📈10M units shipped with 173% YOY growth

This company shipped 10 million phones within 14 months of its founding. [Open this email in your browser]( 📈10M units shipped with 173% YOY growth Hello {NAME} This relatively new Chinese smartphone brand grew 173% year on year in Southeast Asia despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Wait, what? How? We figure that out in [today’s premium story]( (🔒). Scroll down if you’d like a summarized read. But first, your quick bytes for the day: 1️⃣ The former acting CEO of Luckin Coffee is now [officially its new CEO](. 2️⃣ Say hello to Jio Platforms’ potential new investor: Google. The tech giant is [reportedly in talks]( to inject a US$4 billion investment into the India-based firm. 3️⃣ Three million more Australians can now enjoy hailing rides on Didi Chuxing as it expands into [smaller cities and towns]( in the country. 4️⃣ Hotel startup Oyo will be [merging]( its hotel and short-term residential businesses in Japan as soon as this month. 5️⃣ Seventy seven: That’s the [number of questions]( the Indian government has posed to Chinese companies like TikTok-owner ByteDance, whose apps they have banned. 6️⃣ Thailand's leading fast-food restaurant chain, Central Restaurants Group, is looking to open [100 cloud kitchens]( in the next five years. The new turbocharged phone brand Move over Oppo: Your cousin is going to catch up really soon. Realme, an ex-sub-brand of Oppo, went solo in 2018, and it’s now closing in to become the fastest-growing smartphone brand in Southeast Asia. How [did it achieve this]( (🔒)? - Say hi to millennials and zoomers. Realme knows the way to a young user’s heart — the company holds press conferences in school campuses and nightclubs and relies mostly on online marketing and sales channels. - A focus on fun. Young users spend a lot of time on entertainment apps, so Realme makes sure that it’s entertainment features are entertaining. For example, it launched a performance-enhanced handset for gamers and provided distinct sound modes for different activities. - Oppo is huge. Having the third-largest smartphone maker in Southeast Asia behind your back helps. Realme uses Oppo’s manufacturing facilities for production, and it is also maybe using Oppo’s offline retail shops. Read more analysis on Oppos vs. Realme vs. Xiaomi here: [A Chinese smartphone brand’s rapid rise in Southeast Asia, India]( (🔒) Spread the word: [Facebook]( | [Twitter]( | [Linkedin]( Will we ever see a Southeast-Asian Netflix? On one end, you have video-streaming companies like Disney+ ramping up hiring in Southeast Asia. On the other? [Liquidation]( and [acquisitions](. So is the video-streaming industry [a boom or bust business]( in Southeast Asia? - It remains attractive. Why else would Netflix and HBO still look to expand and grow in this region? Similarly, Gojek is also branching out into [video streaming with GoPlay]( (🔒). - So what’s the problem? Every company wants a piece of the streaming pie, so they’re fighting to develop or acquire exclusive content. But let’s not forget that exclusivity is expensive. As a result, these moves have left everyone with a small content library and a hefty subscription price tag. - Can viewers still chill? Maybe not. Viewers now have to get multiple subscription plans at higher rates, and the content they watch might even get scrapped if the viewership is low. More on video-streaming 🔒: - [Iflix deal signals Tencent’s big push into original content]( - [Video streaming in Asia is not for the faint of heart]( Meituan is back, bigger and better? - Meituan-Dianping abandoned China’s powerbank-sharing sector three years ago. But now, it’s back, putting up an offer that merchants are finding hard to refuse. - We unlocked [this article]( for you to read in full this week. - If you are into powerbank-sharing, I recommend you read our subscriber-only deep dive report: “[Shared powerbanks: A billion-dollar opportunity or fool’s gold?]( (🔒) Misc Happening - [Tech in Asia Virtual Pitch Night]( on Wednesday, July 22 - [The Great Forum: Transform Beyond Crisis]( on Thursday, July 23 - [Rewriting the Rules of User Engagement with Shopee and Garena]( on Wednesday, July 29 Hiring - [iOS Developer]( at Stockbit (Jakarta, Indonesia) - [Brand Associate]( at Dbrandcom (Jakarta, Indonesia) - [UX Writer]( at Niagahoster (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) Don't let the midweek slump get you down. Share this with your friends and tell them to take a break by having a read! If you have comments about our revamped newsletter, we’d love to hear them! Send us feedback [here](. Copyright © 2020 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe](.