Editor’s note: TrustBridge Forum-Bridging Trust and Value for a Connected Digital Future was hosted by Ant Group Digital Technologies & TNGlobal. The original article is written in Chinese. Translated by Yimie Yong
The Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) has become a crucial opportunity to observe the development of digital technologies in the Southeast Asian market. From Nov 15 to 17, the 8th Singapore FinTech Festival was held at the Singapore Expo, with prominent tech companies making appearances.
At the TrustBridge Forum held on Nov 15, Ant Group Digital Technologies, a business unit under Ant Group, has revealed its latest updates in the international market. Ant Group Senior Vice President and Ant Group Digital Technologies CEO Geoff Jiang said that in the past year, Ant Group Digital Technologies’ revenue from its international business operation has increased 300 percent, with key markets including emerging countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
According to forecast from the World Trade Organization (WTO), by 2030, digital technology will boost global trade annual growth by 1.8 to 2 percentage points. As the digital technology business of Ant Group, Ant Group Digital Technologies has been providing commercialized services to customers since 2017. It transfers the best practices and technological capabilities honed in Ant Group’s business operation into its products, supporting and serving customers’ digital transformation.
Southeast Asia is one of Ant Group Digital Technologies’ major markets. In recent years, Southeast Asia has been actively strengthening its information infrastructure, particularly in response to the rapidly growing demands for cloud, informatization, and digitalization. According to a report by research firm IDC, the total investment in the ICT market in Southeast Asia exceeded $144.2 billion in 2022, and the scale of such investment is also steadily growing.
However, Southeast Asia is still in its early stages of digitalization. Ensuring the security of users’ digital identity is the primary challenge for businesses and governments which are launching digital services. ZOLOZ, based on its trusted AI and reliable data technology, offers end-to-end products and services which include identity authentication and risk control compliance and etc…This not only safeguards businesses in their digitalization efforts but also reduces barriers for ordinary users to access digital services.
Due to differences in the digital infrastructure and user habits among different countries, all products have to undergo localization. ZOLOZ customizes its technology and products based on the characteristics of different countries. In the user identity authentication process, ZOLOZ addresses challenges such as document forgery and false information by global anti-counterfeiting algorithms studies, assisting clients to better handle risks including identity tampering, fraud, and money laundering, among others.
Besides addressing digitalization security issues, many overseas clients also seek to harness leading internet technologies, including mobile technology and cloud computing, in a bid to build powerful technology engines for enhanced mobile internet services for users. One such example is Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd, the largest independent investment bank in Malaysia.
In Malaysia, different financial services are typically scattered across different applications, leading to a suboptimal user experience with more costs incurred. Kenanga wishes to use Ant Group Digital Technologies’ mPaaS, a mobile development platform providing a cloud-to-end one-stop solution for mobile development, to develop Malaysia’s first wealth-centric ‘Super App,’ providing customers with the best of Kenanga and its partners’ products and services in a simple and easy way. Users will no longer need to download different applications for various financial products, making it more convenient and efficient.
Unlocking the value of industrial digital assets
Digitalization has streamlined processes and facilitated the efficient exchange of physical goods, services, and digital-related products globally. However, digitization itself generates a significant number of digital assets, such as invoices, data, IP, carbon, and Web3 native assets, among others. How these assets can efficiently circulate in the digital network, is the most crucial challenge post-digitization. This is because all trade relies on “assets,” and it is only through transforming assets from a string of 0s and 1s into recognizable “digital assets” in the industry that can further unleash had promote greater trading potential.
Jiang said, “We believe that in the future, driven by technologies such as blockchain, privacy computing, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, this will further accelerate the digitalization of assets, boosting more trustworthy and efficient transactions and circulation. This will undoubtedly create tremendous value for all stakeholders in the industry.”
This year, Ant Group Digital Technologies launched Web3 technology service brand ZAN for overseas markets, offering Web3-related technology, services and solutions. ZAN inherits Ant Group Digital Technologies’ years of technical expertise in the blockchain field, including technologies that has caught great attention within the industry such as wide-area network consensus algorithms, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), and more. ZAN has already served numerous compliant Web3 institutions, including Hashkey Group.
The Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) and ZAN have recently signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore tokenization technology innovation for electronic bills of lading under the support of the Hong Kong Web3 environment. This initiative aims to unlock new economic value for the global trade industry. A key shift in Web3 is the tokenization of real-world assets, unlocking more opportunities for economic value and new sources of financing. In this context, tokenized electronic bills of lading can pave the way for the “securitization” of the $25 trillion trade flow globally and bridge the global trade financing gap.
Chao Deng, CEO of HashKey Group Singapore, has previously said, “In the process of large-scale application of Web3, know-your-customer (KYC), know-your-transaction (KYT), real world assets (RWA), and others are crucial. At the same time, as the entire industry shifts from focusing solely on technology to now focusing on applications and focusing on assets, I believe that ZAN provides the industry with a much-needed underlying technical platform and solution for large-scale application at the right time.”
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