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Bank of Laos Warns of Counterfeit Banknotes

Bank of Laos Urges Public to Be Vigilant Against Fake Banknotes.
A pile of Lao banknotes (photo: The culture trip)

The Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL) has issued a warning to citizens about counterfeit banknotes of LAK 100,000 and LAK 50,000 denominations.

Asia-Pacific Leaders Gather to Tackle Climate Change at UN Forum

Leaders gather at annual UN policy forum to tackle Asia and the Pacific’s most daunting threat – climate change
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) 79th session. ( Photo : ESCAP )

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) opened its 79th session in Bangkok today, with global and regional leaders calling for urgent action to combat climate change and its dire impacts.

Appier exceeds first quarter projection, reports robust earnings growth

Increasing business momentum lays a solid foundation for second quarter onwards

Highlights and achievements of Q1 FY23

  • Revenue increased by 32% YoY to reach JPY 5.6 billion
  • Gross profit reached JPY 2.8 billion with a 32% YoY growth rate
  • EBITDA profit increased by 60% YoY with 8% margin on a FX-neutral basis
  • Achieved 24.4% YoY growth in customer numbers with last twelve months net revenue retention of 133.8% on FX neutral basis, and a customer churn rate of 0.608%

First quarter exceeds projections to establish a solid foundation for FY23

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 15 May 2023 – Appier Group Inc (TSE: 4180), henceforth referred to as Appier, today announced its earnings results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. Appier’s growth in the first quarter exceeded full-year guidance amidst a traditionally low season[1], while its business momentum increased since the beginning of the year. The company’s successful penetration into key accounts and verticals, as well as its continued development into new markets, delivered concrete results and has laid out a solid foundation for the second quarter onwards.

Appier achieved steady growth in its financial performance with a 32% year-on-year (YoY) increase in revenue, reaching JPY 5.6 billion. Gross profit also showed significant growth, reaching JPY 2.8 billion with a 32% YoY growth rate, while EBITDA increased by 60% YoY to reach JPY 418 million with a 8% margin on a FX-neutral basis. Appier continues to accelerate its product innovation via various generative AI (GenAI) integrations to strengthen its core competence, as brands look to the next generation of technologies to further enhance their marketing strategies.

Continuing the momentum from the previous quarters, Appier performed well in the US and EMEA, reporting a 77% YoY revenue growth, and representing 14% of total revenue from 10% a year ago, underscoring its success in cultivating new markets and in meeting market demand for innovative technologies that drive change.

Expansion to accelerate on the back of dual growth engines via Digital Content and Ecommerce sectors

Appier achieved a 24% YoY growth in its overall customer base, with the majority of new customers coming from the Digital Content and Ecommerce sectors. In addition, the company reported a last twelve months net revenue retention (LTM NRR) of 133.8% on FX neutral basis, while its overall customer churn rate remained low at 0.608%. Appier’s annual recurring revenue currently constitutes over 95% of total revenues, highlighting the company’s stable growth and overall momentum.

Appier’s continuous growth trajectory this quarter was attributed to better upselling, product synergy enhancement, and continuous expansion in existing customers, while its overall strategic focus remained on the acquisition of large enterprise customers. Despite the first quarter being a generally low season with clients’ limited marketing activities, the company’s performance has exceeded the full year guidance. Appier also expects further growth momentum in the upcoming quarters.

Northeast Asia’s vertical growth and continuous US and EMEA market development serve as dual growth drivers

Appier also expects increased momentum from this quarter onwards, due to the addition of key accounts in Digital Content, particularly in South Korea. The company’s breakdown of markets showed that Northeast Asia (66%) remained stable, with deeper penetration across verticals such as Digital Content and consistent growth from existing customers in ECommerce. The US and EMEA (14%) markets continued to deliver significant product value to customers, with a focus on acquiring new customers, scalability, ROI-driven upsell, and strength in the Digital Content sector.

“Our combined growth engine market strategy, consisting of both the Digital Content and ECommerce sectors, allows us to balance revenue streams and cope with macro economic uncertainties. This position allows us to keep pace well with the rapidly evolving business trends and sustain long-term robust growth,” said Dr. Chih-Han Yu, CEO and Co-Founder of Appier. “By combining Appier’s sophisticated GenAI algorithms with OpenAI’s ChatGPT language models, our customers can embrace cutting-edge solutions and harness the value of AI easily.”

Empowering marketing with a full suite of GenAI technology enhancements

Appier is consistently driving product innovation through the integration of industry-leading technology into its entire suite of products. Through the combination of Appier’s in-house GenAI technology with ChatGPT features, enterprises can significantly enhance their productivity through advertising tools, conversational marketing, and automated content generation.

  • CrossX – AIXPERT: Limited or ineffective interest segments is one of marketers’ painpoints, making it hard to create various versions for multiple paid channels. With GenAI powered interest segment and parameter expansions, along with ChatGPT’s domain knowledge, marketers can efficiently identify the most appealing interest clusters to acquire high-value users. Based on AI predicted performance metrics and audience overlap rate, marketers can also optimize ads content across channels to achieve better campaign Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
  • AIQUA: Generating marketing copy and creating multiple versions for campaign A/B testing can be time-consuming and challenging for marketers. With the support of GenAI technology, marketers can use basic text input to create multiple language versions[2], custom lengths, and tones (formal, friendly, uplifting, playful, humorous) in a few seconds.
  • BotBonnie: In the past, it was difficult for customer service professionals to provide a quick and detailed response to each customer. After integrating ChatGPT, the reply generation process can now be automated. AI assistant for live chat can also provide rewrite suggestions and adjust the response languages[3], length or tones (professional, friendly, empathetic, confident) for different situations, enabling better results from conversational commerce and customer satisfaction.

