CDP Institute

While Singaporeans have lived through fluctuating restrictions – like Circuit Breaker and heightened alerts – one thing that has remained constant over the last 18 months is the lifeline to normality that applications and digital services have provided. Whether it’s staying connected to loved ones, ordering food and groceries, work, study, or rest, the role that apps play in our lives has never been more prominent.

The expected reach is about 85 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 and by 2025 it’s predicted to raise up to 160 billion. On the regional level, Latin America’s eCommerce industry is showing much more competition. The two leading regions are Brazil and Mexico that contributes up to 31% to 28% of the total revenues. Apart from them, Colombia, Argentina and Peru.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) financial institutions have significantly ramped up their adoption of fintech in recent years. Lockdowns, social distancing and the need for e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic pushed 40 million Latin Americans to enroll in banks and enabled them to use digital finance channels, e-commerce or credit for the first time in their lives.

Nigerian fintech startup Toju is providing alternative credit-scoring for the unbanked, having developed a record management platform for local savings clubs, thrift collectors, microfinance institutions and cooperatives.

Ghanaian start-up Kaazi has launched the public beta of its football talent identification and recruitment platform, which will be available to all football players in Africa. Founded in July by Nana Yaw Oppong-Mensah, a former football player, coach and scout, Kaazi is a web-based platform that allows football players to build their own profiles by adding videos and match highlights to showcase their talent directly to scouts and professional football clubs.

As male-dominated as the African tech space is, some women are making their mark, serving as a source of encouragement for more women to dive in. To celebrate this year’s International Day for the Girl Child, Techpoint Africa showcases four tech women doing big things in African Tech; their work, life and how they’re navigating a male-dominated ecosystem.

Pandemic-driven growth in India’s ecommerce, food and grocery sectors combined with reverse migration of workers from cities back to their hometowns has put blue-collar workers in high demand. Now companies in India are investing in upskilling that workforce to fit new working models in recognition of changed economics and to benefit from India’s 250 million blue-collar workforce.

A Sitecore survey of IT executives in 12 countries in the GCC, the Levant, and Egypt showed the impact of the pandemic on customer behavior. Ninety-one percent of consumers in MENA become digital converts; and 83% of organizations in MENA advanced their marketing stack more in 2020 than they had in the three years prior.

Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) has announced it is turning to Google Cloud as part of plans to leverage data, machine learning, and AI to personalise the customer journey.

The majority of Australians are concerned about data privacy, with 50 per cent stating companies are requesting too much personal information, according to new research by Toluna, a leading consumer intelligence platform.

Perth Airport is implementing a range of digital technologies to simplify the customer experience when passing through its facilities, while also helping the operator to better understand the breadth of customer interactions.

Despite its small size, Chile’s e-commerce indicators are impressive. With the highest banking, Internet and smartphone penetration in the region, Chileans are better prepared than any other Latin Americans to adopt e-commerce. Chileans’ online spend is disproportionately high for their small population of 18 million; in 2016, per capita e-commerce spend in Chile was $222 compared to $120 in Brazil and $138 in Argentina.