Major investor Toyota Motor Corporation was joined by a slate of leading global financial institutions, including Oppenheimer Funds, Ping An Capital, Mirae Asset – Naver Asia Growth Fund and underscoring Grab’s aim to be the leading technology player in the region. Other financial investors included Cinda Sino-Rock Investment Management Company, All-Stars Investment, Vulcan Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Macquarie Capital.

The investment by these leading global financial institutions was a reflection of their belief in Grab’s long-term growth opportunity, according to a media release from Grab, along with the company’s ability to unlock the region’s growth potential through its industry-changing O2O and transportation platform.

Ming Maa, president of Grab, said: “We are honoured to welcome these top-tier financial institutions into our roster of strategic investors and partners. Grab is today the industry-changing O2O platform that enables millions of consumers and entrepreneurs to come online and drive the digital economy in Southeast Asia. We have seen overwhelming interest from global strategic investors and partners who are keen to partner with us to capture the region’s booming growth.”

Grab will use the funds to expand the range of O2O services it provides in Southeast Asia as it seeks to grow into the “everyday super app of choice for million in the region,” said the release.

Through its partnerships, Grab can now offer users a one-stop solution for some of their key daily needs, including the GrabPay app to pay merchants, GrabFood for ordering food, GrabExpress for sending parcels and Grab’s range of transport services to hail rides.

In July, Grab launched its vision to become the region’s everyday super app of choice through an open platform strategy. It also announced the launch of GrabFresh, an on-demand grocery delivery service in Jakarta, Indonesia with other cities to follow later in 2018.

In particular, Grab will use a significant portion of the proceeds from the current fundraising to continue investing in Indonesia, where it is the industry-changing on-demand transport booking company. Grab has over 7.1 million micro-entrepreneurs on its platform, more than half of them residing in Indonesia.

Through Grab’s partnership with

local wallet and rewards programme, OVO, Grab has formed that country’s

most widely accepted mobile payments ecosystem, with more than 60 million downloads.

GrabFood has grown exponentially this year, expanding from Jakarta to serve 28 cities and towns across Indonesia, winning significant market share with gross merchandise vValue (GMV) in Indonesia almost quadrupling in the first half of 2018. Similarly, GrabExpress GMV in Indonesia has more than doubled in the first half of 2018.

Today, an estimated 4 to 5 million migrants are working in Thailand. More than 80 per cent are DTAC customers. Similarly, 50 per cent of Chinese tourists use the company’s SIMs during their holidays here. This market share was achieved using a customer-centric approach to rapidly innovate and scale new products.

Last May, as footballer Aung Thu scored a 93rd-minute goal for Police Tero, Fox News Asia tweeted, “Has there been a better new signing than the Myanmar star this season?” I’d add a broader point to that question: those who overlook the formidable potential of Asian migrants and visitors in Thailand do so at their own peril.

DTAC is very much focused on the combined might of the 2.5 million Myanmar people living here. That’s why we chose Aung Thu as our brand ambassador. Like DTAC’s migrant customers from Myanmar, Aung Thu came here to work hard and support his family back home. To better understand this demographic, but also those of Cambodian migrants and Chinese tourists, my team has had to change how we work, take more risks, get closer to our customers and rapidly scale what works.

Working with the right influencers, like Aung Thu, is an important factor to stake DTAC’s dominance in these demographics. But our customisations go well beyond skin-deep. Menus and notifications are all translated. Rates to call back home are the best in the market. Distribution channels are carefully tailored to each segment. Over the years, we have had to continuously evolve to be more agile and daring. As part of these changes, we embraced design thinking to better understand niche markets and to create solutions specifically tailored to them. While our first step was making SIMs with packaging and instructions fully translated into Burmese and Cambodian, we then spent a lot of time speaking to customers in these segments and deepening our insights.

Today, our competitors have woken up to the huge market migrants represent, but they still struggle to catch up with us because our understanding of Asian migrants and visitors goes well beyond translation.