With the integration of GenAI into its product lines, Appier believes that they will provide strong practical value to enterprises and improve marketing performance and efficiency for brands. The enhanced solutions with an intuitive interface also empower brands to support the entire buyer journey, creating greater value and memorable customer experiences.


[1]On the quarterly seasonality characteristics, Q1 is a naturally lower season for marketing activities. Q3 and Q4 are high seasons for Ecommerce, while Q2 and Q3 are high seasons for Digital Content.

[2] AIQUA now can support English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages and will support Vietnamese, Thai, and Bahasa in Q2 2023.

[3] BotBonnie can now support English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages.

Hashtag: #Appier #ArtificialIntelligence #GenerativeAI #MarTech

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Appier

Appier (TSE: 4180) is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and US, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Visit for more company information and visit for more IR information.

Thai Military May Intervene if Political Situation Is Not Under Control

Thai Military May Intervene if Political Situation Is Not Under Control
Army Chief General Narongpan Jitkaewthae speaking to reporters, ( Photo : KhaoSod English )

Thailand’s military chief, General Narongpan Jitkaewthae, has said he cannot guarantee that the military would not intervene again if the country faces political upheaval in the next five months.

Cambodian PM Rewards Spirited Runner after Rainy Race Performance

Cambodian runner Bou Samnang. ( Photo : VnExpress).

Cambodian runner Bou Samnang, who finished last in the women’s 5,000-meter race at the SEA Games in Phnom Penh on Monday, was rewarded by Prime Minister Hun Sen for her perseverance.

Protect Children’s Vision: Join the Movement for Universal Eye Screening

Launch of board book will enable parents and teachers to detect vision problems in children

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 15 May 2023 – With the increasing usage of digital devices at young ages, it is estimated that one in four school-aged children has vision problems. The number of children with myopia and other vision problems is expected to rise. Unfortunately, many children with vision problems are not aware of their condition, leading to poor development and learning.

Eye Screening Book by Vision & Perception Practice
Eye Screening Book by Vision & Perception Practice

To address this issue, optometrist and preschool owner Andy Teo has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for the “Children Eye Screening Book for Teachers & Parents.” The book is a children’s board book that allows teachers and parents to perform a basic eye screening for children from three years old, featuring easy-to-recognize shapes. The project’s goal is to raise awareness about the importance of early detection of eye problems in children and to encourage more schools in the region to perform universal eye screenings.

Andy Teo with “The Children Eye Screening Book for Teachers & Parents”
Andy Teo with “The Children Eye Screening Book for Teachers & Parents”

Andy’s passion for this project stems from his experience of having a cataract in his right eye as a child and his detection of vision problems in young children as young as two years old in his own preschool. As he frequently volunteered to perform eye screenings for schools in the region, he realised that eye screenings were not mandated, unlike in Singapore where all pre-schoolers receive their 1st eye screening at 5 years old. He believes early detection of eye problems in children is crucial for their learning and development, and wishes to start a movement for more schools in the region to provide a basic eye screening for every child.

Several schools, including AppleTree Preschool (Indonesia), Stella Gracia School (Indonesia), and Avenue Early Years Center (Philippines) in the region have already joined the movement to bring basic eye screening to every child.

“We believe that early detection of eye problems in children is crucial for their learning and development. With this book, we aim to start a movement to provide basic eye screenings for young children through schools and teachers. We hope that this project will help raise awareness about the importance of eye screening and encourage more people to take action to protect their children’s vision.” Says Andy Teo.

The project is seeking funding on Indiegogo, and backers can receive rewards such as a digital eye screener or an eye screening board book. Supporters can also donate eye screening books to schools in disadvantaged communities.

Join the movement to protect children’s vision. Visit the Indiegogo campaign page at https://igg.me/at/eyebook to support the “Children Eye Screening Book for Teachers & Parents” and help ensure that all children have access to basic eye screenings. For more information, please email andy@visionandperception.com.sg.

Hashtag: #visionandperceptionpractice #childrendevelopment #EyeScreeningBook

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Laos to Host 5th International Mountain Tourism Day

Laos to Host 5th International Mountain Tourism Day
Deputy Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism, Mr. Ounthuang Khaophanh (right) met with a representative of China's International Mountain Tourism Alliance (left) (photo: Pathedlao)
Laos has been chosen to host the 5th International Mountain Tourism Day and conference from 28 May to 1 June in Vientiane capital and Luang Prabang.

Big C Hypermarket to Open in Laos Next Year

Big C Hypermarket to Open in Laos Next Year
A Big C retail store in Thailand. ( Photo : Retail in Asia )

Big C, a Bangkok-based grocery and general merchandising retailer, has commenced construction of its first hypermarket in Laos, with plans to open its doors next year.