda Indonesia has 14 A330-900s on order.

    Cancelling the 737 MAX leaves Garuda with few options for sourcing a narrowbody replacement for their 737-800s. Russia is working on an alternative, however, it seems like Garuda will need an established plane with passenger confidence. In addition, based of Garuda Indonesia’s original order, they will probably go for a fuel efficient plane that carry a similar number of passengers.

    This makes the A320neo the most likely option for Garuda Indonesia. On an order for 50 aircraft, Garuda will probably get some discounts from Airbus that would make the delayed entry, any cancellation fees with Boeing, and increased maintenance and training costs worth it if passengers will still fly with them.

    The A320neo, however, would not be entirely out of place in Garuda’s fleet. Garuda Indonesia operates a low-cost arm called Citilink. Citilink flies over 50 A320/A320neo family aircraft.

    Overall

    In the grand scheme of things, Garuda Indonesia is not a major 737 MAX customer.  Norwegian, SpiceJet, Ryanair, Jet Airways, Lion Air, Flydubai, and Southwest all have over 100 737 MAX aircraft on order. However, if Garuda Indonesia is expressing concern about the 737 MAX, it is likely that other airlines are also concerned about their 737 MAX fleet and orders.

  • Are Indonesian online travel agents dropping AirAsia

    Are Indonesian online travel agents dropping AirAsia

    Following AirAsia’s withdrawal of flights from online travel agent Traveloka, the airline told that it will be placing its focus on enhancing its products and services as well as website and mobile app instead. This comes as online agents are rumoured to be asked by major Indonesia airlines to keep AirAsia’s Indonesia flights out of their platforms. The online agents reported by the travel publication include Traveloka, Tiket.com, Panorama Group, Golden Rama Tours & Travel, and Wita Tour. Traveloka PR director Sufintri Rahayu said that she hopes that AirAsia’s withdrawal is “not a permanent decision” and the company is currently discussing with the airline how to “reach the best outcome for all relevant parties.”

    She added, “We have always done our best to provide an open and fair online platform for all our airline and travel partners, including AirAsia, to sell their services to our customers. We respect and recognise AirAsia’s position as an important regional airline in Southeast Asia. Our faith and goodwill towards AirAsia remain high as ever.”

    Meanwhile, a spokesperson from AirAsia reiterated that it remains “open to dialogue with business partners” but  did not comment further on the alleged bans from various online travel agents. Previously, AirAsia Indonesia president director Dendy Kurniawan called Traveloka out for unexplained disappearance of AirAsia Indonesia flights from Traveloka for the second time in the two weeks. He said that the omission of flights has “hurt” cooperation between AirAsia and Traveloka, adding that Traveloka has “not acted in good faith.”

    Brand impact and sale for AirAsia

    While it remains uncertain how long this saga will last, aviation consultant at CommunicAvia Gerry Soejatman said that it is “unlikely for the withdrawal to impact on AirAsia’s international market”. Even domestically, the impact may not be as high as one would have expected. He explained,

    In Indonesia, AirAsia is perceived to be the airline with the strongest direct selling compared with the others, and its customers are generally quite loyal.

    And while being on online travel agents’ website is a great form of brand recall and point of sale for many travel brands, Construct Digital’s senior internal digital marketer Jan Mascarina suggested tactical campaigns such as awareness activations can help AirAsia elevate their position in Indonesian consumers’ minds. He said, “One way to do this, aside from aggressive media spending, is to maintain a social media presence that speaks local lingos and understands local trends, in order to connect with the very locals they are trying to win business from.”

    In terms of search marketing, AirAsia could consider hijacking competitor keywords. Mascarina said, “AirAsia can bid against searches for competing airlines in the country to keep itself as the first suggestion when users search for airlines.”

    He added with 97% of Indonesian search being powered by Google, this could present a low-hanging fruit for travellers exploring their options. Moreover, AirAsia could also bid against keyword searches “for the very travel site that it now finds itself at odds with, in order to funnel some of the users from these sites into their own website.” Additionally, AirAsia should find ways to engage and grow their current user base through loyalty or referral programs.

    Prantik Mazumdar, managing partner of Happy Marketer, a Merkle Company said if there is one independent airline brand that can fight being dropped from online travel agents’ lists on its own terms, it is Air Asia.

    “AirAsia is a pioneer in data-driven digital marketing and have made huge improvements in the recent past in terms of its mobile-first customer experience to drive bookings and multi-touch customer engagement,” he said.

    To further battle this challenge, AirAsia will need to invest resources in a multi-prong approach to capture more SEM traffic for generic keywords that are usually bid for by online travel agents. It will also need to run location-based dynamic ads to achieve higher relevance and click through rates. An added focus will be needed to improve conversion rates and cost per acquisition through tactical tweaks on landing pages and drive higher bookings through it’s existing customer base by targeting them through personalised offer emails or through custom audience ad messages on social media.

    “AirAsia will also need to now create more local destination related content independently or through syndicates that improve its SEO rankings; experiment with dynamic pricing to improve its average revenue per booking metric and beyond digital, you may also see them innovate through better bundled offerings and new partnerships with hotel chains and new age digital businesses in Indonesia,” he added.

    We have all seen that Tony Fernandes and his team relish a good challenge and I’m sure they will take this head on.

    He added that this could turn out to be a great imperative for AirAsia to further build on it’s own internal full stack marketing capability and reduce it’s reliance on online travel agents.

    Industry players said that one reason for airlines to exert pressure on travel agents may be because they “want to increase fares due to high fuel costs and AirAsia isn’t playing ball.” The article also said that several consumers have take their frustration about rising domestic airfares to an online petition, which has collected near to 400,000 signatures. In an update, it said that the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association and Transportation Ministry have since responded and brought the prices down on some flight routes.

    “Airlines usually sit together to discuss their challenges, but not to set prices, that would be illegal. The Indonesian Competition Commission is looking into those allegations,” Soejatman said.

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