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Hello monopolies, goodbye independents – it’s getting hard to stand alone in...
I was at a blockchain event last night when a Beijing-based investor let loose a rant on how this Internet world of centralisation was creating monopolies especially in travel where OTAs were...
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Meta & Messaging: A Marriage Made In Heaven? LINE invests in Venture Republic...
In yet another sign of the consolidation and disruption taking place in the digital travel space, LINE Corporation, which runs Japan’s dominant messaging app, has taken a 34% equity in Venture Republic...
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Through The Looking Glass: What drives Industry 4.0 companies and how you can...
If you are a Business 3.0 company, it’s time to take it up a notch because Industry 4.0 is here where tech adoption is happening at an accelerated scale, challenging traditional business models and...
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After Zanadu, Wu plunges into blockchain and crypto to build Next Gen travel...
Having built up Zanadu into China’s premier lifestyle travel platform after a tough but rewarding five years, Zan Wu, together with his co-founder, Dirk Eschenbacher, now wants to create a new startup,...
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Know your farmer – Sampran Riverside’s Arrut leads organic tourism movement...
In today’s age, where we have our personal trainers, doctors and lawyers, why shouldn’t we have our personal farmer? That was the food for thought offered by Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Sampran...
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Letter from East Coast road trip, Malaysia: Places have not changed, the way...
Driving along the highway that cuts into Kuantan, Pahang, on the Malaysian east coast, my mind casts back to the first ever travel conference I covered as a rookie in the world of travel trade...
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Letter from Sydney: Of food made for instagram and the journey towards NDC,...
At the Two Sis café in Pyrmont where I had lunch my last day in Sydney, the place was packed with youngsters from Asia – there’s a local university nearby and so it’s popular with students. Let’s say...
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Armed with $200m more, Klook eyes global domination as it steers course to...
It seems there is no stopping Klook which will go down in Asia’s travel history as the startup that has raised the most in the shortest time. Today, it announced it has closed $200m in Series D...
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South Korea’s MyRealTrip joins hands with Naver to launch “Naver Tour”
South Korea’s leading travel platform, MyRealTrip, has launched a new service called “Naver Tour” in partnership with Naver, the country’s largest Internet company. Naver Tour was co-designed and...
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How an island boy and his team grew Klook into a ‘fast fish’ which now wants...
Eric Gnock Fah still remembers the day he presented at the WiT Startup Pitch in Tokyo in June 2015. It was barely a year after he and co-founder Ethan Lin had started Klook, their “discover and book...
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Bringing GRRRL Power to Asia – how Olson built a women sportswear brand out...
In our continuing series of articles around our WIT Singapore Conference theme of “Through The Looking Glass”, where we look outside travel in search of different stories and lessons, we look at how...
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Everyone wants to be an Experience Maker – lessons from Coca-Cola and ONE...
It seems everyone wants to be in the experience business these days, whether you’re selling bottles of sugared water, body lotion, education or sports. At the Adobe Symposium, held in Singapore this...
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Prashant Kirtane out to make Travelstop unstoppable as agent of change in...
Three years after the sale of Travelmob to HomeAway, co-founder Prashant Kirtane has launched his new startup, Travelstop, to become the “Slack of unmanaged corporate travel” for SMEs in Asia. The...
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Hand lettering in the heartland, and why boredom can be a good thing
“I can’t remember the last time I concentrated so long at doing one thing,” said Parin Mehta, director, global experiences, operations, Airbnb, his head bent low as he painstakingly wrote on a piece of...
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Round two of “Passion Made Possible” pushes envelope with tales of locals who...
Meet Cai Yinzhou whose parents kept asking him to get a fulltime job but all he wanted to do was share his Geylang neighbourhood with travellers. He turned his passion into Geylang Adventures, which...
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Stop thinking in verticals, says Menke as Sabre sets out to become platform...
To travellers, a trip is a connected journey – we grab a ride to the airport, fly, arrive, grab ride to hotel, hopefully have a lovely stay and if we have time, book a couple of activities (or should...
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How Anywhr grew out of a hate of travel and now she’s sending people to live...
It started out as a lark – a travel website that would surprise Singaporeans with destination choices based on their profile and preferences – but when they got their first booking, the two co-founders...
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Work on digital literacy to compete against aliens, magicians and barbarians,...
In a world where “aliens, magicians and barbarians” are shaking up the world at large with their tech and tech change is happening at an exponential rate, organisations have to ensure digital literacy...
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Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even DBS Bank had a “near death” experience.
It is said that misery loves company, so does change. Change loves, and needs, company because it is definitely less lonely when you see that everyone’s experiencing and muddling through the same set...
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Sean Menke pushing the limits with his own Sabre endurance race – 80 miles to go
The toughest endurance race Sean Menke, Sabre president & CEO, has ever run is the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile race in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, which you have to be complete in 30...
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