In Borneo, digital ambition meets stark reality. While Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and parts of Kalimantan boast rich natural resources and vibrant communities, their tech economies still grapple with structural gaps in talent, regulation, connectivity and investment. To build a thriving “Digital Borneo,” these challenges must be addressed systemically—not just in pockets, but across the whole ecosystem.
First, talent remains the toughest nut to crack. Though local individuals are capable and ambitious, few stay long enough to build deep expertise. Over the years, many of the region’s brightest minds have left for Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Jakarta in search of better training, exposure, and career growth. This brain drain is not unique to Borneo: across Southeast Asia, a shortage of competent ICT professionals is projected to affect multiple economies. According to a report by the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, ASEAN may need nearly 9 million additional digital professionals by 2030. In Borneo, this magnifies challenges in niche verticals like AdTech, MarTech or emerging AI, where local educational pathways remain underdeveloped.
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Second, regulation often lags innovation. While countries within Borneo may have digital laws on paper, harmonisation across borders is rare—the legal regimes in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Indonesian Kalimantan can differ widely. Rules around data privacy, digital advertising, cross-border trade and licensing sometimes conflict, creating friction for companies that want to scale across the island. Regional efforts under the ASEAN Digital Community framework hold promise, but local adaptation and consultation will be critical.
Third, connectivity is a persistent bottleneck. Many parts of Borneo still lack robust broadband infrastructure. Sabah, for instance, has historically lagged in fixed broadband penetration, with remote native communities facing severe limitations in access. In East Malaysia, fibre rollout in remote areas is only now being addressed with projects such as ZTE’s Point-of-Presence expansion in Sarawak, aimed at closing the digital divide in underserved communities. In the Indonesian part of Borneo, infrastructure challenges are even more formidable, with limited connectivity in deep jungle and mountainous regions. Without reliable internet, many companies can’t reliably run cloud services, real-time analytics, or even basic programmatic advertising in those areas.
Fourth, investment tends to concentrate in capital cities, leaving “frontier” markets underserved. Building data centres, laying fibre, and delivering last-mile solutions are capital-intensive and often entail long payback periods. Private capital is cautious in funding these ventures unless there is clear evidence of scale and risk mitigation.
Addressing these gaps demands a multi-pronged response. On talent, companies and governments must co-invest in training programmes, internships, and knowledge exchange, building bridges between academia and industry. In regulation, private sector voices should contribute actively to legislative development to ensure laws reflect the realities of digital infrastructure and services. For connectivity, partnerships between state-owned enterprises, telecoms, and infrastructure firms are critical—such as the fibre initiatives already underway in Sarawak. For investment, demonstration projects that prove digital viability can attract more capital into the region.
The path forward is as ambitious as it is complex. But Borneo is not a blank slate—it is a region with deep cultural richness, a growing youth population, and increasing awareness of digital potential. With smart policy, anchored investment, and committed local leadership, Borneo can leapfrog legacy constraints and emerge as a model for inclusive digital development in Southeast Asia.
To learn more about Borneo’s up-and-coming digital infrastructure and development, we speak to Rabbani Mubarak Founder of Optimas and one of the pioneers of Martech in the state. He is speaking at Re:Source Conference 2025.
What are the biggest structural gaps you see in Borneo today—connectivity, talent, regulation, investment? How are you tackling them?
It’s funny, when people ask about the ‘biggest gaps’ in Brunei and the wider Borneo region, my first thought is always, ‘Well, where do you even start?’ It’s not just one thing, is it? It’s more like a cascade of interconnected challenges.
From my viewpoint, especially operating in and out of Brunei, I’d wholeheartedly agree that talent and regulation are definitely at the top of my list, almost neck and neck for the number one spot.
Let’s talk about talent first. We have incredible potential here, but the structured pathways for developing highly specialised skills in areas like advanced AdTech or MarTech, or even just deep digital marketing expertise, not to mention emerging areas like Agentic A.I., which are still evolving.
It’s not that Bruneian or Borneo people aren’t bright; we do have many talents, but they are not based in Brunei, Sarawak or Sabah. An example for the Kalimantan region, part of Indonesia, is still lacking a general existence system and needs another 20 to 30 years to develop. And it is that the exposure and continuous learning opportunities, particularly in rapidly changing fields, aren’t as extensive as they need to be. So, we often see a brain drain where some of our best and brightest go abroad to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia, for these opportunities, and sometimes the talent just doesn’t return. Brunei is known to have a small population, but there have been diaspora communities that have shown and thrived globally outside of Brunei.
