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Tag: asia

  • Asia Music acquires audio-book business

    Asia Music acquires audio-book business

    Asia Music Investments (AMI) has bought a music-book business and expanded its operations and distribution partnerships with major publishers.

    The company has taken over the music-book distribution business from Gramercy Music, which occupied 2700sqft of space on Bukit Timah Road. AMI says the S$1.2 million acquisition and investment is a strategic move to expand its repertoire of services, expand its customer base and develop new competencies.

    AMI also operates four music schools offering a range of musical courses including piano, violin, guitar, guzheng, vocal, erhu and dance. The music-book business deal will enable AMI to provide greater value to its students, by making available the largest and latest range of musical books in the market.

    “Our acquisition has enabled us to immediately offer our customers better value-added service as they can access and purchase music books easily,” says Vivian Gao, MD of AMI.

    “In addition, we are also able to strike up new partnerships and distributorships with publishers to expand the music book business.”

    Customers can purchase music books online via its official online store or drop by the bookstore, which is a one-stop music concept offering books, accessories and musical instruments.

    “Having a physical store enables our customers, many of whom are music teachers, to be able to conveniently compare the many books available on the shelves. This better helps them to make decisions on which books to use for teaching,” Gao added.

    In May this year, AMI finalized partnerships with Alfred Music to be the exclusive distributor of its UK’s Basic Graded Piano Course series. Alfred Music is the leading publisher of music education books and currently has 150,000 titles worldwide.

    It is also teaming up with Poco Studio, a music education publisher, to distribute its full range of titles in Singapore.

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  • Ingenico TravelHub opens up new payments routes fortravel companies

    Ingenico TravelHub opens up new payments routes fortravel companies

    Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment has launched TravelHub, a solution built to connect travel companies with Ingenico’s global end-to-end payment processing capabilities and regional gateways across Asia, Latin America and Europe.

    TravelHub allows travel companies to easily access more than 150 payment methods – including credit cards and alternative payment solutions – and currency options relevant for their customers. It offers smart transaction routing capabilities across all payment platforms, improving conversion rates and, as a result, increasing revenue from online travel sales.

    Ingenico’s TravelHub offers a simple direct connection to global payment capabilities, as well as integration with the leading airline global distribution systems (GDS), such as Amadeus, Sabre and Navitaire, and hotels’ property management systems (PMS). This helps travel businesses tackle the complexity of managing multiple systems, payment service providers (PSPs) and acquirers.

    The sophisticated solution marks Ingenico’s increased focus on travel, an industry where it already celebrates a strong portfolio and a long history of working with some of the world’s most famous airlines, hotels and online travel agents (OTAs). It is built by a dedicated team of seasoned professionals from the travel payments industry, and this combination of technology and expertise positions Ingenico to help travel companies grow and expand globally.

    Kevin Weber, Chief Projects Officer and Chief Information Officer at Viva Air, who has been using TravelHub already, said: “Ingenico’s TravelHub helped us to increase authorization rates and revenue significantly, and supported our expansion to new countries.”

    Gabriel de Montessus, SVP Global Online for Ingenico Group, said: “We are very proud to be launching TravelHub, a state of the art solution that helps travel companies increase revenue from online channels. TravelHub combines the global reach of Ingenico’s online payment platforms that can now be accessed with a simple connection.”

    Eric Liebman, Global Head of Travel at Ingenico ePayments, said: “Online travel businesses are looking to navigate the complex technology ecosystem while growing quickly in a very competitive space. TravelHub helps travel companies provide the best digital customer experience, offering payment methods and currencies travelers want to pay with.”

    As the solution continues to gain popularity among travel businesses, ongoing developments will be made to add new travel technology connections and improve direct connections, making it easier to access new markets.

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  • Goxip expands into Singapore as APAC push gains pace

    Goxip expands into Singapore as APAC push gains pace

    Hong Kong and Malaysian mobile fashion-and-beauty marketplace Goxip will launch in Singapore on August 19. The service has more than 600,000 active monthly users in Hong Kong alone and counts luxury retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Farfetch, and Asos as well as brands like Nike, Alexander McQueen and Topshop among its partners and advertisers.

