□ 文/億邦動力網(wǎng)

東南亞創(chuàng)業(yè)者：抄不好才可恥

□ 文/億邦動力網(wǎng)

創(chuàng)業(yè)公司“山寨模式”現(xiàn)象并不是中國專有，東南亞的電商也在山寨途中，例如這家在投入使用半年后就迅速覆蓋了印尼、泰國、菲律賓、新加坡、馬來西亞、斯里蘭卡、巴西、中國香港等8個國家和地區(qū)的新興在線酒店預訂平臺ZEN Rooms，就大大方方地承認是山寨印度酒店預訂平臺OYO Rooms。ZEN Rooms創(chuàng)始人對于山寨這事兒并不遮掩，他認為一個在印度、一個在東南亞，這已經(jīng)是很大的差別了。

“偷師”印度，從印尼下手

ZEN Rooms定位為“酒店版的Uber”，是一個經(jīng)濟型酒店預訂平臺，可以看作輕模式的七天連鎖，酒店加入平臺之前需按照要求進行整改，至少要保證六項基本服務：干凈的房間、舒適的床、獨立衛(wèi)浴、空調(diào)、WiFi、平板電視。“一家旅館拿出5～10個房間，以ZEN Rooms的品牌的名義在平臺上分銷。我們負責質(zhì)量審核和日常監(jiān)督，賺取旅店傭金?！?聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人之一Kiren Tanna介紹說，“未來還會和其他旅行機構合作引入票務、接送等增值服務，但這些都不是眼下的重點。目前只是盡力想把酒店預訂做好?！?/p>

ZEN Rooms是德國孵化器Rocket Internet（下文簡稱Rocket）繼東南亞版天貓Lazada之后的新項目。Rocket素有“山寨大王”之稱，其基本模式是將已被驗證成功或可行的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)商業(yè)模型復制到新興市場，在當?shù)厝〉妙I先地位。當然，ZEN Rooms也不例外，它抄的是印度的OYO Rooms。Kiren Tanna對此并不避諱：“我們和OYO Rooms做一樣的事情，但我們是在東南亞，而OYO Rooms在印度。”

至于為什么選擇東南亞市場，Tanna指出，東南亞的酒店市場集中度較低，連鎖酒店大約只占10%?！坝∧岣偁幧晕⒓ち乙稽c，一些連鎖品牌旗下數(shù)量達到了20～30家，但我們的酒店數(shù)量更多，價格也比它們便宜20～40%?！?/p>

不過，據(jù)了解，東南亞的在線酒店預訂市場也已經(jīng)逐漸有了火藥味。ZEN Rooms的“老師”O(jiān)YO Rooms目前融資金額已累計達1.26億美元，2016年2月收購了競爭對手Zo Rooms，最近還擴張到了馬來西亞，再加上硅谷知名孵化器500 Startups所投資的新加坡公司RedDoorz崛起，東南亞地區(qū)的經(jīng)濟型酒店預定平臺的競爭日趨激烈。

Rocket式的跑馬圈地

除了“山寨”，Rocket項目的另一個鮮明特點是快：迅速擴張，并為此制定嚴格的關鍵績效指標（KPI）考核標準。據(jù)業(yè)內(nèi)人士分析，這也符合孵化器的邏輯，“一般的創(chuàng)業(yè)者不會鋪得太快，一定是在某個市場穩(wěn)定后再慢慢來，但孵化器有變現(xiàn)壓力，需要加緊跑業(yè)績。”一位新加坡的電商創(chuàng)業(yè)者如是說。

Tanna透露，ZEN Rooms團隊的KPI構成包括增長量、盈利能力和消費者滿意度三個維度?！拔覀冃枰谶@三個指標之間保持平衡。沒錯，跟其他創(chuàng)業(yè)公司一樣，我們現(xiàn)在很費力地要完成這些指標，Rocket也提供了很多幫助?！盩anna說。

到底跑得有多快？據(jù)悉，ZEN Rooms2015年11月在印尼上線；2016年3月就一口氣拿下4個亞洲市場；緊接著，4月宣布走出亞洲進入巴西。上線半年之后，ZEN Rooms已經(jīng)覆蓋了印尼、泰國、菲律賓、新加坡、馬來西亞、斯里蘭卡、巴西、中國香港等8個國家和地區(qū)。

談到這些市場目前的表現(xiàn)情況，Tanna沒有透露具體的業(yè)績，只是簡單概括：“所有市場都表現(xiàn)得很好，但還是處于早期階段，還需要進一步觀察。”雖然ZEN Rooms已經(jīng)覆蓋8個國家和地區(qū)，但實際上一共只開通了21個城市的服務，最多的印尼有8個城市，少的如馬來西亞、菲律賓、新加坡、中國香港都只有一個城市；一共支持四個語種，包括英語、泰語、印尼語和葡萄牙語；在酒店數(shù)量上，其起家的印尼光在巴厘島就有79家店，而巴西全國（里約熱內(nèi)盧和圣保羅）只有18家。

