Tech in Asia's Next Chapter

[The longer version]

Wow, such a relief to finally be able to talk about this (https://www.techinasia.com/tia-sph-media)!

It’s been a few long, hard months in the making, but I’m so excited and grateful to announce SPH Media’s impending acquisition of Tech in Asia.?

I jumped in fresh & starry-eyed into the startup world almost five years ago, and it has been an absolute roller-coaster ride of leading a digital media company through a startup boom, rise of Southeast Asia, global pandemic, and tech winter. Above all, I’m grateful for the incredible experience of running Tech in Asia and continuing to grow with SPH Media.

For me, this is a massive validation of what we’ve built at TIA. Over the years, we’ve charted our own path with an unwavering (borderline obstinate) commitment to our core values. While I know we’ve made mistakes along the way, I also believe that this refusal to compromise on values is also what got us here today– as the leading digital media brand in Southeast Asia’s tech community about to join forces with the flagship media brand of Singapore.?

Some of our guiding principles:

• Editorial integrity. Without a doubt, the bedrock of TIA’s brand. As we turned on our paywall in 2018 and invested in investigative journalism, we faced a ton of pressure to take down stories that reflected certain people, companies, and industries in a bad light. But we forged ahead in our belief that good journalism is neither public relations, nor gossip tabloids. And in due time, our goal to objectively cover what’s happening in Asia’s tech industry, good or bad, and without an agenda, would speak for itself. We’ve found like-minded folks in the Business Times newsroom and I’m excited to see the new heights we can achieve together. Thank you Terence, for leading the way.

• Community building. Our mission has always been to build and serve Asia’s tech community. We aim to provide our community with the information and connections they need the most, and that’s true for every article we write or event we host. To do this, we build relationships with an eye towards mutual trust, respect, and learning. We can’t make everyone happy all the time (see above), but over time, this principle has helped us forge strong relationships with founders, investors, startups, and corporations. By putting our community needs first, we have achieved balance in our reporting and events, while also earning us the trust and support of our ecosystem.?

• Commercial viability. I joined in 2019, when TIA was at a low point, having already gone through a tough round of layoffs. Rebuilding our business model and creating financial discipline was one of my top priorities and this carries through to today. We look to create virtuous cycles– products that people love and are willing to pay for. This financial discipline has helped us build our financial independence during the startup boom, and has saved us during the tech winter. We are clear-eyed in terms of what success looks like– no vanity metrics, just laser sharp focus on audience satisfaction AND commercial viability.

• Startup focus & discipline. Finally, we are ruthlessly focused on our core strengths– media and events. There have been many shiny trends and projects that we’ve chosen not to pursue because of lack of alignment or jumbled priorities (well, we did release one NFT…). By staying focused, we kept doubling down on our strengths instead of expending resources on wild goose chases. This might make us boring, but it also makes us the best at what we do. Shout out to Willis for forever instilling such discipline into myself and the team.?

It’s possible that I’m already feeling nostalgia for our startup days, but I know that these values will continue to guide TIA as we move forward with SPH Media.

Our first goal is to build the leading APAC business and tech title alongside the Business Times team. As a Chinese-American, I’m extremely excited to showcase the incredible innovation in Asia, as told through the Asian lens, to a global audience.?

For now, back to work! Our TIA events line-up for 2024 look stacked as we go deeper into our regional markets and we have tons of new exciting products in the pipeline. Let’s go! ??????