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Forbes Asia December Issue

Forbes Asia

As an eventful 2025 draws to a close, it’s worth reflecting on its biggest moments. Few pundits could have predicted that this year would bring us a new spectator sport: trade policy. The muscular tariff regime of Trump 2.0 unleashed turmoil that governments and businesses around the world scrambled to address. Some were better prepared than others, such as the protagonist of our cover story, former medical doctor Enki Tan, now executive chairman of Singapore-headquartered Giti Tire, a tiremaker with Indonesian roots.

Tan’s global ambitions for Giti (pronounced “GT”) spurred him to invest $560 million in building a U.S. factory in 2017 to be closer to the company’s American customers. In another prescient move, Tan went all out to sharpen Giti’s technological edge in a growing segment of the market: tires for electric vehicles. In September, Chinese EV giant BYD’s new electric hypercar, sporting Giti’s wheels, notched a speed record of nearly 500 kilometers per hour to become the world’s fastest production car. As Tan disclosed to our contributing editor Ardian Wibisono, tires these days are loaded with much more than meets the eye: “I have people telling me, ‘Hey, they’re very easy to make. You just pour the rubber inside the mold and then the tire comes out.’ It’s not so easy.”

Indeed, it wasn’t an easy year either for the tycoons on the accompanying list of Indonesia’s 50 Richest as a spell of civil unrest marked by street protests made investors skittish. Despite the uncertainty, the benchmark stock index was up by double-digits, resulting in the combined wealth of the country’s richest, ably compiled by our wealth team, crossing $300 billion.

Halter founder and CEO Craig Piggott

Adam Bove

Scaling up to the billion-dollar valuation mark is an uncommon feat for companies in New Zealand. One among a handful of Kiwi unicorns is agritech firm Halter, profiled by our reporter Catherine Wang. Halter’s founder and CEO Craig Piggott, who grew up on his parents’ dairy farm in Matamata, a town immortalized as a filming location of Lord of the Rings, created a solar-powered smart collar for cows to help farmers manage their herds through virtual fencing technology. An alum of our 30 Under 30 Asia list of young achievers (class of 2021), Piggott is looking further afield to the U.S. as Halter’s next growth market.

Forbes Asia’s 2025 Heroes Of Philanthropy

Illustrations by Marco Lawrence for Forbes Asia

In a month that marks the season of giving, we present a selection of Asia-Pacific’s notable givers in our annual Heroes of Philanthropy list. This unranked group, curated by a team led by editorial director Rana Wehbe Watson, spotlights wealthy individuals and families backing worthy causes, such as supporting young women studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

To round up the philanthropy theme is a stateside story about billionaire couple Cari Tuna, a former journalist, and her husband, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who are giving away the bulk of their multibillion-dollar fortune as fast as they can. Their charity, Coefficient Giving, backs a range of causes, such as AI safety research.

As the year turns, a heads-up about what we should brace for: Speed of Change, the theme of our Forbes Global CEO Conference to be held in Singapore in the fourth quarter of 2026. As always comments welcome at executiveeditor@forbesasia.com.

Online retailer Coupang is known as South Korea’s Amazon and built its reputation on its overnight “rocket delivery” service, but it has been a lot slower to respond to a hack that leaked the personal information of nearly two-thirds of the country’s population.

Coupang said South Korea’s worst-ever data breach began through its overseas servers in June, but it only became aware of it in November. The company’s chief executive resigned this week, but Bom Kim, its Korean-American founder and chair, has yet to offer any personal apology.

The hack compromised personal information including names and phone numbers, as well as email and shipping addresses, of more than 33mn active and former users, according to police.

President Lee Jae Myung has called the case a wake-up call for stronger cyber security, calling it “astonishing” that Coupang, South Korea’s largest online retailer by market share, did not detect the breach for five months.

“The wrong practice of not giving necessary care for protecting personal data, which is a key asset in the age of artificial intelligence and digitisation, must be completely changed,” Lee said last week.

