Resty Woro Yuniar

Resty Woro Yuniar is a Jakarta-based journalist who specialises in technology and business

Opposition campaigner Ratna Sarumpaet falsely claimed she had been attacked by political opponents to hide the fact she got plastic surgery. Photo: Reuters

Society

The face of fake news: Indonesia’s latest disinformation scandal

15 Oct 2018 - 9:00am 8

As campaigning begins in the world’s third-largest democracy and most populous Muslim nation, polls reveal the issues likely to decide the race between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto

Southeast Asia

Rupiah, race: where Indonesian election will be won or lost

5 Oct 2018 - 4:32pm 1

Country prioritises assistance in much-needed areas after learning from mistakes handling aid after 2004 Aceh tsunami

Southeast Asia

Indonesia open to overseas aid after earthquakes, tsunami

1 Oct 2018 - 11:21pm 1

Voters in Indonesia are often swayed by candidates’ fame or personality, despite past criminal offences. Photo: EPA

Politics

How to win an election in Indonesia

30 Sep 2018 - 1:43pm 4

While fans focused on the race last week, others were revelling in a world where there’s a fine line between romance and remittance … and tourism officials weren’t happy about it

Society

How Singapore’s F1 fling with sugar daddies turned sour

26 Sep 2018 - 5:50pm 17

Tech firms are re-examining their operations as they face headwinds in Asian countries increasingly concerned with protecting their own data

Economics

Why Facebook bet US$1 billion on Singapore data centre

18 Sep 2018 - 8:08am 5

Asian countries may be weighing the cost of abandoning cheaper Chinese tech – in terms of the higher outlay involved in rolling out the next generation of mobile wireless networks as well as the possible security implications

Geopolitics

Australia’s 5G ban on Huawei: will others make same call?

10 Sep 2018 - 2:26pm 20

Tokyo has banned ride-sharing services and its fabled transport system means there’s limited demand for them anyway. Even so, Uber and Didi Chuxing are keen to gain a foothold in the world’s third-largest economy

Politics

Can Uber and Didi take Japan for a ride?

27 Aug 2018 - 10:29am 2

The Trump administration has junked the concept in the United States, and Asian nations are often beholden to telecom providers, but India has decided all its 1.3 billion people should have equal access to online content

Society

What does India’s trend-setting net neutrality mean?

24 Jul 2018 - 11:31am 2

Drivers are using various techniques, including fake GPS apps found on the dark web, to inflate their numbers and get undeserved bonuses

Economics

Ride-sharing fraud in full throttle in Indonesia

16 Jul 2018 - 11:48am 1

Bicycle-sharing firm’s exit amid greater regulation prompts some to warn Lion City against choking off risk-taking businesses

Economics

‘You can kill your innovators’: Singapore’s oBike gets on its bike

30 Jun 2018 - 3:07pm 8

EFishery has developed a smart fish and shrimp auto feeder that knows when fish are hungry.

Economics

13 Asian tech start-ups to watch

2 Jul 2018 - 2:12pm

Filing taxes using blockchain in Indonesia. Growing better crops in Vietnam with artificial intelligence. Sending rockets into space in Singapore. Southeast Asia is quietly emerging as a breeding ground for new technology

Economics

Is Southeast Asia the next Silicon Valley?

30 Jun 2018 - 8:15am 17

Umbu Mbora, like many others in his region, keeps unburied corpses of family members in his home. Photo: Resty Woro Yuniar

Society

The Indonesian villagers who live with their dead

23 Jun 2018 - 4:33pm 4

Indonesian badminton has fallen on hard times. But a retired star sees reason for cheer – and remembers the good old days weren’t always so good for the country’s ethnic Chinese

Society

Game over for glory days of Indonesian badminton?

