Asian event cancellations continue

As the U.S. gets back business, many Asian markets, especially those that have done well managing the pandemic, remain closed for business. This could result in another full year lost for Asian event organisers. Recent examples include: Informa Markets’ MIFF in Malaysia is pushed to 2022. Reed Exhibitions’ G2E in Macau is delayed until November 2021.

Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble delayed (again)

Over the past two weeks, Singapore has averaged 32 COVID-19 cases per day. In most places, that would be viewed as a wonderful success. In Singapore, that was enough to cause government officials to lose their nerve, delay the travel bubble for the second time and to close restaurants, schools and so on. Almost two million Singaporeans have received one vaccination dose.

Zoom to roll out virtual events platform

There is a lot of frothy news out there about the long list of private equity-backed virtual event platforms. They may have (largely fictional) multi-billion-dollar valuations, but these platform are now going to have a pretty hard time competing with Zoom’s new platform - which will allow users to build an event hub to manage and share events, customize ticketing and registration, control access to billing, and offer integrated networking, etc.

Alibaba invests in Indonesia and Vietnam

The largest e-commerce group in Asia continues to make acquisitions and investments in Southeast Asia, despite its political problems at home. A consortium led by Alibaba and Barings acquired a 5.5% stake in Vietnam’s Masan Group for $400 million. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Alibaba and Softbank have a stake in GoTo.