    As part of the launch, Goxip will invest in offline/online media and influencer marketing, leveraging its RewardSnap KOL monetization network.

    The launch will follow a whole redesign of the website and app’s look and feel in order to appeal even more to Singaporean consumers. It aims at educating Singaporeans on how Goxip is used to search, compare and shop products from global retailers in a few clicks.

    “I believe Singapore to be an extremely good opportunity for Goxip to expand its user base and sales,” said Goxip co-founder and CEO Juliette Gimenez.

    “We reached over 15 million in sales in Hong Kong in the last two years, with over 600,000 monthly active users and close to 1 million downloads of our app globally. Singaporeans and Hong Kongers are very similar in terms of purchasing behavior, expat demographics, and internationalization. This tops our confidence to scale further and reach new heights in Singapore!”

    The expansion is part of Goxip’s strategy to penetrate more APAC countries on top of its home base of Hong Kong. Goxip gained significant traction in Hong Kong since its launch in 2017 and plans to expand to further areas such as the Middle East and Oceania. Goxip’s team is also increasing in size to allow its business to grow and launch new features for its website and app.

    “We are building a strong team in Hong Kong to support Goxip expansion and improve performance further,” said Goxip’s VP marketing Michele Tardelli. “Our brand is well-known in Hong Kong and our track record proves that product/market fit is there. Now it’s time to get Singaporeans to know us, engage with our website/app and shop. We have a holistic marketing plan to make this happen.”

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  • Honda Deauville Touring Motorcycle May Be Re-Introduced

    Honda Deauville Touring Motorcycle May Be Re-Introduced

    Reports from France suggest that Honda may be working on a new version of its once-popular touring motorcycle with the Deauville name. According to French motorcycle website Motostation.com, the new Honda Deauville will be based on the current Honda CRF1000L Africa Twin. So, according to the report, the new bike will feature the same 998 cc, liquid-cooled engine which puts out under 100 bhp of power and 97 Nm of peak torque and will also feature the automatic dual-clutch transmission (DCT) as well.

    The mid-range touring motorcycle with the Honda Deauville name was in production from 1998 till 2013, and was named after the popular French seaside resort. The old Deauville had a liquid-cooled v-twin engine and featured a shaft drive, with the first generation model featuring a 650 cc v-twin engine. The second-generation model (2002-2005) featured updated bodywork, enlarged panniers and some technical modifications. The third-generation model (2006-2013) got an engine displacement bump to 680 cc, and was eventually discontinued in 2013.

    So far, Honda doesn’t have a pure road-going touring model, apart from the Africa Twin adventure touring model and the Honda Gold Wing at the luxury end of touring. The Deauville could well meet a niche segment which doesn’t seem to have too many models in the touring category from many manufacturers at this stage. So, will Honda go the dedicated touring way and introduce a new model with hard panniers and mini Gold Wing looks? Time will tell. But for now, it’s interesting news to see that Honda is at least looking at possible demand, at least in Europe for now, for such a model, if at all it is introduced.

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  • Sumo Sushi & Bento launches in India

    Sumo Sushi & Bento launches in India

    Dubai Japanese restaurant chain Sumo Sushi & Bento is entering the Indian market.

    The firm has partnered with local operator FranGlobal to open up to 25 outlets within five years, with the first location launching in either Delhi or Mumbai within six months.

    “India is a vibrant and exciting country and people are demanding new cuisines and we will hit the mark on it,” said Sumo Sushi & Bento CEO Julianne Holt Kailihiwa. “There’s already awareness, interest and curiosity among Indians around Japanese cuisine, especially fusion oriented food. Sumo has been successfully running its chain of restaurants for 20 years catering to Middle East customers who have a very cosmopolitan taste. There’s also a big Indian customer base in Dubai hence we feel that India reasonably should be a scalable market for the brand.”

    The firm has been operating in the Middle East for almost 20 years, catering to a cosmopolitan customer base with a strong vegetarian menu segment. It will be targeting a similar clientele in India’s major urban hubs.