3 Jun 2018 - 1:02pm

The Lion City-based ride-hailing company’s acquisition of rival Uber’s regional business isn’t going as smoothly as planned, with antitrust regulators increasing scrutiny two months after the deal was announced

Economics

No free ride for Singapore’s Grab after Uber exits Southeast Asia

22 Jun 2018 - 1:11pm

The Surabaya police chief Rudi Setiawan with a picture of Dita Oepriarto and his family, who carried out the suicide bomb attacks at churches in Indonesia. Photo: AP

Politics

‘Caring brother’ who led family suicide attack in Indonesia

23 May 2018 - 11:03am 4

Twenty years after Indonesia’s Reformasi movement started, the activists who were persecuted under the dictator Suharto warn that the country could be backsliding into authoritarianism

Politics

Burned, beaten, electrocuted – and they fear for Indonesia’s future

20 May 2018 - 2:33pm 1

With only dangerous oil maps for illumination at night, children who live in Weepatando village in Southwest Sumba are finding it hard to excel due to poor lighting at their houses. Photo: Resty Woro Yuniar

Politics

Indonesia’s economic promised land: to many, still just a promise

20 May 2018 - 10:32am

The struggle of Indonesia’s forgotten people

SCMP Originals

The struggle of Indonesia’s forgotten people

21 May 2018 - 10:11am

Experts say having entire families explode themselves to kill others is a new tactic that the Islamic State seems to have initiated in Indonesia, which is no stranger to horrendous acts of terror

Society

After Surabaya, are bombings by families the ‘new normal’?

15 May 2018 - 9:40pm 2

Fake news and data breach that affected a million Indonesians have revived Jakarta’s zeal for tightening regulations

Economics

Indonesia tech firms feel heat after Facebook data leak

28 Apr 2018 - 1:24pm

Its US$26 billion stock debut has tech industry mouths watering, but the music streaming company may have hit a bum note in the region, where piracy, limited budgets and a love of karaoke are conspiring against it

Asia

Is Asia Spotify’s weak spot?

15 Apr 2018 - 1:56pm

Inaccurate maps, patchy internet and digital illiteracy conspire to make ride-sharing company drivers reluctant to rely on digital navigation – a rare bit of bad news for an otherwise booming industry

Society

Google Maps: a lost cause for Indonesian drivers

1 Apr 2018 - 7:45pm 14

The SugarBook’s website, with its motto: ‘Where Romance Meets Finance’. Photo: Internet

Society

The rise of Hong Kong’s sugar babies – and the websites seeking a sweet profit

18 Mar 2018 - 11:03am 38

Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta at an anti-Suharto protest. Photo: Reuters

Politics

Why are ethnic Chinese still being denied land in Indonesia?

18 May 2018 - 4:44pm 5

An obsession with porcelain complexions may benefit the US$20 billion skin-whitening industry but it causes untold human misery. A new generation – and films like Black Panther – brings hope of a brighter, not lighter, future

Southeast Asia

Beyond the pale: why is Asia so hung up on skin tone?

4 Mar 2018 - 4:17pm 34

With some infrastructure help from China, the nation plans to create several more attractive holiday spots and keep the Southeast Asian nation’s record-breaking tourist-number streak going

Economics

Can China help tourist-hungry Indonesia create 10 ‘mini Balis’?

24 Feb 2018 - 12:22pm 4

Only a few weeks in operation after four years of planning, the National Cyber and Encryption Agency has a giant mandate. But confusion remains about its role and its reach

Southeast Asia

Can Indonesia’s new cybercrime unit win its war on fake news?

18 Feb 2018 - 8:23am 3

Without reforming its throwaway habits, the West risks overwhelming the Southeast Asian recyclers who have stepped in to fill the gap left by China’s ban on imported plastic waste

Politics

Has the West learned its lesson from China’s plastic ban?

12 Feb 2018 - 7:34am 17

While the cryptocurrency markets suffered a major blow this week, Asian governments are looking into the benefits of its underlying technology, the blockchain. Photo: Reuters

Asia

The bitcoin party is over. The blockchain party has just begun

6 Feb 2018 - 10:55pm 12

While metropolises like Jakarta, New Delhi and Singapore are embracing ride-sharing companies like Uber and Grab, tourist destinations like Phuket, Bali and Goa have been less welcoming – and it’s the customers who are losing out

Economics

Uber: a no-Goa at Asia’s tourist hotspots?

