Check out our top articles for the week. [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of the Week Welcome to Tech in Asia's free Sunday newsletter! Get full access to our subscribers-only premium content and other insightful analysis on the big and messy topics of Asiaâs tech and startup community by [registering here](. Hello {NAME} Iâve been reporting for over a decade, and it still pains me to write about layoffs. But that was the shock and horror that greeted Lazada staff a few days into the new year. In hindsight, everything makes sense: Lazada and other ecommerce players have been in a bloody battle to win market share. These companies or their parent firms have forked out billions of dollars to come out on top. TikTok, for example, went as far as investing US$1.5 billion in Indonesia's Tokopedia to work around a domestic ban and reenter the market. For Lazada, its parent Alibaba has been expanding across the globe since 2017, when co-founder Jack Ma envisioned the China-based tech giant serving two billion customers. The company has pumped US$7.4 billion into Lazada to achieve that dream, but the Southeast Asian giant has come up short. But Lazada isn't alone as its rivals' earnings have also hit a ceiling. Take Shopee, for instance. Sea Groupâs ecommerce unit trimmed its headcount several times from September 2022 to March 2023. Alibaba also has to deal with competition at home. It has been surpassed in terms of market value by PDD Holdings, the parent company of Pinduoduo and Temu. In Southeast Asia, ecommerce players have to reckon with competition thatâs heating up or maybe even overheated. And if the game is to win market share, this vicious cycle of layoffs and cash burn will continue, perhaps until consolidation in this industry takes place. -- [Emmanuel Samarathisa]( journalist at Tech in Asia  --------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES THIS WEEK 1ï¸. [Whatâs Lazadaâs future after hefty job cuts? Insiders tell us](
We also look at what may have caused the ecommerce firm to lay off 30% of its staff. 2. [SEAâs climate tech landscape: Energy solutions are making it rain](
In 2023, 41 of the regionâs climate tech startups secured investments, raking in the highest annual funding to date. 3. [EFishery takes on global aquaculture in a balancing act](
The newest Indonesian unicorn has kicked off an international expansion despite having only a 7% to 8% market penetration in its home country. 4. [A look at the Singapore space startup said to have raised $100m in seed money](
Details on Qosmosysâ seed round and the investors involved are scant, though Airbus is helping to develop its moon lander. 5. [Surviving the funding game: how timing can make or break your startup](
Industry realities, economic conditions, and market volatility can affect the time gap between funding rounds. 6. [Beauty ecommerce in India gets speedy makeover via quick commerce](
While 15-minute deliveries of beauty items are taking off in India, the same canât be said for Indonesia. 7. [Singaporeâs top-funded tech companies in the last decade](
This automated tracker will help you see which tech firms in the city-state are scoring the most investments. 8. [SCI Ecommerce doubles revenue to $479m, turns profitable in 2022](
Services and subscriptions make up most of the companyâs revenue, having jumped over 3x compared to 2021. 9. [TDCXâs CEO aims to delist the BPO firm amidst struggling valuation](
The offer price values the company at a trailing twelve-month P/E ratio of 11.2x, below the median P/E ratio for comparable companies. 10. [A list of fundraising startups from Asia (Updated)](
Fundraising is hard. To make things slightly easier, we've compiled this list of fundraising startups for our subscribers. --------------------------------------------------------------- WHO'S HIRING Â
You can post a job [here]( or search for jobs [here](. [logo] [GA & Facility Specialist]( at Waresix
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