Jon Russell

I write @asiatechreview and I run @fullydrafted | Ex @cryptocom_cap @thekenweb @techcrunch @thenextweb

[Tom Wright @TomWrightAsia]

This morning, after Nadiem was sentenced to 10 years in jail, it’s clear that Google needs to take a strong official stand.

The Indonesian judges sullied Google’s name, claiming without evidence the U.S. giant engaged in bribery to win a Chromebook laptop contract.

In this fiction, Google invested in Nadiem’s company, GoJek. In return, Nadiem, who left GoJek to become Education Minister, ordered the purchase of Chromebooks.

Prosecutors failed to put any evidence forward to back this defamatory allegation. Yet Nadiem got 10 years. Why? Because he tried to reform a corrupt ministry and made a lot of enemies.

How can Google remain silent in the face of these baseless allegations. Just because a judge said it, doesn’t make it any less defamatory.

I would expect Sapna Chadha and other senior Google leaders in the region to show the backbone to speak up now. Nadiem was Google’s trusted partner for years. They invested in his company. Will they remain quiet just to protect their business in Indonesia. Where are they in his time of need?

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@sugandhanisa Pretty sure WhatsApp has long tried to push payments in India, so hiring someone like Kunal Shah who has a strong local profile, knows the licensing and regulator game etc is smart—fwiw I don't think India is the "only viable" market, but maybe lowest-hanging fruit viable

[Nikhil Pahwa @nixxin]

Wore a MediaNama tshirt to SuperAI and @jonrussell spotted me!

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@nixxin Great chat sir!

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@ehn @asiatechreview Discount codes lol

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@henloitsjoyce Minimax is so inferior, tried it after every big upgrade and meh

[Andreas Ehn @ehn]

@jonrussell writes more about this at @asiatechreview: https://t.co/XVB2SxT163

[Andrea Baronchelli @Andrea_Aspire]

Great catching up with Jon at @asiatechreview and diving deeper into our journey into the U.S., and our broader vision to bring together banking and ERP software into a single, global financial system.

Read the full article: https://t.co/swYgJkEmpY

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@ehn @asiatechreview appreciate the plug and apologies for your loss here (!)

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@LukeInTH @timbo_xyz No kyc etc lol - good luck if and when banks find out

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@AlexYTScaling @seanchk But is that not what it is? If you chose to have a Wise account in Thailand

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@0xJeff nice to bump into you guys!

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@marcowenjones I got banned from his substack group for asking if he uses AI. Before he kicked me out, though, he said he makes use of it the same way one would use consensus data or a Bloomberg terminal... go figure

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@DannyCrichton Wild times

[Danny Crichton @DannyCrichton]

No discussion of tech media can get past this basic traffic fact: in the AI world, Google and social no longer refer traffic, which means that the vast majority of readers just never find you in the first place. Analysis: https://t.co/zZW6PhxhZ2

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@mattmedved Pretty sure everyone has been doing this

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@LaingCallum Hahahaha

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

Y Combinator just banked ~$1 billion from two India-based IPO, its biggest Asia wins ever

But its Asia cohort numbers have collapsed

96 Asian startups in 2021
⬇️
1 Asian startup in 2025

The focus is now entirely AI and not local champions outside of US
https://t.co/j4U1QwFOAK

[Jon Russell @jonrussell]

@duncanwc @asiatechreview Thanks sir