The metaverse’s new realms in Southeast Asia

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Hello there

You have to hand it to Mark Zuckerberg. When the Facebook founder chose to rename the company's parent firm to Meta Platforms to build an alternate digital world known as the metaverse, he was mercilessly criticized.

He was considered just another middle-aged tech billionaire chasing a childhood dream, similar to what Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Tesla's Elon Musk did with space rockets.

And yet his timing was impeccable. While Wall Street has been fanning the hype, Southeast Asia has witnessed the quiet rise of metaverse builder RFox. The bootstrapped startup, which was launched right before the crypto boom, plans to create localized metaverses in the region.

In today’s big story, my colleague Nikita decodes the metaverse possibilities through RFox.

-- Deepti

P.S.: Tech in Asia is celebrating International Women’s Day this week with lots of great content on the site - keep an eye out for it!


The quiet rise of a startup that sold $2.5m of virtual land 

Vietnam’s RFox isn’t just building virtual shopping malls. It wants to be the dominant open metaverse.
 
 

Fighting the changing face of fraud

For as long as there’s been money to be made, fraud has existed, going from tactics like counterfeit money and fake checks to new strategies like identity fraud and promo abuse. As Southeast Asia continues to digitalize, more people are coming online for the first time, creating more opportunities for fraudsters.

According to a report by GrabDefence and Forrester, seven out of 10 surveyed organizations experienced fraud in the last 12 months, significantly impacting their businesses. And as firms try to fight fraud, they have to strike a balance between preventing major risks and keeping the customer journey frictionless.

Sign up for GrabDefence’s upcoming webinar, The State of Fraud in Southeast Asia 2022: Insights To Protect Your Business. On March 23, industry experts will weigh in on the region’s fraud landscape, share insights from the GrabDefence and Forrester report, and discuss recommendations for businesses to enhance their fraud management capabilities.

 



Grab’s Q4 revenue drop wipes out $7.2b market cap in one day
Grab’s market cap is now 3x lower than when it listed on Nasdaq and is below its 2019 series H valuation.
SG co-investing platform banks $50m
Zignaly allows crypto traders to analyze prices and manage orders autonomously.
YC, Payfazz founder’s VC pour $500k into Indonesian crypto startup
Blocknom is the first Southeast Asian crypto earnings platform backed by Y Combinator.
Bilibili’s shares slide by 8% after losses rise in Q4
Bilibili said it will buy back shares worth up to US$500 million over the next two years.
Grab’s financial health in 8 charts
Grab, the Southeast Asian super app, just announced its fourth quarter and full year 2021 results. Below are eight charts – updated by quarter – that track the company’s performance.
True Global Ventures donates $200k for Ukraine charity fund
The firm has also urged other venture capitalists and Web3 players to support the cause.

 


You can also check out a curated list of trending tech events over here.
  • AWS SaaS Forum on March 8th
    Join the AWS SaaS Forum on March 8 to uncover opportunities and insights on SaaS trends, outlook for 2022 and how to build your business playbook. Attendance is complimentary.
  • Unlocking the possibilities of the digital credit ecosystem on March 16th
    Digitalization is in full swing and consumers are now used to having most aspects of their lives play out online. This also means that their expectations of financial institutions and players are now higher than ever - can businesses keep up?
    Join us on March 16 for a panel discussion led by global information technology company Experian to better understand how real time credit assessment, alternative sources of credit data, and AI/ML powered automation can enable a seamless customer experience and new credit opportunities in today’s digital credit ecosystem.
    Click here to reserve your place.
 

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