In China, for example, we work directly with online travel agents – a project we undertook with dtac accelerate start-up TakeMeTour before scaling it with larger operators. For foreign workers from Cambodia or Myanmar, we instead focus on the fresh markets they frequent most often. No two demographics will require the same approach.

Even DTAC’s famous reward program has been fine-tuned to our customers’ various needs. When sending almost every baht you make back home, a discount for Swensen’s ice cream might not be a welcome treat. Instead, we give migrant workers printed coupons redeemable at their local grocers. As for Chinese tourists, we offer eight-day travel insurance and integrated payments with Alipay.

We are constantly innovating and rolling out new solutions. DTAC even has free roaming packages to browse the Internet while visiting the family back home in Cambodia or Myanmar. But what matters most is the process by which we develop these services. To conquer a new niche, make sure you truly understand it. In the digital era, design thinking should be at the heart of every effort to better serve customers.

Tippamas Kaysee is vice president and head of the prepaid migrant and tourist segment department at DTAC.

WITH CYBERTHREATS inevitable in the digital age, it is the government’s responsibility to raise public awareness so the threats do not affect the economy, Israeli cyber-security experts said last week in Bangkok.

Members of the Israel National Cyber Bureau (INCB) spoke to The Nation during the “Israel Cyber Security Roadshow” held last week by the Israel Embassy’s Economic and Trade Mission.

The event came two days after the computer systems of two major Thai banks were hacked, compromising the personal data of more than 120,000 customers. The incident caused fear among consumers who otherwise appreciate the convenience of online banking.

Declining to comment on Thailand’s specific cyber-security measures, the experts said Israel was dealing with threats by raising public awareness.

Hagai Mei-Zahav, manager of international cooperation at the INCB, said it was the government’s duty to provide road signs so civilians could drive safely.

Israel had made cyber-security part of the national agenda with the mission of protecting society and ensuring that the country could undergo a digital revolution politically and economically.

Mei-Zahav said his agency regularly published warnings to help people protect themselves. Ahead of “Black Monday” online shopping sales, for example, it issues “the 10 commandments” on cyber-security, and each summer it lists the top five steps people should take when going overseas on holiday.

Cyber-attacks go beyond data leaks and infrastructure breaches, but can also slow the economy, said Dagan Alony, chief of the Israel Economic and Trade Mission in Bangkok.

He explained that the banking and online shopping systems are built on trust, and consumers sharing their personal details help turn the wheels of the economy.

“But if you don’t have trust or people are afraid to buy online, then the economy will slow down. This is one of the biggest threats on the economic scale,” Alony said.

Cyber-crime is the greatest threat to every company and is one of the biggest problems facing mankind. According to a report last year by Cybersecurity Ventures, cyber-crime will cost the world US$6 trillion (Bt200 trillion) per annum by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.

The experts pointed out that cyber-threats are unavoidable since nearly everything is connected and more and more new technologies and digital services are being introduced.

“Technology has become a lot stronger now.

“Soon, we will have IoT [the Internet of Things], which will connect everything, and then everything will be under threat. That’s the equation,” Mei-Zahav said.

Though the cyberworld is getting riskier, Israel is trying to maintain security via “design or default or production”, he said.

For instance, five years ago, television |sets were vulnerable to attack, but the |latest smart TVs are being made more |secure in their design and production, Mei-Zahav explained.

‘The winter is coming’

Ruth Shoham, executive director of strategy and capacity building division at the INCB, pointed out that cyber-attacks are becoming more prevalent and all developing countries are at risk.

“We always say that winter is coming,” she said.

There is an uncertainty about the rules of the game, especially in terms of privacy and information control, she said, adding that the best way to deal with the rising challenge was to have the right operating procedures, the right technology and the right human capital.

In Israel, INCB is like an umbrella, she said, “so we know exactly which organisation is doing what to secure the network”. When there is an attack in a critical organisation, her agency responds immediately.

“We try to respond fast in order to prevent damage to civilians and organisations,” she said.

