AirAsia’s e-wallet arm BigPay has secured approximately US$100 million in financing from South Korean conglomerate, SK Group. The company said that the funding will be used to further its mission to become the leading challenger bank in Southeast Asia, with plans to build out its offerings, accelerate product development and scale.
Online shopping has outpaced traditional retail in the Asia Pacific as more people turn to e-commerce. Online shoppers who shop ‘a few times a month’ regularly are now outpacing their offline counterparts by 42% vs 31%. Those who shop online ‘once every few months’ leapfrog offline shoppers by 66%.
In this very different time, retailers are trying to do whatever they can to survive as more shoppers move to the online world to purchase products and services. While having an online channel is necessary for today’s retailers, many transactions still happen in their physical stores. Hence, retailers must leverage their data collected from both the online and offline worlds. The retailers that successfully do so will stay relevant in this era, as they can seamlessly provide an omnichannel retail experience to their customers.
Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation. The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.