    “Our biggest challenge is to provide good quality product at a competitive price because the raw material used in Japanese cuisine is expensive,” said Franglobal CEO Venus Barak. “Our quality matches the ones offered in a five-star hotel. We also plan to introduce beer and wine in the menu.”

  • Sephora data breach impacts APAC consumers

    Sephora data breach impacts APAC consumers

    A Sephora data breach has been confirmed, spanning customers from Hong Kong across Southeast Asia and into Australasia.

    The LVMH-owned company has emailed online customers who may have been affected confirming some of their data may have been accessed and copied.

    The international beauty retailer said an unknown number of customers have been affected in territories including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia. Stores were not affected with the compromised data relating only to people using the brand’s online services in the region.

    The firm sent an email out to its users on Monday explaining that the breach had become apparent over the course of the past fortnight.

    “Some personal information may have been exposed to unauthorized third parties,” said the email signed by Sephora’s MD Southeast Asia Alia Gogi, “including first and last name, date of birth, gender, email address and encrypted password, as well as data related to beauty preferences.”

    The email (pictured above) explaining the Sephora data breach stated that credit card information does not appear to have been accessed and that personal data had not been misused.

    The firm has responded by resetting all existing passwords and conducting a full security review, as well as offering customers a free personal monitoring service, available via a unique code and sign-up link directing users to a third party solutions provider.

  • Waze finally giving users one the most requested Carpool features

    Waze finally giving users one the most requested Carpool features

    Waze has just announced a brand new feature is now making its way to carpoolers on Android and iOS devices. The new feature lets Waze users invite multiple riders to join a carpool, which should make it easier to choose the people in a Carpool crew.

    The new feature can be accessed via the + icon once a ride is confirmed. The + icon will allow you to invite more riders on your route, hopefully, with a minimal detour. One of the most requested features, the option to add multiple riders to a carpool lets Waze users save more on their commute.

    Fill up to four seats in a carpool, and get a little extra with each rider – keeping in mind that prices are adjusted, so they don’t exceed the total sum of gas and wear & tear.

    Keep in mind that the number of available seats in a carpool is adjustable by going to the Carpool settings in the top right corner of the calendar view, so it’s not limited to up to four seats.

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  • Why Cebu Pacific plans to suspend flights to and from Guam in December

    Why Cebu Pacific plans to suspend flights to and from Guam in December

    Philippine-based low-cost airline Cebu Pacific will suspend its service to and from Guam in December, saying the Guam route “is no longer viable.”

    The last round-trip flights between Manila and Guam will be on Dec. 7, 2019, more than three years since Cebu Pacific’s March 2016 inaugural flight to the island. Cebu Pacific’s entry into the Guam market in 2016 was its first U.S. destination.

    With Cebu Pacific suspending its Manila-Guam service, travelers on the route will be down to two airlines to choose from: United Airlines; and Philippine Airlines.

    “The entry of Cebu Pacific into the market gave the traveling public more choices and a more affordable alternative to fly between these two destinations. However, despite all efforts, the Guam route is no longer viable,” Cebu Pacific said in a July 18 statement.

    Passengers affected by the suspension of the services to Guam are being notified, the airline said.

    To minimize the changes, affected passengers can:

    • re-book on earlier travel dates with Cebu Pacific;
    • get a full refund; or
    • place the full value of the ticket in a travel fund for future use.

    “With limited slots in Manila, Cebu Pacific will reallocate these slots and re-deploy the aircraft to routes where these can serve higher passenger demand,” Cebu Pacific said.

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  • Walmart-owned Flipkart opens experience centre

    Walmart-owned Flipkart opens experience centre

    Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart has opened a physical furniture experience centre in Bengaluru.

    The Walmart-owned firm’s 1800sqft store will retail around nine furniture brands, and is likely to be followed by two more similar outlets in the country.

    “The furniture category has traditionally had a strong presence offline,” said VP of furniture, electronics and private labels Adarsh Menon, “because customers like to see and touch the products they are buying. We understand the requirements of customers and hence ‘FurniSure’”.

    Industry competitor Ikea launched in India last year, attracting extensive queues.

    Flipkart is also seeking to launch an offline supermarket.

