It’s been quite a year. We’re in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic that has reshaped business the world over, let alone in India and Southeast Asia.
Nobody, of course, saw the Covid-19 outbreak coming. For us here at The Ken, the outbreak took hold of Southeast Asia barely weeks after we launched launched The Ken Starting All Over Read more our SEA subscription in March. Timing is, indeed, everything.
That certainly made stories trickier to carve out, with most businesses unsure of their immediate, day-to-day future, let alone anything else. But it is a challenge that has galvanised our team and taught us to truly dig in right from the start.
We’ve published more than 150 stories in Southeast Asia, ranging from explosive stories, to deep company and industry analysis, data-led insights and more. With 2021 knocking on the door, we’re increasing our focus on Southeast Asia.
With that in mind, I’m delighted to welcome Yunindita Prasidya to The Ken’s Southeast Asia team as an Indonesia-based reporter.
Dita—as she is known—joins us after spending more than a year as a reporter with The Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s largest English language daily media outlet. She’s a media studies graduate from Universitas Indonesia and previously interned with Mata Najwa, the country’s top TV talk show program.
A competitive debater since high school, Dita impressed us with her capacity to learn quickly and a dedication to writing the type of detailed and definitive stories that we strive to publish at The Ken.
Born and raised in Bali, Dita has returned home after five years of life in Jakarta. That certainly makes many of us at The Ken envy her.
But, most importantly, Dita’s arrival means we have two reporters in Indonesia. That’s clearly important, since, to state the obvious, Indonesia is a key market. After all, it’s the world’s fourth-largest country with a population of nearly 280 million, and it’s Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Digitisation is the word on everyone’s lips. Indonesia’s government government The Ken Indonesia’s US$1.4 billion plan to put vocational training on digital rails Read more and its largest corporations largest corporations The Ken One-company show Telkom calls for a digital safety net Read more are embarking on digital strategies that pit them against newer disruptors or see them pair up with digital-first firms. It’s a fascinating challenge to observe.
Then there’s Indonesia’s position as a first port of call for investors seeking out opportunity in the region; it’s already attracting attention from those locked out of India and China. PayPal, Facebook PayPal, Facebook The Ken Facebook, PayPal’s payments play a super app-ortunity for Gojek Read more and Google Google The Ken Google fires first volley in Indonesia’s cloud wars Read more are among the US business giants to have made early investments in the country. Symbolically, Indonesia is the battleground that will decide will decide The Ken Grab and Gojek: a potential marriage of inconvenience Read more the proposed merger between Gojek and Grab, Southeast Asia’s most prominent private businesses. As you can see, there couldn’t have been a better time to have Dita join us.
You can reach Dita with congratulations, story tips or your Bali holiday memories via [email protected] She’s also on Twitter, @yunindita23.
Headline image via wahyu pratama/Unsplash
