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My 2019 in AsiaOne: You're welcome for that viral KFC rice-cooker story

My 2019 in AsiaOne: You're welcome for that viral KFC rice-cooker story

I’ve only been in the company for less than a year, but one of the first and best things that I remembered about the first week in the office was getting a free ticket to watch Avengers: Endgame on the morning of the premiere. Praise our masters mm2 Entertainment.

Eight months ain’t much, but I did what I could as the newfangled lead for AsiaOne’s technology, videos games and digital culture section. Though we've evolved, I did have some fun poking about to figure out our audience, even if Tan Kin Lian wasn’t too happy about it. What? He did put up all his personal information for everyone to exploit. 

Aside from controversy, reviewing some of the best tech gear that came out this year was just as exciting, from the Pixel 4 to the AirPods Pro to the Jabra Elite 85h (which we recently gave away for free!).

Major props would have to go to Sony for putting out two of 2019’s outstanding gadgets: the unsurpassable WF-1000XM3 wireless earbuds and the pocket rocket that is the RX 100 VII

And yeah, I’d like to think that we did some good too. We exposed secret Telegram channel that was spreading pictures of young school girls. We spoke to a female director at Riot Games to see how things have changed since the company’s sexist past. We took a look at how a Singaporean is bringing back the lost art of building arcade cabinets

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/B5ohPtsHSrD/[/embed]

But you know how it goes in the current digital media landscape — it’s the inane, silly stories (that don’t even take an hour to write) that get mad traffic.

There’s the time when PM Lee got initiated into Dota 2. There’s the time when a super buff Singapore Armed Forces recruit strong-armed the internet’s attention. There’s the time when a Grabfood deliveryman executed a sick e-scooter swerve into our hearts. There’s the time when we reported about a Japanese culinary technique that involved KFC original recipe chicken and a rice cooker

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/edward.bugia/posts/10156616804122385[/embed]

Oh, and you’re welcome for all the clicks and views, media publications that jumped on that story without even a hat tip. 

It was scary how my KFC rice-cooker story exploded across Asia though. Yeah, maybe next year I should just ditch the tech beat and start a new category in AsiaOne dedicated to fried chicken. 

ilyas@asiaone.com

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