18 Dec 2017 - 8:04am

Indonesian tobacco farmers protest against plans to restrict tobacco use. Photo: AFP

Economics

In Southeast Asia, big tobacco clings to a smokescreen

10 Dec 2017 - 12:02pm

Indonesia's first female Muslim stand-up comedian Sakdiyah Ma'ruf at Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. Photo: Handout

Society

Heard the one about the Indonesian comic with a hijab?

12 Nov 2017 - 11:02am 1

Forget robbing banks, online donations are now the go-to funding solution for Islamic State sympathisers hoping to finance a terror attack in world’s most populous Muslim nation, study finds

Politics

Islamic State support? In Indonesia, there’s an app for that

10 Nov 2017 - 3:31pm

Tourism officials agree Bali is in urgent need of better tourism management and infrastructure to support the country’s ambitious tourism targets. Photo: AFP

Economics

Why Bali’s thirst for Chinese tourists is leaving island dry

5 Nov 2017 - 2:01pm 12

The company began life as a modest motorcyle-hailing company. Seven years on and it is making serious inroads into the world of electronic money

Economics

Go-Jek: from 20 bikes to US$2.5b – and an e-money revolution

22 Oct 2017 - 12:32pm

On the rise: polygamy in Indonesia, domestic violence in Malaysia, sharia in Brunei. Is Southeast Asia going backwards when it comes to gender equality?

Society

Is Southeast Asia going backwards when it comes to gender equality?

25 Apr 2018 - 11:36am 3

Chinese firms Mobike and Ofo are in a race with oBike of Singapore to capture the Asian market – but there are roadblocks ahead, including a backlash against illegal parking

Economics

Are China’s bike-sharing services oversharing?

2 Oct 2017 - 12:01pm 4

A lack of transportation infrastructure and a boom in car sales are making traffic jams not just a daily nuisance, but a long-term economic liability for many of Southeast Asia’s major cities

Politics

End of the road for Southeast Asia’s bike taxis?

1 Oct 2017 - 2:30pm

Asia’s tech scenes have become key battlegrounds for Chinese internet giants like Alibaba, Tencent and JD, who see the markets as stops on route to global dominance – and have caught Western competitors napping

Economics

SE Asian tech: what’s the draw for China’s internet giants?

17 Sep 2017 - 10:00am 2

From 2 million Chinese visitors this year, to five times as many in 2019, Indonesia’s plans to cash in on the Chinese tourism dollar are nothing if not ambitious. But for arrival figures to soar, it must first address a lack of flights

Economics

How Indonesia is wooing Chinese tourists from Thailand’s grasp

10 Sep 2017 - 11:53am 5

Indonesian students call for Suharto to go. Photo: AFP

Politics

Indonesia was supposed to embrace freedom. What happened?

18 May 2018 - 4:41pm 1

The world’s major powers considered the Banda Islands the key spoil of a spice war hundreds of years ago and it is this bloody past that made the country what it is today

Society

How war over an aphrodisiac made a multicultural Indonesia

13 Aug 2017 - 7:00pm 1

In an effort to create a ‘level playing field’, Asian economies are committing to new standards of transparency

Geopolitics

Have tax havens had their time in the sun?

7 Aug 2017 - 8:32am 7

Regional players have quickly adapted the ride-hailing company’s business model for local markets. Now Uber, the world’s most valuable private company, must play catch-up even as its key executive posts remain vacant amid abuse allegations

Economics

What Uber needs to do to catch up with Asian rivals

31 Jul 2017 - 9:32am 3

Analysts say strong competition, regulations and a sluggish economy created a perfect storm that the convenience-store chain could not withstand

Economics

Why did all 7-Elevens in Jakarta suddenly disappear?

17 Jul 2017 - 2:10pm 8