Blibli banks on iPhones to seize leg up on rivals

More: Sea Group’s Malaysian mission and Grab’s new C-suite exec. [Read from your browser]( Daily Newsletter --------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Daily Newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only Daily Newsletter and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community by [registering here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Hello {NAME} “Are you sentient?” I was compelled to ask ChatGPT, the latest AI work that’s got everyone talking and educators fretting. A prompt “No, I am not," came out of OpenAI’s chatbot, which was recently reported to have passed MBA, law, and medical exams. I’d been dragging my feet on testing this tech, but when I finally got down to it, I was astounded. The speed at which it produced relatively good quality content is both exciting and scary. A tool that’s likely to have a wide array of use cases truly feels disruptive. ChatGPT’s creators have even been enlisted by BuzzFeed to enhance its quizzes and personalize some content for its audiences, sending its shares up over 300% over the last five trading days. Although new technology constantly pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, ecommerce platform Blibli has chosen to bank on Apple’s iPhone - an over 15-year-old disruptor - to leave a mark in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone market. In today’s featured piece, Tech in Asia explores how bagging the Apple Authorized Reseller (AAR) status was important for Blibli to compete in Indonesia’s cutthroat ecommerce space. The article also analyzes how the potentially lucrative opportunity aligns with the firm’s ultimate goal of becoming an omnichannel heavyweight. Further, the premium story uncovers why Blibli prioritizes omnichannel supremacy in a starkly different manner compared with its substantially larger rivals, which have primarily leveraged an online-to-offline model that caters to warungs, or roadside mom-and-pop stores, via a “mitra” service. -- Shravanth  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE BIG STORY [Can iPhones put Blibli in the black?]( The Djarum-backed marketplace is making a play for the potentially lucrative smartphone space but established rivals await. --------------------------------------------------------------- TRENDING NEWS [Grab names new chief product officer]( Under Philipp Kandal’s lead, the firm launched B2B service GrabMaps in June last year. [Sea says it will add over 2,000 jobs in Malaysia]( It plans to open a global cloud computing center and a new logistics warehouse for Shopee in the country. [I shut down my Web3 startup. Here’s what I learned (part 2)]( “Because I don’t have strong convictions on the inherent worth of crypto or Web3, I will always wonder if it was a little too easy to call it quits.” [China’s JD.com to officially exit Indonesia, Thailand]( The ecommerce player’s platforms in both countries will stop receiving orders by February 15. [Weekly funding: India lands on top with PhonePe’s $350m round]( Keep track of all the startup investment activities in Asia through our weekly funding list. [Stripe may go public next year, allows exit for investors and employees]( The listing will see shares owned by Stripe’s early investors and employees be put into the public market, The Wall Street Journal reported. --------------------------------------------------------------- GET HEARD ON TECH IN ASIA! We want to hear from you! More than 1,600 tech employees were laid off per day on an average in 2023 so far, globally. 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