Asia is a fantastic place to build technology businesses. An...

Asia is a fantastic place to build technology businesses. And when you start doing it, you realize that it’s not as foreign as you might think. People have long been confused by China and they should understand that Asia is more than China. Everyone who’s done some business there would tell you that it’s extremely difficult to do without having some local partners and knowledge of Chinese. But most Asian countries, including India and 1.38 billion people there, are much more open.

Despite a certain rise in protectionism, we still see a lot of goodwill towards international companies. It’s easier to hire people, which is probably the biggest challenge of expanding into a new country. Customers, both consumers and businesses, also tend to trust you more from the start, giving a nice boost to your brand recognition. Even working with governments is relatively easy and we haven’t faced any backlash or issues there.

And that applies to most markets in Asia. Entering the first one will be challenging, but expanding into your second and third markets will go according to the same playbook. You can adapt your findings and learnings and build a repeatable process that you’ll try across the entire continent.
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