A decade ago, the tech industry in Southeast Asia was still not very well developed. Who would have imagined this region, today with a total population of more than 680 million, would become one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the world? As we continue our series of interviews with TCI leaders, this time we invite Mr. Krittee Manoleehagul, Vice President of Tencent Cloud International for Southeast Asia, to share with us how he views the cloud development of Southeast Asia over the past ten years, and how Tencent Cloud strives to empower businesses in this region to further accelerate their digital transformation journey.

Looking at Southeast Asia through a global lens

Krittee, a veteran in the tech industry with 20+ years of international experience, was originally from Thailand but grew up in the United States. Krittee started his career at a systems integrator company in the US and obtained an MBA before moving back to Asia. His first role in Asia was working for Samsung in South Korea as a global strategist. He then moved to Hong Kong and led Expedia to launch its APAC business. “This is where I had a chance to talk to Tencent and decided to join ten years ago.”

The tech industry in Southeast Asia was immature ten years ago as Krittee recalls. There were only a handful of telcos, consumer electronics, and internet companies all trying to establish their own products and services as ‘the platform’ in the region. He thought by accepting the role with Tencent, he could play a part in fostering the growth of the tech sector in Southeast Asia.

“Since then, Southeast Asia has gone through a drastic digital transformation. Within the past 10 years, the industry has become quite competitive with various MNCs, start-ups, and unicorns all eyeing the markets. Today, the region is full of technology and start-up entrepreneurs worldwide who want to enjoy beautiful beaches, diverse and vibrant cultures on top of our great people, and a budding technology scene.”

Nowadays almost every organization in Southeast Asia is hastening its digital transformation, striving to become more data-driven, higher-performing, and better connected. Many countries are even leading globally in certain areas of digitalization. For instance, the Philippines and Malaysia have now become the top two countries in e-commerce retail growth, up by 25% and 23% per year respectively, according to eMarketer. “To prepare for the digital disruption, cloud technology is the key to success. But organizations need a trusted partner to facilitate the process. This is where Tencent Cloud can help, as we are committed to being a digital enabler for enterprises in every industry. We have been actively building smart industry solutions and working with local partners to offer co-cloud/multi-cloud solutions to meet the growing demand from customers in this region.”

Accommodate customer needs while contributing to a healthy business growth

Krittee comments that years ago, the company’s focus was to launch products that would ‘stick’, so getting customers to use its products and services would have been considered a great milestone. But nowadays, the expectation is to not only launch solutions that gain quick adoption but also to keep the company on the path to fast and healthy business growth.

“Knowing the markets and how to define the right business models for our partners can further help us prioritize the market segments to address quickly. For example, our audio/video solutions have gained popularity among our OTT, e-commerce, and traditional media customers, not only because of our years of experience in the sector, but also our ability to cater the products to accommodate our clients’ needs. Indeed, to operate in today’s world, we have to juggle a lot more between building a product that customers want and ensuring that the financial return is contributing to the business and ultimately to the shareholder’s value.”

Leading a team of professionals with local expertise and in-depth technical know-how

In order to be successful in any endeavor, Krittee emphasizes the importance of setting lofty goals and having foresights that go beyond the given KPIs. “My personal goal ever since moving to Southeast Asia is to help the local industries and economies to transform digitally. I have witnessed this happening in the United States and South Korea where I lived and various parts of APAC where I have covered throughout my career.”

Since joining Tencent in 2012, Krittee has sailed through many ups and downs and worked on many great projects with the team. When asked about which project stands out for him personally, Krittee explained, “Southeast Asia is a very fragmented market, but outsiders often falsely think of as one. There are many different cultures, religions, people, and varying stages of economic development in the region. From my experience, there is no one project that stands out as they all have different local needs that required us to be able to understand the specificity and sophistication of each client.”

And to do this, Krittee points out that the company relies on building a highly skilled local professional team to serve clients and partners and ensure that products are ‘local-market ready’.

Currently, there are dedicated customer support and business teams placed strategically in markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to provide local customers with expert service and advice. “Our multicultural team is equipped with global, in-depth market expertise as well as country and industry-specific knowledge.”

He quoted the financial services sector, one of the key industries in Southeast Asia, as an example. “Our local business team and product team work closely together to prioritize the product internationalization and development so as to ensure that our local clouds are Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certified and that our financial solutions such as eKYC, video branch, TDSQL database can meet the compliance and properly serve to the local clients. In this case, our on-ground business team does not only need to understand the various business needs of our clients, but also be able to articulate them in technicality for our engineers to finetune the product as well.”

Strong infrastructure, diversified solutions

According to Krittee, entertainment, banking and financial institutions, retail, e-commerce, games, and education are the key industry focuses for Tencent Cloud Southeast Asia. To meet a diverse range of customer needs across the industries, the company has deployed over 300 industry-leading cloud solutions and products. Furthermore, the company also has an extensive growing infrastructure network that spans across 26 regions. In Southeast Asia alone, there are four data centers in Singapore, two in Indonesia, and another two in Thailand to address the ever-growing customer demands.

“As a digital transformation enabler, we want technology to be inclusive and approachable to all. We have local teams to bring out benefits and turn our solutions to be key gears to move the business forward or even backward if needed. In this disruptive world, our cloud solutions can provide every opportunity to grow and adapt themselves to be competitive.”

The pandemic reshapes our lives

Universally, the pandemic has forced the private sector to shift to digital and hybrid working arrangements. In Asia, Tencent has worked with Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer, to develop automated production lines and several “lights-off” factories that are run entirely by robots. The concept emerged in 2018 and gained traction in 2020 after the pandemic started.

“There is now less reliance on onsite resources. Businesses can have their teams operate their facilities remotely, leveraging AI and cloud technology,” Krittee explains. He adds that the pandemic has pushed many traditional companies online at a rapid pace.

“Prior to COVID-19, I often spoke of how important it is for companies to transform quickly to adjust to the new digital economy. I often got many nods, but not much action afterward. However, we have been forced to work differently under the pandemic and the adjustments for some industries were quite drastic. I have spoken to a partner who sells cement that has had to move their sales channel from the traditional local resellers to online. How many of us could imagine selling cement online pre-pandemic? How frequently did we use food or groceries delivery services before the pandemic? But now, food delivery has become an essential part of our lives.” Krittee concludes that both scenarios are just two of many ‘new normal’ behaviors that require cloud and AI.

“Based on our experience as a global technology company, I believe there has never been a better time for Tencent to help the local economies to transform and continue to bring our mission of ‘Value for users, Technology for Good’ to help transform the ASEAN economies.”

Aside from work

To lead a strong and high-performing team, stress is inevitable. Krittee believes in achieving a healthy balance between the mind and the body in order to tackle whatever life and work may bring his way. In his free time, he often exercises, doing yoga, swimming, and going to the gym are his favorites. He thinks that solitary physical activities not only give him the opportunity to calm his mind and refocus, but also gives him the exercise he needs in order to continue living a healthy lifestyle.