She said Israel invested heavily in the cyber industry, academia and human capital.

Israel’s 42 cyber-security firms are |ranked just after American companies in this year’s top-500 list issued by Cybersecurity Venture.

The cyber-security experts also met Chaichana Mitrpant, deputy executive director of the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), to discuss collaboration in order to share experiences and enhance security.

Shoham said Israel does not normally send high-level officials to other countries, but cooperating on the issue with Thailand was crucial.

She said there could be collaboration at every level – both government-to-government and business-to-business.

“My division works in this industry, so we can help Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.

“We can send experts to Thailand to provide training and all the assistance necessary,” she said.

Alony said Israel had spent years building policies and learning from its mistakes, so joining hands with Thailand would give both sides a good opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences.

However, he said, this was just the beginning and, though no commitment has been made, he thinks it will be a win-win situation for both sides because there are no boundaries in the cyberworld.

The INCB is currently working closely with 400 global organisations and countries.

Dogs recognise Aibo as a “living thing” and can even be taught new social skills through interacting with the robot, Sony said in a statement last Thursday (July 26).

Author and animal researcher Tadaaki Imaizumi conducted a series of experiments and monitored the interactions between real dogs and Aibo over a 13-day period.

In the first set of experiments, 13 dogs of different breeds, including a toy poodle, a jack russell terrier and a shiba inu, were introduced to Aibo with their owners present. Mr Imaizumi observed that nine of the 13 dogs approached Aibo curiously and sniffed at it.

Of the nine that approached Aibo, six dogs attempted to sniff Aibo’s rear end, indicating an interest in learning more about the robot dog. The dogs showed a greater interest when their owners also interacted with Aibo.

However, Mr Imaizumi said that the four dogs that did not approach Aibo remained wary even when their owners interacted with Aibo.

In the second set of experiments, owners from three households took Aibo back home with them for two weeks and recorded videos of their dogs interacting with their new robot companions.

Over time, some of the dogs that initially showed fear or disinterest in Aibo got used to their presence and would even imitate them.

A six-month-old toy poodle from the first household was wary on the first day, but began to play with Aibo after the third day.

A three-year-old jack russell terrier from the second household showed excitement immediately after he was introduced to Aibo and would copy Aibo’s movements.

He would even bring Aibo a toy when he wanted to play, and would show his affection by licking Aibo’s face.

The third household, which included a five-year-old shiba inu, a three-year-old samoyed and a three-year-old miniature dachshund, quickly accepted Aibo as one of their own and seemed to be upset when it was time to say goodbye.

Mr Imaizumi noted that some of the dogs initially showed signs of jealousy towards Aibo, suggesting that they felt their position in the household hierarchy had been threatened by Aibo’s arrival.

“There is a good possibility that living together with Aibo can improve mental stability and relieve stress in dogs,” he said in the statement.

“Although it isn’t good to leave dogs alone at home, having Aibo around might let dogs feel like they always have a play partner around, and that could potentially give them some peace of mind.”

He added that the experiments also showed that something close to consideration or compassion can be nurtured in dogs through their interactions with Aibo.

His remarks followed the data leaks reported by Kasikorn Bank and Krung Thai Bank, where personal and corporate data of more than 120,000 bank customers were compromised.

Krung Thai Bank reported to the Bank of Thailand that the personal data of 117,000 customers applying for personal, housing and other loans online, were hacked. Kasikorn Bank reported that corporate data of about 3,000 customers using the bank’s online letter of guarantee service, was compromised.

Cyber-security experts said the incidents serve as a wake-up call for regulators and other authorities as Thailand accelerates the pace of its digital economy.

While bank executives said the data leaks have caused no damage so far, experts said. Data, especially personal data, is very sensitive and potential damage cannot be ruled out. Experts have urged the government to quickly strengthen legal safeguards against data leaks with special measures added to the data protection bill which will be enacted later this year.

