SINGAPORE, Sept. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — AI is rewriting the growth playbook for global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands. At a closed-door “AI x DTC” event hosted by Eclicktech in Singapore, leaders from Plaud.ai, Manus.im, and Twillio.com, joined by guests from Google and Shopify, convened to discuss this new AI-driven landscape.
With 2025 hailed as the “Year of Agentic AI,” Manus.im co-founder and CPO Tao Zhang shared his perspective. He believes vertical agents hold great value and future potential, but argued that their development must focus on two key issues: how to understand domain-specific data and the usage habits of existing industry tools.
Fresh off its Plaud Note Pro launch, Plaud.ai shared a practical innovation. Evan Xu, its head of user growth and monetization, explained how users can get an upfront AI experience on the Plaud’s DTC site. He thanked Eclicktech for providing crucial technical optimization and stated that the two companies will deepen their partnership in refined localization and programmatic SEO.
Riven Gao, Head of DTC at Eclicktech, noted a key strategic shift in global e-commerce. He explained that in sharp contrast to the shelf-based sales model used by platform giants like Temu and Shein, a new wave of DTC brands such as Plaud, Fufusquishy, and Custype are increasingly leveraging social networks and reviews from KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) to drive viral, user-led growth. As a case in point, he cited a stress-relief toy merchant served by Eclicktech that scaled its YouTube subscribers from approximately 300,000 to 9 million in just over a year.
At the event, Eclicktech introduced its Singapore-based Intelick SG AI-GTM Solution team and announced its upcoming launch of self-developed SEO AI Agent, SEOpage.ai, calling it a “true AI SEO employee.” Subsequently, the company launched its new DTC and AIO solution, featuring a holistic “build-and-optimize” strategy to help brands shift from a passive response model to a proactive, data-driven, and predictive growth model which will help increase DTC brands sales performance.
