Enterprise

Alibaba buys into Asia’s ecommerce boom with controlling stake in Lazada

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Chinese Internet titan Alibaba made the headlines recently after announcing its biggest overseas acquisition yet. The deal will see it take control of Lazada, one of the most popular names in ecommerce in Southeast Asia, earning the reputation as the region’s Alibaba or Amazon.

Despite online shopping accounting for only 1 percent of retail sales in the region today, Southeast Asia has seen a rapid climb in ecommerce sales in recent years, and is expected to maintain double-digit growth rates for the next several years.

The agreement comes in the wake of earlier acquisitions that gave Alibaba control of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s biggest English-language newspaper, and Chinese video-streaming service Youku Tuduo.

Alibaba also invested $500 million in Indian ecommerce startup Snapdeal. There are others, but listing them might make you less inclined to read the rest of this post. Suffice to say, the Chinese firm has been on a spending spree for quite a while now, and its latest purchase no doubt makes sense financially and strategically.

Lazada, which sells everything from diapers to sofa to smartphones and operates in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, will essentially allow Alibaba to buy into markets where it has limited traction rather than expand its Taobao and Tmall sites outside of its home market of China. Why risk billions in expansion dollars to build an ecommerce empire from the ground up when you can buy one?

In a statement, Alibaba said it was investing $500 million in newly issued shares, plus an additional $500 million to acquire equity from current shareholders, for a total of $1 billion. Alibaba also said it has the right to buy out the remaining shares from investors after a 12- to 18-month period for an all-out acquisition. Lazada currently has a $1.5 billion valuation, according to its founder, Rocket Internet.

Speaking of the landmark deal, Alibaba president Michael Evans said: “With the investment in Lazada, Alibaba gains access to a platform with a large and growing consumer base outside China, a proven management team and a solid foundation for future growth in one of the most promising regions for ecommerce globally.”

Hopefully for online shoppers in Southeast Asia, Alibaba’s billions will translate into a marketplace that rivals what the Chinese have been enjoying for years now, something Lazada has so far failed to achieve since its founding in 2011.

TechCrunch previously wrote that Lazada generated $191 million in sales over the first nine months of 2015, but shelled out $233 million in operating costs for the said period.

[irp posts=”4610″ name=”HP’s affordable convertible is coming to Lazada PH”]

Source: TechCrunch

Enterprise

Cebu Pacific becomes 1st SEA low-cost carrier with Starlink Wi-Fi

Rollout expected to begin in 2027

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Cebu Pacific has introduced Starlink, making it the first low-cost airline in Southeast Asia to bring Wi-Fi in the sky for passengers.

The rollout is expected to begin in 2027. Starlink delivers an unparalleled broadband experience inflight, with high-speed, low-latency Wi-Fi capable of HD streaming, online gaming, productivity and more.

Beyond enhancing the passenger experience, Starlink will also support improved operational connectivity for Cebu Pacific’s flight crews and operational teams. This enables better operational efficiency.

The collaboration is a significant milestone for Philippine aviation. The rollout forms part of Cebu Pacific’s continued investment in customer experience and digital innovation.

As part of the partnership, Cebu Pacific and Indigo Partners portfolio airlines, Wizz Air, and JetSMART expect to install Starlink on over 1,000 aircraft.

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Enterprise

Google ordered to pay EUR 4.1 billion in fines

The EU alleges that Google uses its apps to establish an unfair dominance.

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European fines have unintentionally become a normal part of doing business in the American technology space. For too long have American companies paid paltry fines to prevent harsher regulation in the European Union. Now, for the first time, Google is about to pay a record-breaking fine that goes beyond “paltry.”

Today, via CNBC, Google has been ordered to pay an astonishing EUR 4.1 billion (or approximately US$ 4.67 billion) in fines. The fine is in response to an anti-competition case.

This has been a long time coming for Google. The original case started in 2018. At the time, the European Union accused the brand of using anti-competitive practices to ensure its dominance in the smartphone market. According to the courts, the company’s bundling of first-party apps for every Android smartphone gives them an unfair advantage in the market and lessens the user’s choice in selecting apps.

For years, Google has fought the fine to seemingly no avail. Now, the company has lost its final attempt, which means that the fine still stands. On the bright side, they did get it reduced from the original EUR 4.34 billion fine.

The European Union is the scourge of every American tech company (and a godsend to consumers). Most notably, the continent’s government forced Apple to adopt USB-C, leading to a more universal experience across brands.

Google’s hefty fine aims to do the same. And it is quite hefty. Whereas previous fines were in the millions (and hence, negligible for most companies), a fine in the billions is more tangible.

SEE ALSO: Google might limit free storage to only 5GB

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Apps

foodpanda relaunches cult-favorite roast chicken brand after 8 years of persistent search queries

Heritage chain Andok’s returns to the platform, driven entirely by long-term user analytics.

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In the world of e-commerce and food delivery, platform algorithms usually dictate what consumers see. But occasionally, consumer behavior is so relentless that it shapes the platform’s strategy.

In a move driven entirely by long-term user analytics, foodpanda has officially relaunched Andok’s, one of the Philippines’ most iconic heritage rotisserie chains, back onto its platform after an eight-year absence.

The search bar as a digital wishlist

The decision to ink the partnership wasn’t just a marketing play. It was a response to an ongoing data anomaly. Despite being offline from the foodpanda platform for eight years, Andok’s consistently ranked as one of the most-searched merchants on the app.

Year after year, users treated the empty search results page as an unofficial wishlist. This persistent search intent gave foodpanda a clear, data-backed signal of pent-up demand.

Prior to the official digital rollout, teaser campaigns on social media validated this demand, generating thousands of organic interactions from users anticipating the return.

Bridging heritage flavor with digital infrastructure

For foodpanda, onboarding a merchant with this level of built-in demand fits its broader strategy of marketplace optimization and hyper-local network expansion, turning a heritage brand into another data point for how legacy retail plugs into delivery infrastructure.

For Andok’s, the integration works as a fast track to digital scale. A legacy quick-service chain skips years of independent app development and reaches customers already using foodpanda’s existing logistics network, on a platform they already check daily.

Andok’s built its following on charcoal spit-roasted chicken, a slow-cooked technique that’s stayed largely unchanged since the brand’s early days, alongside seasoned grilled pork belly.

More recently, the Dokito line extended that following into crispy fried chicken and chicken burgers, broadening the brand’s appeal beyond its original rotisserie format and giving foodpanda a menu with both heritage pull and everyday fast-food convenience.

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