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  • Cebu Pacific targets 300 millionth passenger milestone

    Cebu Pacific targets 300 millionth passenger milestone

    Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ largest airline, said Monday its goal was to fly a total of 300 million passengers by 2022, as it increases capacity and invests in digital tools to drive demand.

    The 300 million milestone can be reached 4 times faster than the 150 million passengers flown in 1996, 21 years after the Gokongwei-led carrier was founded, said its vice president for marketing and distribution, Candice Iyog.

    Cebu Pacific sees “accelerated growth” with the delivery of 12 new Airbus jets this year, president and CEO Lance Gokongwei earlier said.

    The two-fold challenge for Cebu Pacific is making bookings more convenient while handling online traffic, Iyog said.

    “As we continue to invest in brand new higher capacity aircraft, the challenge that we have for us now is flying our next 150 million passengers in just 5 years, 4 times faster than when we did it the first time around,” Iyog said.

    “So the first challenge really was, how might we make ourselves relevant by tapping into user shopping behavior. And then the second job to be done was addressing and improving the customer booking experience,” she added.

    To lure more passengers, Cebu Pacific said it would maximize online tools to make booking easier. It also introduced a “new crazy” seat sale strategy, offering seats in clustered destinations every 2 hours, Iyog said.

    Cebu Pacific currently operates 1 Airbus A321neo, 36 A320, 7 A321ceo, 8 A330, 8 ATR 72-500, 12 ATR 72-600 as of January 2019.

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  • Huawei promo video explains why mobile gamers can’t wait for 5G

    Huawei promo video explains why mobile gamers can’t wait for 5G

    What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about 5G? Most likely you think about the faster download speeds that have peaked thus far at over 2Gbps (according to AT&T). With these data speeds, users will be able to download an HD movie in seconds instead of minutes. New businesses and industries will spring up to take advantage of the speed of the new networks similar to how 4G LTE connectivity enabled the creation of the ride-sharing industry; the latter now has two billion-dollar companies in Uber and Lyft.

    Another advantage of 5G, one that you don’t hear about often, is low latency. Latency measures the time it takes you to get a response to information that you send. For example, if you’re playing a game and shoot the opponent, latency measures the lag between the time you fire the blast and the time you know whether you’ve succeeded in hitting your target. So 5G is obviously positive for those playing mobile games in the cloud.

    Today, Huawei released a promo video for its Mate 20 X 5G that not only shows the huge difference in speed between 4G LTE and 5G, it also mentions the reduction in latency. In fact, the clip claims that game players won’t experience any lag at all when this phone runs on a 5G network.

    The Mate 20 X 5G features a 7.2-inch AMOLED display sporting a 1080 x 2244 resolution. Huawei’s Kirin 980 SoC is under the hood and the device employs Huawei’s own Baloong 5000 5G modem chip. A triple camera setup is in the back (40MP primary + 8MP telephoto with a 3x optical zoom + 20MP Ultra-wide) and a 24MP selfie snapper is in the front. A 4200mAh battery keeps the lights on, and the handset supports the Huawei M-Pen.

    No, you’re not going to see this phone sold in the U.S., but the video does point out a reason why mobile game players in the states should be looking forward to getting 5G up and running in their city.

  • Groupe PSA Opens New Technical Centre In Chennai

    Groupe PSA Opens New Technical Centre In Chennai

    PCA Motors India, part of Groupe PSA today announced opening its new India Technical Centre (ITC) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The company says that the new technical centre will play a key role in the smoother and more efficient working of the employees of PSA India, in addition to boosting the capacity of the group to accelerate further in India. The new technical centre has come up in a specific building area, Chennai One, which is part of one of the Chennai Special Economic Zones (SEZ). Groupe PSA says the new facility has been designed and built in a frugal and efficient way, consistent with the spirit of scalability corresponding to the India project.

    Commenting on the launch, Emmanuel Delay, Executive Vice President & Head of India-Pacific, Groupe PSA, said, “The new India Technical Center [ITC] is an important step for the development of Groupe PSA in India, and is definitely an asset to grow the Group’s business in the India & Pacific region. This is part of our strategy to develop a global network of state-of-the-art technical centre, strategically positioned in India, to support a customer-oriented agenda. With the new centre, we’re focusing our investment in creating a cohesive work environment to accelerate our growth. This unified approach will improve the speed, efficiency and effectiveness of our employees while enabling us to address evolving consumer needs more quickly in the future. Our investment in ITC further emphasizes the importance of India to our global business.”

