Today's brand news

Curated by Campaign's editorial team, here's a rolling roundup of brand-related news of interest to our readers in Asia-Pacific.

Shopee and Visa strike 5-year partnership

Ecommerce platform Shopee and digital payments provider Visa have struck a five-year regional partnership across Southeast Asia. The deal will see Shopee and Visa:

• Incentivise medium and small market enterprises (MSMEs) to digitalise their business on Shopee and adopt digital payments through Visa.
• Provide MSMEs with marketing and campaign support to drive awareness, traffic and sales to online stores.
• Launch co-branded credit cards in collaboration with local banks.
• Offer Visa payments to all Shopee users.
• Create unique experiences for Shopee users through Visa’s exclusive sponsorship platforms.

Estée Lauder becomes first beauty brand in space

Estée Lauder has teamed up with NASA to launch a beauty product in space, as part of NASA's efforts to enable business opportunities on the International Space Station. The brand launched its 'Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex' serum aboard a Cygnus spacecraft atop an Antares rocket on Tuesday (September 29). The product is set to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday (October 3).

The mission is more about marketing than science as the commercial product (only the second to launch with NASA) will be photographed in the space station’s iconic cupola window for images for use on Estée Lauder’s social media platforms. The brand is reported to have paid US$128,000 for the opportunity. (News release)

AirAsia Japan shutting down

Malaysia's AirAsia Group is shutting down its AirAsia Japan joint venture with Japanese partners, Nikkei Asia reports. The move is directly related to the grounding of aircraft and cross-border travel restrictions related to Covid-19. This is AirAsia's second failed attempt to set up a low-cost carrier. An official announcement is expected Monday. (Full story)

Korea's top telecom KT Corp to expand in Thailand

South Korea's largest telecom, KT Corp, is expanding its strategic partnership with Jasmine Group to develop a new internet data center (IDC) business in Thailand. The move is part of KT's efforts to explore growing business opportunities in Southeast Asia and other global markets. Under the agreement, KT and JTS will prepare to enter Thailand's IDC market by the late half of 2021 to serve global cloud service providers. (News release)