TOKYO -- In late January, a long post on online publishing platform medium.com created a buzz. It was written by an ex-Google engineer, Steve Yegge, who just left the global technology giant after nearly 13 years to begin working at Grab, a Singapore-based operator of a ride-hailing app in Southeast Asia.

Company in focus
Ride-hailing app Grab gears up for payment dominance
Singaporean company aims to become the first big-data king in Southeast Asia