Technology

Empowering FMCG Brand Growth Through Retailer Engagement

Published

1 year ago

April 15, 2025

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — For small and local Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands, gaining access to rural and urban retail markets remains a major challenge. Challenges such as limited distribution, high marketing costs, and tough shelf competition often restrict these brands to their immediate communities.

Through Ninja Mart’s Kongsi Rezeki, Kongxi Huat! Campaign, which ran from January to March 2025, Ninja Mart – Ninja Van Malaysia’s distribution arm – collaborated with Indofood, Julie’s, Yupi, Cricket, Yokefood, and MIWA to help the brands reach over 8,500 independent retailers, expanding their market presence beyond major hypermarkets and into smaller grocery stores and convenience outlets across Malaysia. On average, the brands saw a 37% increase in sales during the campaign.

“At Ninja Mart, we recognise that FMCG brands, especially smaller and local players, breaking into the retail market isn’t just about distribution, but about building relationships and visibility. Through this initiative, we helped brands expand into new retail spaces and empowered them with data-driven insights, direct retailer engagement, and targeted marketing strategies. By bridging the gap between brands and independent retailers, we’re creating a more connected retail ecosystem in Malaysia,” said Matthew Sequerah Lee, Head of Ninja Mart Malaysia.

With a focus on direct brand-to-retailer engagement, the campaign delivered a measurable impact for participating brands:

Spend & Win Campaign – Ninja Mart, in collaboration with brand partners, rewarded retailers with 100 exclusive prizes.Retail Point of Sale Materials (POSM) & Goodie Bag Distribution – Tailored POSM and sampling initiatives drove product trials, boosting conversions and retailer confidence.Brand Focus Weeks – Dedicated promotional periods with promotions and custom POSM materials in key retail stores enhanced brand visibility and sales.Urban Brand Tour – On-ground engagement connected brands with retailers, offering firsthand sales insights and strengthening relationships.Data-Driven Brand Collaboration – Monthly performance reports provided brands with insights on sales, market coverage, and retailer feedback for strategic growth.

How Brands Benefitted from Retail Expansion Strategy

Indofood faced challenges with product availability and brand awareness in Malaysia. Its early focus on Modern Trade (supermarkets and large chains) limited its reach into General Trade (independent shops and mini-marts), especially in rural areas with strong growth potential. Ninja Mart addressed this by refining Indofood’s distribution strategy, from effectively bridging the gap in availability and accessibility.

“Ninja Mart has transformed our approach to General Trade by bringing the structure and efficiency of modern trade into a fragmented market. Their data-driven strategies, extensive retail network, and tailored campaigns have significantly expanded our reach and boosted sales. We trust Ninja Mart as one of the key partners in driving Indofood’s growth in Malaysia,” said Steven Lim, Key Account Manager from Indofood (M) Food Industries Sdn Bhd.

Yupi faced challenges with network distribution and market penetration, particularly within the General Trade segment, which includes grocery outlets across rural and semi-urban areas. Though demand was growing, gaps in coverage and logistical challenges restricted national expansion.

“Ninja Mart has transformed Yupi’s presence across Malaysia. With their robust distribution network and deep expertise in on-the-ground sales, they’ve ensured that Yupi products are not only available but flourishing in both urban and rural markets. Their data-driven approach, flawless execution, and strong collaboration with Delfi has enabled us to reach more retailers and consumers than ever before. Thanks to this partnership, Yupi is now more accessible to Malaysians nationwide,” mentioned by an Executive Office representative, Delfi Marketing Sdn Bhd.

For smaller FMCG brands, growth goes beyond delivery but relationships, visibility, and insights. By combining logistics expertise, retailer engagement, and data-driven strategies, Ninja Mart is helping brands scale in ways that traditional distribution models often overlook.

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SOURCE Ninja Van

Technology

Trip.com Group Sincerely Accepts Administrative Penalty Decision Issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China

Published

1 hour ago

July 25, 2026

SINGAPORE, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trip.com Group Limited (Nasdaq: TCOM; HKEX: 9961) today announced that it has received the administrative penalty decision issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China.

Trip.com Group sincerely accepts the decision and will adopt rectification measures in accordance with applicable laws and regulations to implement the decision’s requirements. The Company will strengthen its long-term governance mechanisms and strive to contribute to the sustainable development of the travel industry.

Trip.com Group’s management team will host a conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on July 27, 2026 (or 8:00 PM Hong Kong Time on July 27, 2026).

The conference call will be available on Webcast live at: http://investors.trip.com.

All participants must pre-register to join this conference call using the participant registration link below:
https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BIb78e08d8f18340c4882a7e4ab961906b.

Upon registration, each participant will receive details for this conference call, including dial-in numbers and a unique access PIN. To join the conference, please dial the number provided, enter your PIN, and you will join the conference instantly.

For further information, please contact:
Investor Relations
Trip.com Group Limited
Email: iremail@trip.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tripcom-group-sincerely-accepts-administrative-penalty-decision-issued-by-the-state-administration-for-market-regulation-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-302834599.html

SOURCE Trip.com Group Limited

Technology

NAVER Partners with Brookfield and NVIDIA to Expand Korea’s National AI Factory Infrastructure Buildout

Published

3 hours ago

July 25, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NAVER, Brookfield and NVIDIA announced an expansion of Korea’s sovereign AI factory infrastructure. New investments will increase the initial NVIDIA DSX™ AI factory deployment from 55 megawatts to 200 megawatts.

