Ember
🔥 Briefing

Thursday, 30 April 2026

Daily briefing — 2026-04-30

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Briefing

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TL;DR

April closes today with a sharp split: top-line is healthy (Group Services billed MYR 14.71m last week, iAds revenue running 15 points ahead of pace), but profitability and execution are deteriorating underneath. iAds ROI% has dropped into the self-described "critical zone" at 20.4%, and Trip.com is now a compounding problem — JP traffic suspended on adult-traffic grounds, plus Hotel-wide upsize commission removal effective May. The most urgent decision today: who owns the iAds ROI gap before April books close, and who escalates the Finance collection issue Alysha has carried alone for 60+ days.

Top 7 todayranked, action-mandatory

BUP-1iAds

iAds Week 16 efficiency breaks

Net revenue +32.3% WoW to $47,754, but spend +49.2% compressed ROI% by 15pts to 17.95%; absolute ROI$ shrank 18.7%.

BUP-2Enterprise / Group Services

Trip.com commission erosion expands

HK/KR upsize removal now extended Hotel-wide and to International Flights, confirmed live for May.

BUP-3Enterprise

Trip.com JP suspended on adult-traffic escalation

Lindsay Maralit holds it solo; no reinstatement timeline, no named backup.

BUP-4Enterprise

TikTok Shop SG ClickID steps up 8x

Daily conversions jumped from 8 to 60 under Barbia Lim, driven by Ecomobi and Growone; PH now live, TH partial.

BUP-5Subscriptions

Swarovski upsize commission closed today

Subscriptions logged a Revenue Impact card to Done on 01 May.

BUP-6Cashiu

Cashiu web-1.0.2 shipped 29 April

Firdaus Nasir released the Publisher Account Base Figures setting; mobile 1.25.0 still Preparing past its 30 April target.

BUP-7Group Services

MySQL 5.7→8.4 upgrade completed

API Gateway migration also closed; AWS WAF shortener block for adult-traffic violations live.

Cross-cutting signals

XCS-1touches: Enterprise + iAds + Group Services

Trip.com is now a multi-BU exposure

Enterprise loses JP traffic and Hotel-wide upsize, iAds features Trip.com prominently in a Week 16 where ROI$ shrank, and Group Services confirms the new structure live for May. No one has the consolidated revenue impact.

XCS-2touches: Enterprise advertiser + Enterprise publisher

TikTok Shop advertiser-publisher dependency

Advertiser onboarding is accelerating (SG, PH, TH) while Fernando's publisher activation has stalled across two cycles. The two halves aren't being tracked against each other.

XCS-3touches: Cashiu + Group Services

Cashiu surfacing as a new internal requestor

Marketing, Engineering, and Data all received Cashiu requests within the same cycle around 29 April with no formal scoping. May indicate a relationship escalation that hasn't been onboarded.

By business unit

Involve Asia (Enterprise + Subscriptions + iAds)

Enterprise is firing on TikTok Shop expansion but bleeding on Trip.com — JP suspended, Hotel-wide commission erosion, and no quantified impact assessment yet. Subscriptions delivered 18 card completions including today's Swarovski close, but Alysha is a single point of failure on both the Trade Wizard retention (At Risk, due yesterday) and a Finance collection issue stalled 60+ days, and the USD 1,000 setup fee continues to slow sales conversion. iAds is the sharpest concern: revenue ahead of pace, ROI 24 points behind, Cookie Stuffing todo unassigned, and only Andrew Tay posting in 14 days.

CMV (CMV Affiliate + Cashiu)

CMV Affiliate is in a post-sprint idle — Airalo and Shopify fixes shipped, then 14+ days of zero throughput. KKday post mortem (16 months overdue) and CK's admin guide (17 months in Acceptance) are governance debt no one owns. Cashiu is the active half: web-1.0.2 live, mobile 1.25.0 slipping, May Special Referral Campaign locked to 4 May, but Multiple Offer Integration and Recommended Items have been Blocked for 5+ months and Osama's analytics tracking debt remains 17 months overdue.

Group Services

MYR 14.71m billed and MYR 13.00m collected for the 18–24 April week. Engineering shipped MySQL 8.4, three portal-api deploys, and the WAF block; Data resolved Traffic Stars, AdCash, and the Cashiu tracker. Beneath that, Wals is a BU-level single point of failure (IA Dashboard server 79 days overdue), Finance has four advertiser terminations sitting ~12 months past due, and CMV/VM e-invoicing is three months overdue. P&C survey and Chill & Connect feedback are trapped in image-embedded Basecamp posts.

Corporate Development

iPrice Deal integration has been silent since 12 March — nearly seven weeks. Sixteen open todos across FY 2024 KPIs, staff transfer, commercials, and tech KT show zero recent movement. Razzak Alkel is the sole assignee on all five tech KT items. The MDEC Employment Pass and FY 2024 KPI deck are 17–18 months overdue. No formal pause has been declared.

Watch

  • iAds communication blackout beyond Andrew Tay — single-threaded BU risk if it persists into May.
  • China Ops (Mandy Kang): 12 unassigned todos, six weeks without completions; Shopee seller commission expansion at risk.
  • CEP and Partner Mission appear dormant without a formal decision; Partner Mission "Finalise mechanism" overdue since Aug 2024.

New facts to rememberappended to the persistent fact base

  • Trip.com commission:HK/KR upsize removal extended Hotel-wide and to International Flights, effective May 2026
  • Trip.com JP:traffic suspended due to adult-traffic brand-safety escalation; sole owner Lindsay Maralit
  • Subscriptions setup fee:USD 1,000 advertiser onboarding fee is a recurring sales friction point
  • iAds critical-zone threshold:20.4% ROI% is the level Andrew Tay's own report classifies as critical
  • Cashiu web-1.0.2:shipped 29 April 2026, introducing the Publisher Account Base Figures setting

Cross-BU signals (extended)

Patterns spanning multiple business units