So, how are we at Optimas tackling this? Our vision is simple, but not so simple at the same time; it is to truly grow ‘Digital Borneo’ through a multi-pronged approach. What does it mean that we need to invest heavily in resources with internal training and upskilling programmes? We need to hire for current skills; we try to hire for aptitude and a hunger to learn, then we build those skills in a market that has a unique set of nuances. We actively have to try and collaborate with local educational institutions when it is possible, offering internships or apprenticeships and giving guest lectures to bridge the gap between academia and industry needs. It’s slow work, but essential.
Then there’s regulation. This is a tricky one because it’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, you want a stable, predictable environment for businesses to thrive. On the other hand, overly rigid or outdated regulations, and trust me, Brunei has its challenges to innovation that can be stifled, especially in fast-moving digital sectors. Things like data privacy laws, ease of doing business across different state borders within Borneo, and even digital advertising standards can vary, creating layers and layers of complexities. It’s not just about having less regulation, but smarter, more harmonised regulation between all three countries to understand Borneo’s regulations that understand the nuances of the digital economy.
To also note, countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, their counterparts that have many states, have to understand the nuances of the Borneo Region.
From our side, we try to be proactive. We engage with relevant government bodies and industry associations to share our perspectives and contribute to policy discussions. We also ensure our internal compliance frameworks are robust, anticipating future regulatory shifts. It’s about being adaptable and advocating for a framework that supports growth rather than hindering it.
Now, you rightly bring up connectivity, and I think this is where the unique geography of Borneo really comes into play. With dynamic biodiversity and landscape in the region, that’s stunning, but it’s also a massive infrastructure challenge! High-speed, reliable internet access isn’t just a convenience anymore; it’s the foundational layer for everything digital – education, commerce, healthcare, and yes, AdTech and MarTech. Without robust connectivity, all our efforts in talent development and even streamlined regulation hit a wall. Imagine trying to run complex programmatic ad campaigns for the national broadcaster and looking to leverage cloud-based AI tools with inconsistent internet – it’s a non-starter for true scalability.
This brings us to investment. Ultimately, bridging these gaps, especially in connectivity, demands significant capital. We’re talking about laying fibre optics across vast, challenging terrains, building more data centres, and enhancing last-mile solutions. This isn’t just public sector responsibility; it requires substantial private investment too, and often, attractive incentives to draw that investment into Borneo.
From an Optimas perspective, while we aren’t infrastructure investors, we contribute by proving and probing the economic viability of a thriving digital sector despite these challenges. By showing strong growth and performance, we help create a compelling narrative for investors to see the potential in Borneo’s digital economy. We also advocate, even with the challenges we discussed, for ‘smart city’ concepts and digital hubs that can act as catalysts for concentrated investment and development.
So, to sum it up, it really is ‘everything,’ but for me, talent and smart regulation are key enablers that, once addressed, can create the magnetic pull for the necessary investment for then tackle connectivity. This is a fascinating, complex puzzle, but one I’m incredibly optimistic about solving, piece by piece.”
You work with both AdTech and MarTech. In Southeast Asia’s fragmented markets, how do you reconcile global tools with local customisation? What trade-offs have you made in Borneo?
Between global ambition and local reality, especially in AdTech and MarTech! It’s a question that keeps me on my toes every single day, and everyone in this digital media and content space, especially in a region as diverse and fragmented as Southeast Asia.
It is absolutely right that the global tools offer incredible power, scale, and often, cutting-edge innovation for the Borneo region, because of the sophistication of adtech tools like Google Ads or Meta platform, or the advanced analytics of a global CDP.
They are built for massive audiences and complex functionalities that are connected, but then you bring them into a market like Borneo, or even specific pockets within Brunei, Sarawak, or Sabah, and suddenly, those global efficiencies hit some very local, very tangible friction points.
Our core challenge is reconciling that ‘global best practice’ with ‘local applicability.’ It is not about rejecting global tools but more about strategic, intelligent adaptation.
While we often find that frameworks of global tools are invaluable, the execution often demands significant local customisation for our region. This can mean anything from needing to understand very specific local dialect nuances for ad copy, to respecting cultural sensitivities in campaign visuals, or even aligning with unique local regulations towards the demands of shopping behaviours and payment preferences that a global tool might not inherently be able to optimise in Brunei or East Malaysia.
As for the trade-offs we’ve made in Borneo, well, honestly, this is still very much a work in progress. As a person who focuses on Brunei and wants to go regionally around Borneo, we are in a continuous state of learning and adapting, navigating these waters day by day.
One of the most significant trade-offs, which circles back to our previous discussion, is directly tied to the lack of robust infrastructure. Global AdTech and MarTech platforms thrive on high-speed connectivity, reliable data centres, and a dense digital ecosystem. In many parts of Borneo, where internet speeds can be inconsistent or even non-existent in remote areas, or where digital literacy is still developing, the full potential of these sophisticated global tools simply can’t be unleashed.
What does that mean in practice? It means I generally and most of the time have to remind myself to;
- Lower our expectations and stop direct comparisons
- Simplify and adapt campaigns
- Focus on foundational digital literacy
- Invest in ‘hybrid’ solutions for each local states in the Borneo region.
- Manage client expectations
This is not a great strategy to work and grow with the available resources, first locally. This means leveraging local talent, local content creators, local media partners, and local data points as much as possible. We try to come up with innovative ways to integrate these local components with global tools, creating bespoke solutions that truly resonate.
However, if all local avenues are exhausted or prove insufficient, then we look outside the market for specific expertise or advanced technological components that can be adapted and integrated through partnership. Partnering with a specialised tech vendor from a more developed market to bring in a specific solution, or even temporarily bringing in talent with very niche skills. It’s about finding the right balance and being pragmatic.
Despite these trade-offs and the ongoing challenges, I see immense potential for growth. Borneo is a nascent market, and that’s precisely where the opportunity lies. We have the unique advantage of learning from other ASEAN markets that are more developed in AdTech and MarTech.
We’re constantly looking at case studies from our neighbours like Singapore, Malaysia and even emerging ASEAN markets like Vietnam or the Philippines. What strategies worked there? The pitfalls we encounter always bring us back to overcoming the infrastructure limitations. We can ‘leapfrog’ some stages by directly looking into the available resources in Borneo, then applying lessons learned, rather than having to reinvent the wheel. For instance, the rise of mobile-first strategies in other developing markets is incredibly relevant here. We know we need to prioritise mobile experiences from day one because that’s often the primary, if not only, way people access the internet.
So, while the journey is far from over and the trade-offs are real, it’s an incredibly exciting space to be in. We’re not just implementing solutions; we’re actively shaping the digital landscape of Borneo, guided by global best practices but grounded in very local realities.”
Many brands focus on big cities (Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok). How do you scale digital growth in more remote or underrepresented markets?
That’s the million-dollar question! Brands follow the largest audience, which is why big cities get all the love. But at Optimas, we see the true frontier and the untapped growth in these remote or underrepresented markets like Borneo. It’s where the market is built, not just served, and that is exciting!
In terms of scaling digital growth, in these areas is simple, but not so simple conversation I constantly have because we have to build our own ecosystem, one asset at a time.
This is about moving from market serving to market building. What this means is that we don’t wait for massive, ready-made digital audiences; we find existing, high-potential local media owners’ assets and turn them into scalable revenue streams by pioneering digital monetisation.
There is data proving the market’s potential, with data storytelling that showcases smaller brands, with well-defined audiences, such as in Brunei or an outlying region, can deliver measurable ROI—like the 70% increase in sold digital ad inventory for a national broadcaster in the first year, to attract new and international brands to invest in these local digital channels.
Lastly, building the digital infrastructure, proving the market viability with data, and aggregating the fragmented assets, this hopefully and effectively manufactures a scale where that didn’t exist before, with a doc on “Digital Borneo” Unity.
We are not competing; we are creating the competition. This is about being the architect of the future digital media landscape in regions often overlooked, and that, for us, is the most exciting growth story in ASEAN right now.”
Data is central to performance marketing. What challenges do you face building data infrastructure in regions with low digital maturity? How do you ensure privacy, quality, and reliability?
Errr… this is going to hit the nail right on the head for me with the question about data.
Cause to me, everyone is talking about data being ‘central’ to performance marketing, and it absolutely is, but what they don’t always get is how hard it can be to even get the data, let alone make sense of it, when you’re in a place like Borneo. The digital maturity is still nonexistent, due to the regulatory environment and also how the Borneo region is very siloed in the Martech ecosystem. We cannot just plug into some perfectly manicured data garden in a big city.
In Brunei, for the most part, we have to build the garden ourselves, and most of the time from scratch!
