Grab’s $40bn Nasdaq listing is a key test for Asian tech

A BIG CHANGE is under way in Asia’s technology industry. As investors avert their eyes from the government-imposed nightmare engulfing China’s internet champions, a cohort of South-East Asian counterparts is booming. Tot up the value ascribed by the market to just three listed and soon-to-be listed consumer-app giants with headquarters in Singapore and Jakarta, and the figure approaches a quarter of a trillion dollars. Add to that the $70bn-or-so combined worth of a whole field of new unicorns—privately-held startups worth $1bn or more—and South-East Asia is fulfilling hopes, long-held, that a big emerging-market consumer-tech sector would rise outside China.