One of the biggest beneficiaries of the growing digital economy in Southeast Asia is the gaming industry. Sea – formerly Garena – became the first Southeast Asian tech company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017. Sea is a gaming company but has also ventured into e-commerce and e-payments recently.A trend that has also been fuelling the games market in the region is the rise of eSports. eSports is essentially a competition using video games.

Will a rose by any other name smell just as sweet? This may be the key question China's Baofeng Nova Co Ltd is attempting to answer when it created its blockchain-based game, known simply as 'The Rose', which is set to launch worldwide by the end of Valentine’s Day. Blockchain is defined as a digitised, decentralised public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions, according to financial education website, Investopedia.