At present, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s rules require telecom operators to report any data leaks to authorities within 72 hours. However, there are no regulations for the banking sector yet.

Experts have also suggested that the country’s data protection bill should meet the international standard set by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which went into effect in May this year, since the law covers both data protection and data leak issues with punitive measures.

Regarding Thailand, Kitti said, a national cyber-security committee has highlighted the issue of an insufficient number of cyber-security experts and it is seeking state funds to develop more human resources.

At present, there is a widespread shortage of experts in virtually all sectors of the economy.

Thailand’s fast-growing digital economy has led to a huge increase in Big Data, especially personal data stored on the computer systems of telecom companies, banks and other financial institutions, which have become a major target for cyber-attacks.

As a result, authorities have to step up both prevention and detection measures as well as prepare how best to respond to these attacks.

“For example, the time it takes to respond to these attacks is no less important than prevention and detection measures, so we need to develop more experts in this field to cope with the rising number of incidents. In addition, consumers need to have greater awareness on protecting their personal data,” Kitti said.

Since the digital economy is driven by the massive amount of personal and other data, it is not possible to completely prevent all data leaks which could be facilitated by malware, ransomware and other methods.

In this context, personal data is the most sensitive and could be widely abused, especially in the world of digital banking and customer IDs.

Kitti said public awareness campaigns are necessary to facilitate the fast-growing digital and mobile banking sector as commercial banks move more customers to mobile and other digital platforms which are seen as a new competitive advantage due to increased convenience for customers and increased efficiency for banks.

“Member banks of the TB-CERT are working together to strengthen our safeguards on cyber-security by sharing information and experience in various cases so that the sector can more effectively plug their loopholes to prevent new attacks. However, each bank has its own monitoring and alert mechanisms. At this stage, TB-CERT focuses on how best to respond to cyber-attacks,” he said.

More funding needed

Due to the migration of banking services from branches to online and mobile platforms, it is necessary to increase investment in additional security and other precautionary measures since there are greater probabilities of incidents.

In his opinion, prevention and detection as well as best responses are key to ensuring that banking services are not disrupted by attacks. Previously, most banks focussed on prevention and later detection, Now, timely responses are also very important.

Reddit didn’t disclose the extent of the hack, saying it was conducting a “painstaking” investigation to determine what was accessed and to harden security.

“Although this was a serious attack, the attacker did not gain write access to Reddit systems,” Reddit said in an online post.

“They gained read-only access to some systems that contained backup data, source code and other logs.”

In essence, the hacker could look at data but not change anything.

Information accessed included some current email addresses and a 2007 user database containing old passwords that were scrambled, according to Reddit, which was founded in 2005.

Reddit determined that a hacker compromised some employee accounts with cloud and source-code providers.

Reddit heightens computer security with “two-factor authentication” that requires passwords to be accompanied by temporary codes sent via text messages, but the cyber-attack involved “SMS intercept” of texted codes, according to the company.

“As website breaches go, this one doesn’t seem too severe,” cyber-security specialist Brian Krebs said in a post on his Krebs on Security website.

“What’s interesting about the incident is that it showcases once again why relying on mobile text messages (SMS) for two-factor authentication (2FA) can lull companies and end users into a false sense of security.”

The old database accessed in the hack held backup copies of Reddit user data from its first two years in operation.

Also accessed were email digests from a few weeks in June, according to Reddit.

Reddit was co-founded by Alexis Ohanian, husband of tennis superstar Serena Williams. Reddit is ranked among the most visited US websites, and has more than 138,000 “communities” for discussions on various topics.

Reddit is also known for ask-me-anything (AMA) sessions with well-known people such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former US president Barack Obama.

In a statement, the social media giants — which are both owned by Facebook — announced “new tools to help people manage their time” spent on the platforms.

Among the tools are a way to limit notifications, and a dashboard that allows users to keep track of how much time they have spent on the platforms.

“We want the time people spend on Instagram and Facebook to be intentional, positive and inspiring,” the statement said.