    Groupe PSA’s new technical centre will house departments of Research & Development, Programs and Projects, Global Purchasing Hub, Supply Chain, Process and Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, KD Excellence Centre and Product. In fact, going forward, the state-of-the-art centre will also house a workshop for styling, architecture and assembly of prototypes.

    Commenting on the launch, Eric Apode, Senior Vice President, PCA Motors India, said, “The new India Technical Centre is the next strategic step for Groupe PSA in India. It will allow the group to accelerate quickly its growth in India, through the development of new products and deployment of our strategy in and outside India. The area around our new centre is popular for housing dozens of international and Indian companies this gives the Groupe strong confidence of attracting Indian talent to the new ITC. The Monozukuri philosophy, the art of creating objects in an efficient and effective way is now taking shape with our new India Technical Centre, which will benefit group operations domestically and globally.”

  • Half of FamilyMart owners want shorter hours

    Half of FamilyMart owners want shorter hours

    FamilyMart Japan says almost half of its franchisees want to drop its signature 24-hour trading hours.

    The firm conducted a recent survey among its around 14,000 franchises in Japan, of which 48.3 percent said they want to operate shorter hours, citing the cost of late-night operations and labor shortages. Of those, 73.3 percent wanted reduced hours every day, while 26.3 percent said that reduced hours one day a week would be sufficient.

    The remaining stores indicated a wish to retain 24-hour operations to avoid a drop in sales.

    Given the unexpectedly high interest in reducing store hours, FamilyMart Japan president Takashi Sawada announced: “We’ll build a system to ensure profits at franchisees.”

    FamilyMart Japan currently has 24 stores experimenting with shorter daily operational hours and will increase that number to 700 from October. It will review its 24-hour policy next year.

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  • Honestbee back on track with new CEO

    Honestbee back on track with new CEO

    Struggling grocery delivery company and grocer Honestbee has won another new lease on life with the appointment of a new CEO who has promised to revive the business with the support of investors.

    Details of the additional investment were not immediately clear.

    Ong Lay Ann took up the role without fanfare on July 15 from interim CEO and investor Brian Koo, who remains chairman. That followed the resignation of CTO and co-founder Jonathan Low four days earlier.

    Koo had taken over from Honestbee former CEO and cofounder Joel Sng in early May, clearing the way for fresh funding to be injected into the company by Koo’s investment vehicle.

    New appointee Ong has almost 20 years experience in IT, infrastructure, commodities and real estate. He has experience turning around failing companies, including Perth Precast in Australia which he rebuilt and listed via a reverse takeover.

    Low cofounded Honestbee in 2015 with partners Sng and Isaac Tay.

    “It is my privilege to have worked with some of the best talents during my time here,” he said in a statement confirming his departure.

    “The decision to leave Honestbee was made before Lay Ann had come on board. However, I have full confidence that Lay Ann will help Honestbee enter its next phase and recover from its recent setbacks,” Low said.

    So far this year, Honestbee has curtailed services, suspended operations or exited altogether markets including Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines.

  • JD takes stake in Beijing Digital Telecom

    JD takes stake in Beijing Digital Telecom

    Chinese online retail platform JD is acquiring 9 percent of Beijing Digital Telecom.

    The consumer electronics retailer, which operates from around 3000 physical stores throughout China selling predominantly phones and computers, will expand JD’s offline presence within the market, including lower-tier cities.

    The transaction value has not been disclosed, as it falls below the amount that requires public notification under US Securities and Exchanges Commission regulations.

    At the same time, Beijing Digital Telecom is entering a joint venture with a network-technologies developer and provider Suqian Jiashi, which is wholly owned by JD. The firm is investing RMB191 million (US$28.5 million) for a 49 percent stake, while Suqian Jiashi is putting in RMB 204 million ($29.6 million).

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