Announced during Korea President Jae Myung Lee’s AI Summit visit to San Francisco, the planned 200-megawatt expansion will be built with the NVIDIA DSX platform at NAVER’s GAK Sejong hyperscale data center in Sejong, South Korea. The expanded infrastructure will provide Korea- and U.S.- based AI innovators with access to production-scale AI compute for building next-generation models, agents and AI-powered services.

Under the terms of the agreements, Brookfield will fund up to $9 billion as the exclusive capital partner, NVIDIA will invest $1 billion and NAVER will fund the remaining amount to finance the $10 billion project.

This builds on NAVER’s June announcement to extend its GAK Sejong data center with NVIDIA DSX, with a long-term path to gigawatt-scale sovereign AI infrastructure serving Korea’s enterprises, industries, government organizations and global AI cloud customers. Combining Brookfield’s capital with NVIDIA’s computing platform, the investment supports NAVER’s AI factory deployment.

“NVIDIA’s strategic investment and our infrastructure supply agreement with Brookfield have propelled NAVER’s vision for the AI Factory business into a robust execution phase,” said Haejin Lee, Founder and Chairman of NAVER. “Leveraging the solid partnerships with our global partners, we will drive technological innovation, foster a sovereign AI ecosystem, and spearhead efforts to strengthen South Korea’s AI competitiveness.”

AI Factory Expansion and Open Model Collaboration to Fuel AI Innovators

NAVER, as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner, provides deep expertise in operating hyperscale infrastructure powered by the full-stack NVIDIA AI platform. The 200-megawatt AI factory, featuring NVIDIA Vera Rubin and Blackwell platforms, will establish a dedicated resource pool for emerging AI companies, providing the compute, software and support needed to develop and deploy competitive AI models and applications at scale.

This expanded infrastructure also builds on NAVER and NVIDIA’s collaboration on open model development for agentic and physical AI. NAVER is advancing its HyperCLOVA X models to be based on NVIDIA Nemotron™ 3 Ultra open models with its proprietary data and training expertise. NAVER is also the first Korean company to join the NVIDIA Nemotron Coalition, contributing to open model development across pretraining, post-training and reinforcement learning.

NAVER plans to launch an AI agent platform in Korea in the second half of the year, powered by NVIDIA Agent Toolkit software including NVIDIA NemoClaw™ blueprints. NAVER is also developing a Seoul World Model using proprietary urban street-view and spatial modeling data, built on NVIDIA Cosmos™ world foundation models.

About NAVER

Founded in 1999, NAVER is Korea’s largest Internet company and one of the world’s top tech companies. Leading cutting-edge technologies, NAVER operates the No.1 search engine in Korea and holds various business portfolios encompassing commerce, fintech, cloud, AI and robotics.

NAVER recorded sales of KRW 12.04 trillion (USD 8.18 billion) in 2025. TEAM NAVER continues to enhance its business portfolio and expand its global presence across Japan, North America, and Europe, while pursuing innovation through continuous research and development in future technologies.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/naver-partners-with-brookfield-and-nvidia-to-expand-koreas-national-ai-factory-infrastructure-buildout-302834577.html

SOURCE NAVER

Technology

Beijing Review: Walking Through Time: China and U.S. Youths Explore Dali’s Past and Future

Published

3 hours ago

July 25, 2026

BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On July 17, a China-U.S. youth delegation came to Dali of Yunnan Province. By examining how Dali’s rich history intersects with modern development, the delegates explored new pathways for rural development.

They visited Dali Old Town, tried their hand at making the Bai people’s Three-Course Tea and also explored the ancient town of Xizhou, where they learned how modern tourism and indigenous life coexist.

In Yunnanyi Village, they explored its history as a stop along the Tea Horse Road and learned about the role it played during the Second World War (WWII).

Tyler James Smith

“I think it’s a very underappreciated part of World War II history. Hearing these stories of different countries working together despite cultural differences is incredibly inspiring.

I also think there are many stories like these that haven’t been widely told, simply because World War II is such a complex period in history. That’s why I think it’s so meaningful to visit museums like this and experience these stories firsthand.”

At Xiangyun Economic and Technological Development Zone, they visited a local new energy company to see how green, low-carbon development is driving regional growth.

Valerie Marie

“I recently started studying energy transitions. I know China has been really big in the renewable energy sector. So actually getting to hear more about [China’s] 2060 [pledge], learning more about carbon neutrality [goals], as well as other zero-carbon goals, was cool.”

During their stay in Dali, they also strolled along the Erhai Lake Ecological Corridor.

Bai Yiwen

“I’d describe this journey as “to be continued,” because my own connection with Yunnan is far from over. For the U.S. delegates, this was only their first visit, so they’ve only had a glimpse of what Yunnan has to offer. I hope they will have more opportunities to come back to China, explore other cities in Yunnan, and discover even more of its people, culture and traditions.”

After Dali, the delegates will visit Beijing for more tours and exchanges. The event was co-hosted by China International Communications Group (CICG) Center for the Americas and the U.S.-based International Student Conferences.

https://x.com/beijingreview/status/2080104404552663067?s=46&t=yfVMVdMyE2zKAFrYaLoV-g

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EtGCCKzy4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.tiktok.com/@cachinachic/video/7665536913532587294?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7227134149436605995

https://youtu.be/jGONWTqwduc?is=KfL-Zn3HyVYE-KEm

Contact: Jiaweibellapeng@163.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beijing-review-walking-through-time-china-and-us-youths-explore-dalis-past-and-future-302834587.html

SOURCE Beijing Review