“Our hope is that these tools give people more control over the time they spend on our platforms and also foster conversations between parents and teens about the online habits that are right for them,” it added.

Facebook said it was introducing a daily reminder, whereby users are alerted when they reach the time limit they set for themselves to spend on the app.

It is also introducing an option to deactivate notifications on smartphones.

Facebook has in recent months introduced a string of changes to its content, including a major plan earlier this year to update its newsfeed to emphasise posts from friends and family.

That shift had prompted fears it could drive away advertisers if people spent less time on the social network.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had announced the changes in 2017, as his firm sought to respond to accusations that it encouraged addiction to its platform.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg said: “In 2018, we’re focused on making sure Facebook isn’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being and for society.”

Since the measures were introduced, viral videos have seen a significant drop in reach.

The plan in turn saw a 5 percent drop in time spent on Facebook in the last quarter of 2017.

The finding were published yesterday in PwC’s Global Consumer Insights survey, which assesses the shopping behaviour, habits and expectations of over 22,000 consumers in 27 territories.

The study reports that 10 per cent of respondents already own artificial intelligence (AI) devices, such as robots and automated personal assistants like Amazon Echo or Google Home, and 32 per cent said they plan to buy one. Both consumer and retailer habits and offerings still need time to adapt however, to make the most of the new voice commerce channel.

Interest in the devices is strongest amongst consumers in emerging economies including China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Demand is generally lower in developed territories. Brazilian and Chinese consumers surveyed are twice as likely (59 per cent and 52 per cent respectively) to plan to own an AI device, as their American (25 per cent), British (24 per cent) or French (25 per cent) peers. Italy and Poland also showed strong interest with around 40 per cent of respondents planning to buy an AI device.

Across all markets, early adopters of AI devices tend to be men, aged 18-34, who are open to collaborative consumption, less likely to take action to reduce the risk of online security issues and fraud, and less price conscious.

John Maxwell, Global Consumer Markets leader, PwC, said that AI is moving very rapidly into the consumer and retail sectors. Consumers are shifting their shopping behaviours. As soon as they want something, they can order it, rather than think about it until their next shopping trip. Within two to three years AI could revolutionise how companies profile, segment and serve customers.

In addition to the growing popularity of AI, mobile devices are gaining traction with global shoppers Mobile purchasing has more than doubled in six years to 17 per cent of all shopping, and is likely to soon overtake computer purchases (20 per cent), which now accounts for only one in five of purchases made. Convenience is also playing a part, with half of all respondents using smartphones to pay for purchases in store.

E-commerce continues to dominate – 59 per cent of consumers are shopping with online retailers -which has transformed shoppers’ expectations about shipments, as 41 per cent of respondents say they would pay an extra charge for same-day or faster delivery, 44 per cent for a specific time slot, and 38 per cent would consider a drone as a delivery method.

But despite the dominance of the big online retailers, there is still room for physical stores to thrive. For the fourth year in a row, the number of respondents who say they shop at a bricks and mortar store on a weekly basis has risen, this year by 3 per cent to 44 per cent.

“Traditional retailers could be at an advantage as shopping behaviour in stores shifts more to the experience than just shopping,” comments Maxwell.

“With experienced salespeople, lifestyle offers on-site such as exercise classes, or image recognition allowing for tailoring of products being offered, consumers can expect showrooms, as opposed to just shops.”

On data privacy, the survey reflects the ongoing tension for retailers on customer data. 41 per cent of respondents are comfortable with retailers monitoring their shopping habits to tailor special offers for them, but conversely, over a third (37 per cent) of consumers are protective about their privacy, and opposed to retailers identifying when they are nearby and targeting them with offers.

The annual survey also finds encouraging news about consumer confidence despite concerns about depressed spending and investing. Globally, the majority of consumers surveyed plan to spend the same or more as they did last year, with 38 per cent maintaining the same spending as last year, and 37 per cent planning more.

