Hotnow Explores Blockchain in Gaming Trends for 2020 Nithinan Boonyawattanapisut, SouthEast Asia

With Nithinan Boonyawattanapisut, CEO & Co-Founder of HotNow

Tell us more about yourself and your background. How did you get your start in blockchain?

After a professional career as a business analyst and commodities trader then an entrepreneur in the gaming space, I looked to retail. I saw similarities there, in the frustrations often found between game developers and publishers, and retailers and advertisers––the reliance on a middleman in order to reach one’s intended audience is a critical pain point that I wanted to solve. As a whole, I’ve always believed that gaming and retail are two industries that have always had synergies with one another––when you add blockchain to the equation, you have benefits such as a digital token, greater transparency, and the potential to create an incentivisation model. This is how my foray into blockchain began.

Give us a 1-minute pitch for what you’re doing now.

Having identified the relationship between the industries of gaming and retail, I decided to launch HotNow, a location-based, mobile marketing platform. It enables merchants to communicate their marketing messages while retaining greater control over their marketing spend. Users, on the other hand, can access targeted deals and discounts. By allowing people to engage in a digital economy, our hope is to help empower emerging economies as they undergo stages of digital transformation.

What is the current state of the blockchain landscape in Southeast Asia?

I think it’s important to consider that as a whole, the Southeast Asian region differs largely in economic growth and development. You have a country such as Singapore, with a largely mature financial sector and a leading hub for innovation and technology, while others, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand, are beginning to catch-up amid changing economic priorities and an ongoing shift towards the tech sector.

There have been many promising developments across the region when it comes to cryptocurrency regulations, largely paving the way for the enterprise or institutional applications of blockchain. However, progress differs from country to country, with Singapore and Thailand largely leading the pack, as both countries have developed sophisticated regulatory frameworks along and both central banks are openly exploring the use of blockchain for the purposes of inter-bank transactions and central bank digital currencies, respectively.

Across the region, payments is a popular application, as are exchanges, Islamic finance, and the use of blockchain in government agencies, whether that’s for voting or to create digital IDs.

The presence of progressive regulations naturally lends to the cultivation of a local blockchain community, with many projects opting to set-up in the region. Engaging with industry verticals ranging from supply chain, logistics, compliance, transportation, and more, along with a fair share of infrastructure projects such as protocols.

In recent years, we’ve seen more foreign projects and investors are flocking to the East. What are some of the factors contributing to this trend?

Asia has long been a leader in emerging technologies, embracing the latest innovations in the sector. For example, if you look at mobile payments, over half of the population of the Asia Pacific region utilises mobile payment services and a recent PwC study found that of the top ten global mobile payment adopters, eight markets are based in Asia. Despite being home to developing economies, the region is highly connected and digitally native, with over half of the world’s digital population located in the region.

Moreover, many countries have gestured towards the need for the involvement of emerging tech in shaping the future of urban and social planning in cities. China, for example, is home to approximately 500 smart city pilots, while Singapore launched its Smart Nation initiative in 2014, promoting greater digital literacy among its citizens and encouraging the upskilling of workers to meet the demands of the country’s tech sector.

Coupled with supportive regulations, foreign projects and investors are able to see that the population itself is generally primed to welcome nascent technologies while a foundation of resources, funding, and infrastructure has been encouraged on an institutional level.

What should foreign investors consider before entering Asia?

I believe it’s important to remember that there isn’t one market in Asia––each country differs dramatically to the other, each with its own set of unique practises and cultural nuances. Some of the practical factors that foreign investors should consider include capital controls, where it may be easier to bring money into a market but extremely difficult to get the return out and tax advantages, where some countries offer incentives for certain industries while others don’t.

For example, as part of the country’s new economic model, Thailand 4.0, there are tax incentives and immigration benefits for companies engaging in businesses in the research and developments as well as emerging tech sectors.

Beyond a difference in consumer dynamics and preferences from East and West, for investors, it’s crucial to understand that the one unifying characteristic across the continent is the importance of cultivating business relationships.

In China, this can be best understood as the phenomenon of guanxi, where it’s important for clients to build a personal bond before establishing a business relationship. This also leads to further cultural business nuances such as the Chinese concept of mianzi, the idea of gaining and saving face.

Establishing trust and networks with local partners rather than coming into an unfamiliar market as an outsider alone can lead to greater chances of success, as well as the assurance that investors can safely navigate regulatory differences. In some countries in North Asia, there’s also a greater emphasis on the role of strategic partners in distribution channels and other parts of the value chain––this is usually associated with leading family businesses, such as South Korea’s chaebol and Japan’s keiretsu.

How has the appetite for innovation determined the pace of tech regulations in Asia and how does this differ to the legislative narrative in the West?

When making comparisons of East and West, it’s necessary to consider the maturity of the respective regions, though again, there are differences from country to country. Today, it can be argued that the entrenched interests in the West lie in the hands of large technology companies, whereas in Asia, the entrenched interests generally remain in basic industries, such as agriculture, food and beverage, or manufacturing.

For example, in the United States, Big Pharma is driving change in research and development while the prioritisation of Big Data is driving change in a myriad of industries, with a greater emphasis on personalisation that consumers often prioritise today. In emerging markets such as Thailand, industries such as chicken farming, are where digitisation is leading to a digital supply chain overhaul, emphasising that it’s in traditional industries where innovation is making its initial inroads today.

However, there are countries like Singapore that have attained a greater level of industrial maturity in recent years, where you can see the same level of emphasis on research and development observed in the West. Home to a globalised financial sector, prominent local banks such as DBS Bank are openly experimenting with blockchain to explore greater efficiencies in payments processing. Such developments come to determine the maturity of tech regulations across each individual market.

As a whole, amid rising rates of digitalisation, one of the critical issues that remain across the globe is inadequate consumer data protections and better data privacy standards. Though the European Union has made significant progress in the form of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), such regulations are not internationally uniform. There’s also much more that needs to be done in intellectual property protection in the software and tech industry.

How can people find out more about you and your work?

If you’d like to learn more about HotNow, you can visit our website and follow our Medium page which shares a lot of exciting announcements surrounding the HOT ecosystem.

You can read more articles about Blockchain on our site here.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking