Partner Up Singapore 2026: Asia’s First Dedicated Partner Marketing Event

Our inaugural Partner Up Singapore brought brands, publishers and partners together  for a day built around one simple idea: partnerships are growing across Asia and the opportunities are endless . If you couldn’t make it, here’s your recap of the biggest themes, sessions and takeaways. 

Real Connection in the Room 

There aren’t many events in Asia where brands, publishers and partners get to sit down in the same room and actually talk, not pitch. Today, they did. Dedicated on-site meetings ran throughout the day, giving attendees the space to build real relationships rather than swap business cards between sessions. The afternoon rolled into a drinks reception that ran well past its scheduled close, as conversations kept going long after the last session wrapped.  

A New Era of Partnership Marketing 

The content opened with executive remarks from Stuart McLennan, SVP Strategic Markets, who framed the conversation around three forces reshaping the industry right now: partner programs in Asia are expanding into unique partnerships, creators, and new formats, AI is changing how brands are discovered, and expertise matters more than ever as complexity increases. On the creator side, the SEA influencer market alone is growing with commercial models shifting from flat-fee brand briefs toward hybrid structures that reward creators for the sales and revenue they actually drive. 

On AI, Stuart shared research showing that fewer than 10% of AI search responses currently cite a brand’s own site as a source, while more than 40% of responses already contain affiliate links or sponsored content, and over half of consumers have made a purchase after researching with AI. That combination signals real opportunity for publishers and affiliates positioned to be the trusted source AI models draw on, supported by tools like Similarweb for AI visibility reporting. 

Stuart also introduced Mirai, Rakuten Advertising’s own AI model built natively  from almost 30 years of partnership and affiliate data. Mirai is already helping teams build complex offers using natural language, with a roadmap toward becoming a full agentic co-worker that monitors program performance and surfaces optimisation opportunities in real time. 

Market Dynamics, Smarter Strategy: A Partner Playbook for APAC

One of the day’s biggest reveals was brand new research from a study Rakuten Advertising ran with our sister company Rakuten Insight, surveying more than 3,600 consumers across 12 Asian markets and the US. Cheryl Ng, Country Director Singapore at Rakuten Insight, and JieYi Teo, Senior Manager Client Services, walked the room through the findings for four focus markets, moderated by Leo Wang, VP Commercial Asia. The headline numbers set the tone: 49.6% of consumers across the region are cutting back on fashion and beauty spend versus just 12% spending more, 56.7% of online purchases now flow through marketplaces rather than brand-owned channels, and price and authenticity, not necessarily loyalty points or influencers, are the top drivers of a first purchase. 

• Singapore: the region’s most sceptical shopper, swayed by proof over promotion, cashback over influencer posts 

• South Korea: runs on urgency, with flash sales and marketplace presence outperforming celebrity endorsement 

• China: the one market where quality beats price, with trust earned in sequence: authenticity first, expert validation second, promotion last 

• India: the region’s growth outlier, the only market where consumers are spending more, and the most open to new formats 

The distilled playbook: “prove it in Singapore, time it in Korea, earn it in China, scale it in India”. 

Beyond Borders: Winning at Partner Marketing in Asia

The main stage closed with a panel moderated by Jenny Chiang, Senior Manager Publisher Partnerships, featuring Jarrod Kris (Head of Commercial, Skyscanner), Hazel Then (Regional Head of Commercial, ShopBack) and Joe Min Lee (Regional Partnership Manager, Atome). The conversation covered how quickly consumer behaviour is shifting across APAC, how brands should balance upper-funnel awareness partners against lower-funnel conversion partners, and where partners are seeing untapped audience opportunity. Looking ahead, panellists pointed to AI reshaping discovery and search, payments evolving into a growth lever rather than just a checkout function, and an increasingly savvy consumer who will reward brands that get the full journey right, not just the best cashback rate. 

A First for the Region, and Not the Last

Thank you to our speakers, Stuart McLennan, Cheryl Ng, JieYi Teo, Leo Wang, Jenny Chiang, and panellists Jarrod Kris, Hazel Then and Joe Min Lee, for the insight they brought to the stage. Thank you to everyone who flew in to make this first Partner Up Singapore what it was. 

If you’d like to attend a future Rakuten Advertising event or want to learn more about working with us, contact us here.