Gong’s keynote, beamed in live from Singapore, kicked off the second half-day session of the Summit, “Applied Tech – The Next Wave”. In her talk, Gong described the intense competition for customer attention in Asia as companies move aggressively into each other’s sectors and each attempt to offer a “whole marketplace” of lifestyle services.
She called out counterpart companies in the west as “archaic” by comparison, and describes the way Asian platforms use live data to constantly target what customers want (rather than using a CRM database to “spray and pray”).
In Asia, it has become a case of adapting, or dying a slow death as a traditional enterprise.
Among other topics, Gong looked at why large New Zealand companies should be taking note of developments in Asia; what New Zealand exporters need to know about the way customers are using these super-apps in their daily lives; can New Zealand tech companies get a slice of the action in Asia; and are data privacy issues a concern.
Canterbury is home to the second largest tech sector in New Zealand. Its annual tech summit is a popular opportunity for sector leaders to come together for a day of discussions designed to challenge assumptions and inspire future innovation.
The Foundation sponsored Gong to speak at the event as part of its Asia Business Leaders and Economic Thought Leaders initiative, which helps promote diversity among speakers to increase Asia content at business events by identifying and funding speakers from Asia.
The Foundation established a permanent presence in Christchurch in early 2020, to expand and deepen our engagement across the South Island.
Anna Gong
Anna Gong is founder and CEO of Perx Technologies, which has transformed the traditional customer loyalty scheme approach into a leading vertically integrated SaaS platform working with large banks, telcos and insurance companies seeking stronger customer engagement and loyalty. Anna has 20 years of technology experience in management consulting and enterprise software, spanning the U.S., Asia Pacific and Japan.