Coupang, which boasts 25mn active users and offers services ranging from food delivery to streaming, said it had yet to establish full details of the cause and scope of the hack.

But former chief executive Park Dae-jun told a parliamentary hearing a week before his resignation that a former software developer was behind the attack.

Park said the alleged perpetrator was a Chinese national involved in authentication tasks at Coupang before his contract ended last December and he was believed to have returned to China.

Coupang’s chief information security officer, Brett Matthes, testified that the alleged perpetrator had a “privileged role” in the company that would have given him access to a private encryption key, which allowed him to generate a forged token to impersonate a customer.

Choi Min-hee, a member of South Korea’s National Assembly, said in a statement that the former employee used the key, which was still active even after he left the company, to access customer information, citing information she had received from Coupang.

Coupang has said its users’ login credentials, credit card numbers and payment details were not affected by the hack, but officials and legislators have warned that citizens could be vulnerable to targeted phishing attacks using the leaked information. “It is like the keys of almost everyone’s homes in Korea are stolen,” said National Assembly member Choi Hyung-du.

The company said in a statement to the Financial Times that after learning of the breach on November 18 it immediately reported it to authorities, blocked the unauthorised access route and strengthened internal monitoring. It said it would “significantly enhance our information security to prevent recurrences and will do everything we can do to recover trust”.

But legislators have lambasted Coupang for what they say is a lack of caution and a slow response. They are demanding that founder and chair Kim come forward and apologise himself. He has been summoned to a second parliamentary hearing next week.

Lee Hoon-ki, a lawmaker at last week’s hearing, suggested Coupang had been “negligent” about security issues as it rapidly expanded. Founded in 2010 as a website offering deals to group buyers, the company has seen its revenues soar more than 30-fold in the past decade to $30.2bn last year. It received a $3bn investment from SoftBank in 2015 and listed in New York in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic fuelled growth further.

Cyber security experts said Coupang was far from alone, with several high-profile cases contributing to what they expected to be South Korea’s worst year for large-scale data breaches.

SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile carrier, was fined $97mn this year over the leak of information on 25mn customers. Telecoms rival KT and credit card provider Lotte Card also reported data breaches.

Upbit, the country’s dominant cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a hack last month that led to the unauthorised withdrawal of Won44.5bn ($30mn) in cryptocurrency.

Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, said South Korean companies’ investment in cyber security remained “awfully inadequate” compared with countries such as the US.

Simon Choi, chief technology officer of cyber security start-up StealthMole Intelligence, said businesses should see paying for data protection as insurance.

“If you talk to bosses of big companies, they often say there are too many offline issues to take care of, so cyber security often takes a back seat,” he said. “They scramble to invest more belatedly when major incidents happen, but prevention is more important.”

Kang Hoon-sik, the president’s chief of staff, said in a meeting with senior administration officials that the major data leaks in recent years showed “structural loopholes” in South Korea’s personal information protection and the Coupang case was an opportunity to improve the country’s punitive damages system.

Lawmakers have called for Coupang, which reported Won41tn in sales last year, to pay Won1.2tn in penalties under a law that allows companies that fail to implement adequate data protection measures to be fined up to 3 per cent of their revenue.

The country’s Personal Information Protection Act also allows punitive damages of up to five times actual harm if personal data is leaked due to wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

But the clause, introduced in 2015 after leaks involving credit card companies, and the 3 per cent rule have rarely been enforced.

“US companies have to pay huge damages if they lose class action lawsuits over data breaches,” said Wi Jong-hyun, business professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul. “But Korean companies are not afraid of this because penalties are weak and there are few cases of collective legal action.”

Market tracker IGAWorks said the data leak had caused Coupang’s daily active users to fall by about 2mn to 16mn. JPMorgan analysts said in a note that customer departures were likely to be “limited”, citing the company’s “unrivalled market positioning and Korean customers being seemingly less sensitive to data breach issues” than consumers elsewhere.