Honestly, the biggest headache, the real monster under the bed, is that data here is still super fragmented, totally siloed. Think about it as a person might use a local e-commerce site, but that data does not talk to their engagement on a local news app, the interaction with a government digital service.
It’s all frustrating as these little islands of information are completely disconnected. There aren’t these massive, integrated data lakes like you’d find in Singapore, because we do not have the big infrastructure and investment, such as Google Data Centre in Singapore. Plus, a lot of local businesses are running on older systems that were built to share data seamlessly. And it is going to cost a lot to build for connectivity. So, trying to get that ‘360-degree view’ of a customer? Forget about it, it’s like trying to connect dots that are miles apart!
But here’s where it gets exciting, and this is where the Optimas can really shine: I don’t see these as roadblocks; I can see them as an invitation to be incredibly clever and ethical. And the timing, here as I share, it is perfect because connectivity is getting better by the day. Those data silos, we can hopefully start to connect with media owners, publishers, advertisers and brands
The Borneo moment is to build something truly sophisticated. That I trust the connecting dots one step at a time. We need resources locally but also regionally to be ready for the future to maximise the Borneo digital footprints, reliability for scale. That means we have to keep learning and keep it smart to nail the basics and share the insights by educating the talent and the ASEAN market about Borneo.
As AI and automation become baseline expectations in SEA’s startup ecosystem, how do you see AdTech and MarTech evolving over the next 3 to 5 years? What new capabilities will define winners?
Oh man, this is a question I think about constantly, you know?
Like, where is this whole AdTech and MarTech thing really going in the next 3 to 5 years, especially with AI and automation just exploding everywhere in SEA’s startup scene? It’s not just a fancy buzzword anymore; it’s fundamentally changing how we do business. And honestly, it’s not about ‘what can AI do?’ anymore, but ‘what should it do, and how smart can we make it?’ It’s a total paradigm shift.
Now, here’s the really wild and exciting part about all this: This whole AI revolution, this massive shift, it’s actually resetting the playing field for everyone in the digital media space. Think about it: it’s not just smaller regions like ours that are feeling the pressure; even huge organisations from the likes of Google to Meta, established agencies, and the ‘Big 4’ globally, they’re all frantically trying to ‘cook up’ their AI strategies, scrambling to adapt their massive operations.
It’s almost a good thing to be honest, because it means the old ways of doing media buying and planning, content creation, manual campaign management, all those routine tasks that used to make account owners feel like they might be kind of obsolete, yet they are being redefined for the industry. Everyone is saying AI isn’t making people obsolete, to an extent, but what AI is doing is forcing all of us to elevate our game, our focus on the truly human stuff like the high-level strategy, the deep creativity, the unique insights that only a human can bring to optimise a campaign’s ROI.
So yeah, the old rulebook is definitely out the window for all agencies, media owners, the publishers and brands.. We’re all basically starting from a new baseline. And that ‘reset’ is a phenomenal opportunity for us in Borneo. We should start to build smart, build new, and leverage what resources we already have, and this is incredible to our local insights, strong community ties, and a fast-growing digital appetite we are trying to build.
And to be totally transparent at Optimas, I do not claim to be ‘fully expert’ in all these bleeding-edge AI domains yet either.
We’re actively learning as we go, just like everyone else. We’re staying agile, running experiments, having endless conversations, looking at different tech demos, seeing what truly excites clients, and most importantly, where we can add the most value. But through all that exploration, our compass, our unwavering focus, always points back to Digital Borneo. That’s where we believe the greatest impact and opportunity for collective growth truly lies.
Instead of playing catch-up, this new paradigm allows me to hop around so that I can learn from the missteps and successes of others, directly and hopefully integrate cutting-edge AI and automation without being held back by legacy systems, and most importantly, we can build together with our regulators. Borneo, as a wider region, will definitely need to actively tap into each other’s resources locally but across ASEAN with a sense of sharing the talent, collaborating on sensible regulatory frameworks, to co-investing in connectivity both from the government and the private sectors in exchanging best practices to collectively build a digital footprint that benefits the whole ASEAN region.
In the end, when we talk about who defines the ‘winners’ in the next 3-5 years? While the potential is there for everyone to win and grow, it also crucially hinges on the brands and advertisers themselves. They need to proactively understand the fundamentals of AI, see past the buzzwords, and truly grasp how these new capabilities can meet their specific ROI and campaign goals that will run their ad campaigns.
I pray for a joint effort to bring innovation and to be part of building a platform, but we need to come to the table ready to leverage each other’s resources and not forget to do it intelligently. Because ultimately, digital marketing is not just an art; it’s a science, and AI is simply giving us even more powerful scientific tools to create masterpieces.