Tanna認為，對于ZEN Rooms來說，多市場經(jīng)營十分有必要，東南亞有30～35%的旅行發(fā)生在地區(qū)以內(nèi)。另一創(chuàng)始人Nathan Boublil在訪問中進一步指出：“通常，去了印尼的游客也會去斯里蘭卡、菲律賓、馬來西亞等國家，已經(jīng)有大量游客對我們提出了需求?！?/p>

另外，ZEN Rooms方面對自己在印尼的經(jīng)營狀況也十分有自信。“我們的KPI表現(xiàn)即便對于嚴苛的Rocket標準來說也極為出色，所以我們覺得是時候擴張了。”Boublil說，“從印尼市場我們了解到了游客需求的‘普遍共性’，例如，WiFi、空調(diào)、淋浴，而窗簾顏色基本沒人關注?！?/p>

輕模式，不差錢？

兩位創(chuàng)始人都強調(diào)，ZEN Rooms是輕模式，不燒錢?！拔覀儾挥米夥浚挥么驋?，平均每個顧客住2.5晚，每晚花費20～22美元，和印尼的其他領域相比，這個的市場體量夠大，”Tanna說，“如果我們能夠控制好用戶獲取成本，靠傭金就能達到盈利。”

01 /帶有ZEN Rooms標識的的酒店房間

02 /ZEN Rooms獲得眾多消費者追捧

03 /ZEN Rooms創(chuàng)始人之一：Kiren Tanna

相比Rocket Internet在東南亞的其他電商公司，ZEN Rooms確實較輕，但上線6個月覆蓋8個國家和地區(qū)，尚未實現(xiàn)盈利，目前還在花Rocket給的種子輪融資，很難說“不差錢”。有業(yè)內(nèi)人士猜測，ZEN Rooms連續(xù)攻城略地至少說明當下業(yè)績不錯，Rokcet可能會加持。還有業(yè)內(nèi)人士分析，孵化器沒有穩(wěn)定的主營業(yè)務來支持投資，所以當項目虧損嚴重的時候也需要引進新的投資方。

“已經(jīng)有一些投資人找到我們了，包括印尼的戰(zhàn)略投資者和感興趣的公司。會融資，但不是2017年，我們已經(jīng)成功保持輕模式，而且一直十分小心地控制成本?！盉oublil說。

本土化魔咒怎么破

ZEN Rooms目前有60～70個員工，總部設在新加坡。至于為什么第一站選擇印尼，Tanna說，主觀原因在于團隊核心成員對當?shù)乇容^熟悉，客觀原因是由于有巴厘島等著名景點，當?shù)芈糜问袌鳊嫶蟆?/p>

Tanna介紹，目前ZEN Rooms在印尼設有英語呼叫中心、訂單處理中心，而線上推廣、網(wǎng)站建設等則在新加坡進行。開拓新市場的時候，一般是從成功地區(qū)派出幾個人的先遣部隊到當?shù)剡M行市場調(diào)研，招納旅店，招收當?shù)貑T工，來負責運營、財務、客服等本土化工作。

事實上，所謂“東南亞”只是一個地理統(tǒng)稱，各國作為獨立個體在政治、經(jīng)濟、文化等方面會有諸多不同。Tanna透露，目前開通的幾個酒店市場就存在不少差異：就價格而言，新加坡和中國香港因為市場比較成熟，相對貴一些；在游客來源構成方面，印尼的國內(nèi)需求更強，泰國的國際游客更多，菲律賓處在中游水平，韓國和日本游客多；在入口方面，60%的印尼用戶訪問來自移動端，安卓系統(tǒng)偏多；在支付方式上，印尼喜歡銀行轉(zhuǎn)賬，其他國家喜歡信用卡。

針對區(qū)域市場的差異，ZEN Rooms也采取了本土化策略。例如，因為泰國人偏愛柜臺交易，所以在當?shù)赝茝V線下交易的方式；部分印尼顧客不喜歡房費涵蓋早點，所以ZEN Rooms把二者拆分開，顧客可自由選擇。

“首先，我們從現(xiàn)有市場以及其他商業(yè)模型中吸取經(jīng)驗教訓，不斷地修正自身；其次，密切關注數(shù)據(jù)變化，了解什么樣的價格或營銷手段最有效；此外，還和當?shù)芈玫甑曛鞅３志o密聯(lián)系，在多方面保持合作。”Tanna說。

?來源：億邦動力網(wǎng)

ASEAN will celebrate its 50thanniversary this year as a momentous milestone for the region after fi ve decades of success and achievements. This remarkable year will be led by the Philippines as the new ASEAN chair country.