Coupang controlled 22.7 per cent of the local e-commerce market last year, followed by Naver with 20.7 per cent, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

But Chung Da-hye, a 45-year-old office worker in Seoul, said she recently quit Coupang’s paid membership to express her anger over the incident.

“I love Coupang’s dawn delivery of fresh produce, but it is so disappointing to see the company’s response to the data breach,” she said. “They are making all their money here in Korea, but Bom Kim doesn’t show up to apologise. No one is taking responsibility.”

Indonesia has the raw ingredients to play a major role in the global battery transition: vast nickel reserves, growing refining capacity and strong investor interest. 

Our latest analysis shows that natural endowments are a necessary condition for long-term leadership in the sector, but alone are not sufficient. 

The country’s trajectory will depend on choices about technology pathways, industrial strategy and how sustainability is embedded going forward.

What is the current state of Indonesia’s battery industry?

Indonesia has successfully downstreamed nickel and the nation now accounts for a large share of the global nickel supply. 

But its domestic battery ecosystem is focused primarily on electric vehicle usage, and its development is patchy. 

Upstream mining and some refining are robust, while midstream battery cell and pack manufacturing remain limited and geographically dispersed. 

Without scaling midstream capacity, Indonesia risks being pigeonholed as a supplier of feedstock rather than a maker of finished battery systems.

If Indonesia leads in nickel supply, won’t it lead in battery supply too? 

Battery technology is evolving, and global battery supply is not just about nickel. 

While lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistries (NMC) deliver high energy density and favour certain vehicle types, lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries are cheaper, simpler and increasingly competitive in many Asian markets. 

LFP does not rely on nickel and Indonesia does not have domestic lithium – meaning chemistry choices strongly influence trade relationships and the feasibility of an entirely domestic industry. 

Nickel may be the starting point, but it does not need to be the destination.

Our analysis has identified these gaps and demonstrates how current policy levers – including protectionist rules, investment incentives and local content requirements – have steered investment but not consistently established a comprehensive, sustainable battery value chain.

What risks can Indonesia prioritise to meet its battery goals?

Environmental and social risks are central to Indonesia’s battery ambitions. 

Mining and refining operations have already drawn scrutiny for their impacts on water quality, air pollution and community wellbeing. 

As global buyers – from EV manufacturers to clean-energy developers – raise expectations around ethical sourcing, these issues increasingly shape market access and long-term competitiveness.

The carbon intensity of battery production is also heavily influenced by the electricity used in processing and manufacturing. 

Facilities reliant on coal-fired power – especially those in industrial parks with captive plants – face higher lifecycle emissions, making their products less attractive in markets that implement carbon-based trade rules or low-emission procurement standards.

How can Indonesia avoid these risks?

Remaining competitive requires pairing growth with credibility. 

Robust safeguards, transparent supply chains and emerging tools such as battery passports and verifiable recycling standards are essential.

These methods of demonstrating credibility show responsible practices from mine to finished product, protecting communities and meeting the demands of increasingly scrutiny-driven global markets.

So what can policymakers and industry do?

Climateworks, in partnership with the Purnomo Yusgiantoro Center (PYC), has brought together stakeholders and undertaken analysis to explore these options. 

The results of this consultation suggests practical levers:

• Publish a national battery roadmap that aligns industrial, energy and environmental planning. 
• Tie fiscal incentives to technology transfer, research and development collaboration, and clean-energy use. 
• Invest in midstream capacity and workforce development. 
• Seed a domestic recycling sector to recover critical materials and reduce long-term reliance on unprocessed ores.

Indonesia’s battery future is not preordained.

The nation can still avoid a narrow, nickel-centric outcome that leaves downstream value and decarbonisation opportunities elsewhere.

With thoughtful policy design – from conditional incentives to stronger sustainability rules – Indonesia can capture more value, create resilient jobs, and reduce environmental harm.

Climateworks and PYC are working together to develop a roadmap for critical mineral processing for the low-carbon battery industry between Indonesia and Australia, laying the foundation for future investments and collaborative efforts to meet the rising demand for clean energy technologies.

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