It’s going to be a wild ride in the next 3-5 years or shorter. But I genuinely believe ASEAN, led by regions like Borneo, should start to embrace this reset, to emerge stronger and more connected than ever for ASEAN.
What success stories from Borneo or East Malaysia are you most proud of? What lessons from those can be scaled across Southeast Asia’s emerging digital markets?
It is a grind sometimes to everything, but it’s an incredibly rewarding one for me in the past 5 years.
Optimas is not just introducing the tech in adtech and martech; we’re helping to lay the digital foundations and knit together a smarter, more connected Borneo. I hope.
The fact that the pieces are still starting to connect, thanks, means we hope to be building a truly sophisticated AdTech and MarTech ecosystem that this Borneo region truly deserves. It’s a huge undertaking, but the potential is just so massive, and that’s what makes me jump out of bed every morning!
Because it’s where all the hard work and passion really come to life! You know, it’s easy to look at the challenges we’ve discussed, such as the talent gaps, the infrastructure, the siloed data and think it is an uphill battle.
And trust me, it is a grind almost every single day. That is what I signed up for in a way, and that is precisely why any successes, even the seemingly small ones, are so incredibly rewarding for me and for Optimas.
I’m truly most proud of the work we’ve done in places like Brunei with the national broadcaster. When we first started, their digital ad inventory was largely unmonetized – a huge untapped resource. There wasn’t really a systematic way to manage or sell digital ads for their online properties. It was like they had this amazing digital real estate, but no ‘for sale’ sign and no real estate agent.
Our success there wasn’t just about ‘introducing tech’; it was about helping to lay the fundamental digital foundations and knitting together a smarter, more connected ecosystem. We didn’t just plug in a global solution; we acted as intrapreneurs, working hand-in-hand with their teams. We helped them establish internal teams, implemented the right tools like Google Ad Manager, and built the processes to actually start monetising their digital assets effectively.
The results? Within the first year, they saw a 70% increase in sold digital ad inventory. That’s not just a number; it’s a testament to proving that these markets have immense potential if you build the right infrastructure and strategy. We also helped them diversify their revenue by pioneering a Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) network, transforming physical screens into dynamic, measurable ad spaces. That creates entirely new digital revenue streams where none existed before.
Here are the lessons from those that can be scaled across Southeast Asia’s emerging digital markets?
There are a few core takeaways from these experiences that I believe are absolutely critical for any emerging digital market across Southeast Asia.
You have to have the ‘Intrapreneurial’ mindset. You can’t just be an external vendor; you have to embed yourself, understand the local nuances, and act like a co-founder with your clients. This isn’t about pushing products; it’s about building solutions and fostering digital literacy from within. That approach works whether you’re in Borneo or an untapped region in Vietnam.
Focus on foundational digital monetisation first. Don’t try to leap straight to hyper-complex AI campaigns if the basic building blocks aren’t there. We need to identify existing, unmonetized digital assets and help clients generate revenue from them first.. That immediate ROI builds confidence, funds further digital transformation, and creates a more robust digital supply for advertisers. Every emerging market has untapped local digital ‘gold.’
Use connectivity and aggregation for opportunity. We constantly talk about how the pieces are still just starting to connect here in Borneo. But improving connectivity is still a bedrock. The vision for a truly sophisticated AdTech and MarTech ecosystem in this region is where six MarTech stacks are all talking to each other and rely on it. Then, where the aggregating lies with the local digital media assets across different states or countries in a dream world, which can be an ethical, data-driven way, you create a powerful, unified platform that becomes incredibly attractive to national and international advertisers to help unlock scalability.
Understand that data proves potential and drives trust. In these markets, you have to prove that digital investment works. Our success stories are built on showing clear, measurable ROI. And trusted data not only convinces more advertisers to come on board, but it also helps build a culture of trust around digital marketing, extending from Borneo to our neighbouring ASEAN countries.
Honestly, it’s a huge undertaking. I want to recommend everyone to this journey of building an AdTech and MarTech ecosystem that the Borneo region truly deserves. But the potential is just so massive, so it can be tangible. That’s what makes me jump out of bed every morning! Knowing that we’re not just selling ads, but actually helping to lay the digital foundations for an entire region to form a borderless digital ecosystem. That’s something truly special, and it’s a playbook that I believe can transform countless other emerging markets across Southeast Asia.”
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