Proclaiming this year’s theme, “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pledged to promote ASEAN, home to more than 640 million people at different stages of economic development, as the ideal model of regionalism and as a global player with the interests of its people at its core.

During the handover of ASEAN chairmanship from Lao at the ASEAN Summit last September 8, the President promised to steer and guide the association to pursue initiatives and enhance cooperation with global partners, while retaining ASEAN’s centrality, unity and solidarity.

The 50thanniversary can become the starting point to prepare for new challenges that lay ahead in the region. As ASEAN chair and one of the founding members, the Philippines has the huge task of leading the region to better economic prospects, political stability and security amid major challenges within the country, within the ASEAN region and also in the wider world. Those challenges need to be faced and resolved simultaneously.

We can see that trade within ASEAN has been stagnant at between 20 percent and 24 percent over the last couple of years, even though the elimination of tariff barriers has been an important point on the agenda. Unimplemented measures and pending matters still exist in the second year of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which started in 2015. These issues should be addressed more deeply, while ASEAN also tries to broaden its ambitions by endorsing the ASEAN Blueprint 2025 as a new milestone to be achieved.

Rising protectionism correlated with stagnating economic growth worldwide and growing unease over globalization creates a major setback to efforts of regional integration and could disrupt global supply chains.

In addition, business growth (for example in the digital economy) has lagged behind international commitments. Negotiations on a new global trade agreement have stalled. Progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been abruptly ended after Trump’s victory, creating greater pressure for ASEAN to conclude negotiations on a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement.

Adding extra weight to the chairmanship role, there have been problems in several member states (Indonesia is on that list) to abide by existing commitments or upgrade commitments made under the ASEAN and ASEAN+1 free trade agreements. The absence of an adequate dispute-settlement mechanism to address the problem makes matters worse.

The way to tackle these problems is by discussing them the “ASEAN Way”, which embraces solidarity rather than legal rigidity. Limited budgetary and human resources among all trade negotiators within the region are an additional burden to concluding talks in a timely manner.

ASEAN faces prominent economic challenges, such as the rising political and economic dominance of China, uncertainty and protectionism in the US under Trump, questions about Brexit and European stability as well as a possible global fi nancial crisis.

Taking into account a global economic crisis and challenges within the region, can ASEAN reach a higher level of integration during the Philippine chairmanship?

To achieve that objective, the Philippine government has proclaimed nine main deliverables to be achieved this year. They are regional self-certification of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), an ASEAN trade facilitation index, a focused and strategic action agenda on investment, conclusion of the ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement, a peer review for the AEC, ASEAN inclusive business, the ASEAN Declaration on Innovation, Women and Youth Entrepreneurship.

With a gross domestic product of US$ 2.6 trillion, the AEC is the seventh-largest economic block. With a population of more than 620 million, it is the third largest in Asia, after China and India. In this regard, the Philippines will highlight ASEAN MSMEs as the main drivers of inclusive growth in the region.

It’s very reasonable that the Philippines want to foster the development ofSMEs, since this can help overcome development barriers and stimulate national and regional economies. SMEs as a key driver and contributor to the GDP of ASEAN economies account for 95 percent to 99 percent of all business establishments and for 51 percent to 97 percent of employment in many ASEAN members.

The GDP contribution of SMEs is signifi cant at 23 percent to 58 percent, and their impact on exports ranges from 10 percent to 30 percent. By enhancing their market access, SMEs can take advantage of trade and investment opportunities and benefi t from regional economic integration.

However, most SMEs on a domestic and regional scale still struggle in their operations, which limit their capacity and make it difficult for them to compete internationally due to limited funds and resources, poor packaging, networking and marketing plans.

The question is, can those issues be solved? Quite simply, doubts still remain. In addition, there are growing fears about possible attempts to reject Duterte’s programs. Nevertheless, strong leadership is actually more needed now to give the region direction into becoming stronger and more stable. All members have to fully support the achievement of these deliverables. The responsibility to move forward with economic integration rests not solely with the chairman country; every ASEAN member country needs to share the burden to expedite process, support all agreed work plans and give supporting input to accelerate integration and resolve any remaining domestic and regional matters.

It is also crucial for all members to continue to find amicable solutions to remaining issues in order to prevent further gaps and establish a more effective dispute settlement mechanism to address future issues. All members should exploit all the foreseeable economic opportunities to avoid greater losses across the region. If these ideals can come be achieved, then surely we can rise to the next level.

· The writer is the deputy director for investment, SMEs, competitiveness and issues in the ASEAN Directorate of ASEAN Negotiation, Directorate General of International Trade Negotiation.

· The views expressed are her own.

· Source: The Jakarta Post

Can ASEAN Rise to the Next Level?

By Dina Kurniasari

Philippine President Duterte