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$Alibaba(BABA)$

Concentrated bets

While Ant has made big moves on the fintech front, Alibaba has focused on two other strategic sectors: retail and logistics.

Alibaba made its first investment in Vietnam this year, leading a US$400 million round in The CrownX, the retail arm of Masan which operates the WinMart chain. The deal could potentially give Alibaba exposure to the fast-growing online grocery market in Vietnam.

"The combination of Alibaba's online retail expertise, Lazada's e-commerce platform in Vietnam and Masan's leading offline network will be a strong catalyst to modernise Vietnam's retail landscape. We look forward to building a champion offline-to-online platform alongside Masan," an Alibaba spokesperson told BT.

Separately, in September, the e-commerce giant poured US$200 million into last-mile logistics player Ninja Van, according to regulatory filings. This was part of Ninja Van's US$578 million Series E round, which took it past unicorn status.

This is a boost to Alibaba's logistics portfolio in the region. The company has long been a shareholder of postal service SingPost, with a 14.6 per cent stake as of end-March.

Could this signal collaboration between SingPost and Ninja Van? Mackintosh of CrossASEAN reckons that Alibaba may simply be spreading its bets, choosing to "back more than one horse".

Besides investing into local players, Alibaba is also growing the South-east Asian footprint of its own logistics unit, Cainiao.

This year, Cainiao launched direct air freight from China to East Malaysia to boost Lazada's cross-border logistics. It also entered a cross-border logistics partnership with the supply chain unit of supermarket operator FairPrice Group, to facilitate customs clearance and last-mile delivery for Taobao and Tmall orders.

Moving into 2022, all three tech giants - Alibaba, Ant and Tencent - are expected to continue their proxy war via South-east Asian startups, especially those in up-and-coming sectors. "They're almost a bit of a barometer for the areas in which growth is really carrying," said Mackintosh.

At the same time, they could bring more of their business units to the region. For instance, Tencent's TiMi Studio Group is reportedly setting up a new game development studio in Singapore, according to the South China Morning Post. Tencent subsidiary Riot Games has also shifted many in its Hong Kong team to Singapore, the report added.

An industry player told BT that despite the uncertain regulatory environment in China, its tech players are still buzzing.

He said: "The new economy in China is real and there are so many opportunities in an ecosystem that has tech, talent, appetite and desire… New regulations also mean new opportunities."