Co-founder of Cube Asia, Cube Asia

Simon Torring

Co-founder of Cube Asia

Defining Social Commerce in Southeast Asia

Cube Asia

We offer granular market data and insights for online retail in Southeast Asia, helping brands and retail companies drive profitable growth. 

Why the Cube?
3 dimensions of granularity to help you get deep into the 1) geographies, 2) categories, and 3) types of data and insights you need for your business.

The Cube is a big-data machine that is continuously listening to public data sources and primary research, and triangulating across thousands of data points using probabilistic modeling to produce an accurate and granular picture of Southeast Asia’s online retail landscape.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>It has now been a few weeks since TikTok Shop stopped operating in Indonesia.</li><li>As the immediate dust raised by the action has settled, all the key stakeholders – sellers, brands, investors, enablers, influencers, and of course the teams at TikTok – are back at their drawing boards planning their next moves in Indonesia.</li><li>Outside of Indonesia meanwhile, many have asked the question –will other countries follow suit?</li></ul>

It has now been a few weeks since TikTok Shop stopped operating in Indonesia.As the immediate dust raised by the action has settled, all the key stakeholders – sellers, brands, investors, enablers, influencers, and of course the teams at TikTok – are back at their drawing boards planning their next moves in Indonesia.Outside of Indonesia meanwhile, many have asked the question –will other countries follow suit?

TikTok alerts: Indonesia’s suspension of TikTok Shop unveils a diverse regional risk landscape

<ul><li>It has been a challenging couple of years for Lazada, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.</li><li>After entering – and arguably helping create – the region’s modern online shopping market in 2012 as a first-mover (then backed by Rocket Internet), Lazada’s competitive environment got tougher and tougher over the years.</li><li>First, Shopee emerged as a formidable regional competitor from 2015/2016.</li></ul>

It has been a challenging couple of years for Lazada, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.After entering – and arguably helping create – the region’s modern online shopping market in 2012 as a first-mover (then backed by Rocket Internet), Lazada’s competitive environment got tougher and tougher over the years.First, Shopee emerged as a formidable regional competitor from 2015/2016.

How Should We Think About Lazada’s Future Prospects?

Asia Pac ECM and Index Rebal, Shenton Research

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Asia Pac ECM and Index Rebal

Asia Pac IPO & Placement Research, China Biotech

Shenton Research

Shenton Research is an independent Asia Pacific equity specialist. Our quantitative research covers index rebalancing flows, alongside exchange data analytics accross Asia Pacific. On the equity capital markets side, we focus on Asia Pacific ECM, especially biotech and TMT. Our lead analyst is frequently cited by international media.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Xiaomi and Stepfun all shipped model updates, with price cuts and open weights at the center of the week.</li>
<li>AI infrastructure financing stayed active across Akamai, Nscale, Firmus, Oracle-linked data centers, CoreWeave facilities and SoftBank debt.</li>
<li>Regulatory and security news focused on Pentagon supply-chain controls, OpenAI evaluation incidents and US review before UK model testing.</li>
</ul>


Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Xiaomi and Stepfun all shipped model updates, with price cuts and open weights at the center of the week.
AI infrastructure financing stayed active across Akamai, Nscale, Firmus, Oracle-linked data centers, CoreWeave facilities and SoftBank debt.
Regulatory and security news focused on Pentagon supply-chain controls, OpenAI evaluation incidents and US review before UK model testing.


This Week in AI (Sep 20-26): Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Launch Cheaper; Data Center IPO Delays

Equity Long-Short

Mo Aziz

<ul>
<li>Cloud Intelligence AI revenue has posted 11 straight quarters of triple-digit growth; four banks cut targets in July but kept Buy-equivalent ratings.</li>
<li>DOJ settlement resolved, Qwen approved for Apple Intelligence in China — geopolitical overhangs are clearing faster than consensus assumes.</li>
<li>SOTP-Derived TP of US$170/ADS (44% upside) &amp; CNY151.9 (65% upside) applies an explicit 10% discount for unresolved geopolitical risk that most sell-side models don't itemise.</li>
</ul>


Cloud Intelligence AI revenue has posted 11 straight quarters of triple-digit growth; four banks cut targets in July but kept Buy-equivalent ratings.
DOJ settlement resolved, Qwen approved for Apple Intelligence in China — geopolitical overhangs are clearing faster than consensus assumes.
SOTP-Derived TP of US$170/ADS (44% upside) &amp; CNY151.9 (65% upside) applies an explicit 10% discount for unresolved geopolitical risk that most sell-side models don't itemise.


Alibaba (BABA US / 9988 HK): Cloud Inflection, Discounted for Geopolitics

Asian Hedge Fund Manager, Long Short Equity, Macro

David Mudd

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Hong Kong Alpha portfolio gained 16.26% in January resulting in a 6.2% outperformance to its benchmark.  The portfolio has outperformed HK indexes by 48% to 63% since inception on 10/1/24.</li>
<li>Hong Kong Alpha has generated 50% of its return from alpha and has a Sharpe ratio of 1.79 since inception.  The portfolio's annualized mean excess return is 28%.</li>
<li>At the end of January, we reduced positions in the materials, communications, and conglomerate sectors and added positions in the food, energy, and manufacturing sectors.</li>
</ul>


Hong Kong Alpha portfolio gained 16.26% in January resulting in a 6.2% outperformance to its benchmark.  The portfolio has outperformed HK indexes by 48% to 63% since inception on 10/1/24.
Hong Kong Alpha has generated 50% of its return from alpha and has a Sharpe ratio of 1.79 since inception.  The portfolio's annualized mean excess return is 28%.
At the end of January, we reduced positions in the materials, communications, and conglomerate sectors and added positions in the food, energy, and manufacturing sectors.


HONG KONG ALPHA PORTFOLIO: (January 2026)

China

Alibaba Group Holding Limited provides online sales services. The Company provides internet infrastructure, electronic commerce, online financial, and internet content services through its subsidiaries. Alibaba Group Holding offers its products and services worldwide.

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Alibaba (BABA US)

TikTok alerts: Indonesia’s suspension of TikTok Shop unveils a diverse regional risk landscape

As the immediate dust raised by the action has settled, all the key stakeholders – sellers, brands, investors, enablers, influencers, and of course...

Simon Torring

How Should We Think About Lazada’s Future Prospects?

It has been a challenging couple of years for Lazada, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.After entering – and arguably helping create...

Simon Torring

This Week in AI (Sep 20-26): Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Launch Cheaper; Data Center IPO Delays

This week in AI: Anthropic and OpenAI cut frontier-model costs, Grok 4.7 entered major coding channels, and financing stress hit infrastructure.

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Alibaba (BABA US / 9988 HK): Cloud Inflection, Discounted for Geopolitics

Bullish on Alibaba: the AI/cloud business is scaling faster than the market is paying for, and this year's overhangs have cleared more than they've...

Mo Aziz

HONG KONG ALPHA PORTFOLIO: (January 2026)

At the end of January, we began to move out of materials and tech and into early cycle sectors. We continue with mid-month exposure adjustments: we...

David Mudd

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52-week Range

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