THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Amazon cloud offers silver lining for Thai start-ups

Amazon cloud offers silver lining for Thai start-ups

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is committed to supporting start-ups from birth through to maturity, said Gaurav Arora, AWS head of Startup Ecosystem for Asia Pacific-Japan.

“The AWS Activate programme enables early-stage start-ups to build quickly and supports them through their entire lifecycle," he added.

Early-stage Thai start-ups are among tens of thousands across the world taking advantage of the programme’s benefits, including technical support and training, said Arora.

"For our more mature customers, we work hard to forge connections between start-ups and potential customers and investors. We regularly connect executives from large organisations with start-ups to hear about new solutions, and we also facilitate introductions to global accelerators, angel investors, seed funds, and venture capital firms in our network, to play a role in helping start-ups raise the capital they need to grow their business," he said.

He added that start-ups across many vertical sectors are using technology to transform their industries, and solve the problems that matter to their communities.

"We're seeing particularly strong digital adoption and transformation happening in the fintech, health-tech, and ecommerce verticals right now.

"Firstly, let's talk about the booming financial service and insurance sector, which is a home-grown phenomenon here in Thailand and Southeast Asia. The majority of start-ups in this sector have chosen to start on AWS, including payments provider, 2C2P and InsurTech start-up, Sunday Insurance. Likewise, we're seeing e-commerce providers like e-commerce enabler, eCommerce and online fashion retailer, Pomelo Fashion grow quickly to ensure their customers have quick and convenient access to the products they want and need, even while spending more time at home,".

"Of course, most recently we've also witnessed the rise of tele-health providers, like Thailand's Doctor Raksa, and Halodoc in Indonesia, both built on AWS,".

Ultimately, Arora believes the cloud is the best place to build a start-up and bring their ideas to life.

He added that cloud services are cost-effective and can give start-ups fast access to computing resources as they need them on a pay-as-you go basis.

Moreover, the cloud model allows start-ups to easily run tests and experiment without significant upfront investment.

Should a start-up find success, it can easily increase its use of AWS cloud services as needed, and then reduce spending should demand decrease, he added. This cuts risks in the growth process and ensures start-ups do not need to invest heavily in anticipation of future demand.

Arora added that the cost-effective nature of the cloud means start-ups can experiment at a greater pace, fail fast with low financial impact, and recover easily.

The AWS cloud is global, meaning that a solution built in one part of Asia can be deployed in another, or anywhere else in the world, in just minutes. This scalability is essential to hypergrowth start-ups as they grow and expand into new regions around the world, he said.

Arora said it was impossible to understate Covid-19's impact on businesses across Asia.

For start-ups, in particular, it has been a difficult time, especially for those still building a significant customer base and cash flow, he added.

"It's likely that the year they've experienced so far has turned out to be very different to the year they were planning. We're hearing from the start-ups we work with that they are reassessing their plans and projections to accommodate for the 'new normal', which can present opportunities for start-ups.

"In the reality, there is a lot that start-ups can do to reduce their operating costs. The cloud is already well regarded as a cost-effective place from which to launch a business, but our experience is that many start-ups grow at such a fast pace, they don't always pause to consider if they are using it in the most efficient way. AWS team members are actually tasked to help reduce customers cloud bills, and we offer several ways for start-ups to save money on their cloud expenses."

One way is its offer of AWS Cost Explorer service, which allows customers to better manage their spend, and set alarms when specific thresholds are reached.

AWS Trusted Advisor provides an online tool that helps start-ups reduce costs, increase performance, and improve security by checking their use of infrastructure and services, and makes suggestions to help optimise performance.

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