Tech across continents: APAC and EMEA
We’ve been based in London for more than a year, and so I’ve felt like I’ve finally have (a little) reflection about what it’s like to work at a US tech firm while based London (for the EMEA market) and in Singapore (for APAC)!
Caveats
- Loosely held: ~1.5 years in London is not the same as 7+ years in Singapore (and also in different seasons — the zero interest / tech boom times, pre vs post covid, different life stages). These views are loosely held — I imagine they will evolve, and I’m excited to see this happen!
- Expect generalizations: Observations make generalizations, so there will be exceptions and nuances.
Reflection 1: Regulation is a theme.
Regulation. Europe is famous for this, and it is true! But coming also from APAC, it’s not that there’s zero regulation, and each market may have its own regulatory path. For example, Japan was one of the first to introduce regulation for crypto in 2016 (likely due to Mt Gox). My guess is that because EU regulation applies to 27 member states at once, it does land an immediate, harmonized impact on a huge addressable market (~450M). So it’s easy to associate EMEA → EU → Regulation.
Regardless, regulation as not static and confined to one region — it’s been fascinating to see how both in the virtual assets space (crypto) and now AI , what one region decides will influences what another region considers as it develops its own regulatory frameworks. One example that comes to mind is data privacy and protection, where EU lead the charge and other countries globally have developed data protection frameworks and laws.
Reflection 2: Company culture spans regions.
Company culture spans regions. What has been so nice to observe across different offices is how norms — both said and unsaid — are similar. A simple example, if writing is a company norm, then whether you are in London or Singapore you will be writing docs. If culture is relatively flat and it’s deemed normal that people are able to access senior leaders directly, then it happens regardless of whether one is based in Singapore or London.
Reflection 3: Regions are not monolithic.
Confession: I’ve been guilty of enviously thinking (while at Stripe) it’s so nice the EU has SEPA payments — just one payment integration, done! Win the whole market!!
I fell into the trap of thinking that because one central system exists, it overrides local preferences in each market. The central system is great and necessary, but doesn’t remove local nuances and preferences (which I think is what makes Europe really wonderfully divere). Regions are not monolithic. Within a broad bucket like EMEA, you’ll have a German user behaving very differently from a Ghanian or a Saudi Arabian user.
That’s all for now, though I expect I’ll have more thoughts in time to come :)
P.S. “Learning 4” that didn’t make the cut was the advantage of the UK time zone. There’s so much more overlap with London <> US: East Coast (NYC) / Pacific (PST) than Singapore and the US. In my opinion some of the longer hours in Asia are because of the lesser timezone overlap with the US.
