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On Nikkei Asian Review No.14: "We're not going back to where we were"

How the coronavirus is reshaping Asia's borders, business and trade
Even just a month ago, outside of a handful of countries, the daily disruptions were mundane. Businesspeople peered into phone screens on Zoom calls and Google Hangouts; spam folders were crammed with canceled invites to forums, seminars and news conferences that now feel like artifacts from another era.

Today, with the pandemic still out of control, a third of the global population is in some form of lockdown. Workforces have been atomized, schools closed, families scattered. Medical treatments are on hold. Weddings, graduations and reunions are delayed indefinitely. Sports events, from school tournaments to the Tokyo Olympic Games, have been postponed. Jobs lost. Businesses closed, possibly never to reopen. Deaths. Hundreds of thousands of individual traumas that add up to profound social, cultural, economic and political dislocations that will outlast the crisis.

"With the virus, the implications are huge. There are financial implications, there are social implications, there are health implications, there are implications on supply chains. Everything is impacted," said Sumit Agarwal, the Low Tuck Kwong distinguished professor of finance at the National University of Singapore. "People will have to think about new trade routes, new production capacity. ... We will have to rethink what borders are."

The little-known Thai startup that makes e-commerce go
Some Southeast Asian startups have become household names. Omise is not one of them. Few consumers are aware of its existence.
But if they have shopped online in Thailand or Singapore -- as more people are doing because of the coronavirus pandemic -- chances are they have crossed paths with the company. And if its Japanese founder has his way, the world will soon hear a lot more about Omise's financial technology -- especially its use of blockchains.

Warisa Wattanapanit, a 27-year-old Thai, used Omise one recent Saturday, before the coronavirus spread, when she decided to order a McDonald's meal and spend a lazy afternoon watching an "Avengers" movie. "I didn't even know whose services I was using," she said, "but when it comes to online ordering, the quicker the better."

That is, essentially, what Omise does -- it makes online purchasing faster. Upon checkout, some e-commerce sites redirect customers to a financial institution's payment page. Omise's technology, in contrast, allows websites to complete transactions without sending shoppers elsewhere. The system can handle both credit cards and e-money services like Alipay.

Apple weighs delaying 5G iPhone launch by months, sources say
Apple is preparing the ground to possibly delay the launch of its first 5G iPhones as the coronavirus pandemic threatens global demand and disrupts the company's product development schedule, sources familiar with the matter have told the Nikkei Asian Review.

Check out more at: https://asia.nikkei.com/Print-Edition/Issue-2020-04-02
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