Vilaiporn Taweelappontong, Consulting Lead Partner for PwC Thailand, adds that it’s interesting to see that Asian consumers, especially Thai consumers, are quickly adopting AI devices for shopping.

Thailand ranks fifth among countries with the highest ownership of AI. China leads the pack, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and the US. This reflects how receptive and open Thai consumers can be when it comes to buying AI devices.

It also means that offering a convenient shopping experience is key to winning the hearts of Thai customers.

“Thai retailers therefore need to adjust their strategies to meet this demand and bring in technology to enhance the customer experience and develop new distribution channels to boost sales amid a sluggish economy and purchasing power,” Vilaiporn said.

To realize this, organizations need to adopt newtechnologies, such as cloud, to transform their business and innovate in order to differentiate themselves from competitors and drive business growth.

As business environments become uncertain and volatile, organizations will also need to ITinfrastructure that will help them be agile enough to configure for change without necessarily knowing what the change will be. This is where open source can help. For 25years, we’ve seen examples of how open unlocks the potential to solve complex problems in various industries – including financial services, telcos and governments –by bringing people together to collaborate. Open source is also a driving force behind emerging mega-trends in technology such as cloud and containers due to user participation. Putting it simply, open source can help organizations meet current and future business demands.

Stronger Together

However, the success of open source is closely linked to the wisdom of the crowd where the collective opinion of a group of individuals tends to be smarter than that of a single expert. This is why we believe that partners are fundamental to our business, and we’re committed to providing them with the right support to grow.

One way we’re doing so is through the Red Hat Partner Conference Asia Pacific, which will take place in Bali, Indonesia, from 10-13July, 2018. With the theme “Stronger Together,” the event provided partners with the opportunity to network; hone their technical knowledge on application modernization and integration, IT automation, cloud and virtualization, container platforms, DevOps and open hybrid cloud; as well as learn how open source can drive innovation across these areas.

Committed to helping our partners grow, we also strive to equip them with the necessary sales, marketing and technical resources via our Partner Content Hub to enable them to keep up with changes. In addition, we’reproviding specific routes to help different types of partners – such as systemintegrators (SIs), independent software vendors (ISVs) and CCSPs – understand how to best leverage our solutions to better serve their customers.

Mid last year we also announced that cloud and managed services providers in India, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore have joinedthe Red Hat CCSP program to better meet customer needs for cloud-based technologies. Since its launch in 2015, hundreds of cloud and service providers have achieved designation to deliver Red Hat solutions across the global marketplace. We are excited that the program is being received well in APAC and garnering a good interest across the region.

Last month we also launched the Red Hat OpenShift Practice Builder Program in Asia Pacific for SIs. This program is designed to better position SIs in the region to meet customers’ increasing interest for containerized application development and platforms that can support cloud-native workloads to become more efficient in delivering innovative solutions.

Furthermore, we are seeing a growing uptake of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform in Asia Pacific, with the help of independent software vendors (ISV). To keep up with the rapid pace of change, enterprises across industries need to have a robust, flexible, scalable and modern application platform that can run cloud-native workloads to increase their agility and embrace disruption. To help enterprises in Asia Pacific capture those opportunities, more ISVs in the region areintegrating Red Hat OpenShift into comprehensive products and services that can enable success for cloud-first customers.

Unlocking the world’s potential

We are excited with the opportunities we have for our partners in Asia Pacific. I think it’s a great time to be in business, with technology driving the disruption across markets and verticals. However as the saying, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” goes, Red Hat will only be able to helpmore organizations thrive in this ever-changing business environment with the help of our partners.

By furnishing partners with open source knowledge and tools, partners will be better able to comprehensively plan to transform their business and innovate to better help customers accelerate their digital transformation, which can translate to more sustainable business success. This in a nutshell is how we can unlock the world’s potential together.

^[1] Source: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2018 Predictions — APeJ Implications, November 2017 https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP43192517

^[2] Source: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2018 Predictions — APeJ Implications,พฤศจิกายน 2560 https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP43192517