This week the eBay Policy Lab team presented on the topic “Global Trade Flows in the Digital Age: The New Spice Routes” at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. The presentation focused on the fact that innovations in digital commerce and payments have broken down barriers to entry and opened global markets for small businesses across Asia. These small businesses have been dubbed the new “micro-multinationals.”

Sassoon Grigorian of the Policy Lab team spoke on research undertaken by eBay Inc. and the industry, while explaining new trade flows, how supply chains are changing, the importance of the free flow of cross border data, and policies required to further enable growth in this area. Furthermore, Sassoon showed how small businesses across Asia are exploiting this opportunity to export to ever growing markets, and opportunities in other parts of Asia, outlining how current technology platforms with current uses, can evolve and change for future opportunities for small businesses in this digital trade.