iWorld
Digital Media Asia meet in Malaysia to explore new avenues of digitisation of media
NEW DELHI: Online and social media, tablet and mobile publishing, and digital business innovations are among the main subjects coming up for discussion at the forthcoming Digital Media Asia in Kuala Lumpur this month.
Participants include Business Blogging CEO Kiruba Shankar from India; Canada’s Globe and Mail Digital News Strategy director Anjali Kapoor; Google Strategic Partner Lead Parin Mehta; Singapore’s InmobiVP and GM of the Japan, Asia Pacific brand business Phagun Raju; and Berita Satu Media Holdings, IndonesiaCEOSachin Gopalan.
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The meet has been organised from 12 to 14 November by WAN-IFRA Asia Pacific which will be represented among others by its chief operating officer Thomas Jacob.
The meet will also see an Inverted Media Workshop, Digital Media Asia Expo, a creative ad campaign contest, Opennews.hack Asia and the Digital Media Asia awards.
About 300 media executives representing over 115 organisations from 31 countries are expected. Digital Media Asia is the largest conference on new media in Asia for news publishers. Thirty speakers from leading news publishing companies in Asia and worldwide – such as FT, Apple Daily, Metro, SPH, Wall Street Journal, Globe & Mail, The Economist, Mainichi Shimbun – as well as online pure players like Google, Senatus, Microsoft, Coconuts Media, Yahoo will share inspiring case studies and innovative ideas with the audience.
Topics covered at Digital Media Asia include paid content and the implementation of paywalls, online video monetisation, digital and mobile advertising, tablet publishing, big data, diversifying revenue streams, start-ups and publishers.
Other speakers include The Economist Digital, UK, VP Advertising Audra Martin; The Straits Times Editor Warren Fernandez; Head of Tablet Editions, Metro, UK, James Cadman; The Wall Street Journal Hong Kong Asia Digital Editor Adam Najberg; Naoki Onodera, Head of Digital Publications, Mainichi Shimbun; Alan Soon, Head of Audience and Managing Editor SEA, Yahoo!; Graham Hinchly, Engineering Manager, FT Lab, FT, UK; Christina Lo Man Ki, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Apple Daily, HK; Sue Brooks, Director of Video Transformation, AP, UK; Geoff Tan, Senior VP, Head of Strategic Marketing, SPH; Dan Sloan, Editor in Chief, Nissan Global Media Centre, Japan; Todd Forest, Executive Producer APAC, Microsoft Online Media; JV Rufino, Director of Mobile, Philippine Daily Inquirer; and Eamonn Byrne, Business Director, The Byrne Partnership, UK.
e-commerce
American Express to acquire AI startup Hyper to boost automation
Deal targets expense management as AI reshapes corporate spending tools.
MUMBAI: From receipts to robots, the expense sheet is getting a brain upgrade as American Express moves to bring artificial intelligence into the heart of corporate spending. The company has announced plans to acquire Hyper, a relatively young but fast-rising startup founded in 2022 that builds AI-powered agents capable of organising expenses, generating reports, verifying compliance with budgets and policies, and nudging users with timely reminders. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, underscores a growing shift among financial institutions to automate traditionally manual, time-heavy workflows.
Hyper counts Sam Altman among its backers, adding a layer of Silicon Valley credibility to the acquisition. While financial details remain undisclosed, the strategic intent is clear: deepen automation capabilities and sharpen American Express’s position in the competitive corporate spending ecosystem.
The two companies are not strangers. They previously collaborated in 2024 on a co-branded credit card product, suggesting that the acquisition is less a cold buy and more an extension of an existing relationship. With this move, American Express is effectively bringing that capability in-house, aiming to embed AI directly into its commercial services stack.
Chief executive Stephen Squeri had already signalled the direction of travel in a recent shareholder letter, describing AI as a “structural shift” in how businesses operate. The Hyper acquisition appears to be a direct response to that shift, particularly in expense management, where processes such as approvals, compliance checks and reporting remain ripe for automation.
Alongside the acquisition, the company is also expanding its product suite. A recently launched business credit card offers cashback and benefits at an annual fee of $295, with another card expected later this year moves that complement its broader push into commercial services.
Taken together, the strategy points to a future where managing expenses may require fewer spreadsheets and more algorithms. For American Express, the bet is simple, if businesses are rethinking how work gets done, the tools that power that work need to evolve just as quickly.
