SINGAPORE, Feb. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Kantar has announced the appointment of Rika Sharma as Executive Managing Director for its Southeast Asia Cluster and Singapore business.
Rika is a seasoned digital and marketing leader with over two decades of experience across North America and APAC. Most recently, she led Sales and Strategy for Google Agency, Partners and Industry Bodies in APAC and has previously held senior leadership roles at Digitas, SEA & Singapore and Ogilvy APAC- driving integrated strategy, creativity and digital transformation.
Recognised as a thought leader and industry influencer, Rika has served on advisory boards and earned accolades including Campaign Asia 40 Under 40 and Asia's Woman Leader. She brings a strong track record in shaping strategy, driving commercial performance and building high-impact teams across complex, multi-market environments.
In her new role, Rika will strengthen alignment with Kantar's global vision and accelerate momentum across Southeast Asia, leveraging her strategic clarity, collaborative leadership style, and passion for talent development to deepen Kantar's regional impact.
Commenting on the appointment, Cheong Tai Leung, CEO, APAC, Kantar said, "Rika brings a rare combination of strategic depth, commercial acumen and people leadership to Kantar. As we accelerate our momentum across Southeast Asia, Rika's experience and perspective will be instrumental in strengthening our client partnerships and advancing Kantar's regional ambitions."
Rika Sharma added, "I'm delighted to be joining Kantar at such a pivotal moment for the business. Kantar's deep consumer understanding, trusted client partnerships and commitment to innovation strongly resonate with me. I look forward to working with our talented teams across Singapore and Southeast Asia to build on this strong foundation, help brands navigate an increasingly complex marketplace and unlock sustainable, meaningful growth across the region."
About Kantar:
Kantar is the world's leading AI-native marketing data and analytics business and an indispensable brand partner to the world's top companies. We combine the most meaningful attitudinal and behavioural data with deep expertise and advanced analytics to uncover how people think and act. We help clients understand what has happened and why and how to shape the marketing strategies that shape their future. www.kantar.com
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Rika Sharma appointed Executive Managing Director for Kantar Southeast Asia Cluster and Singapore
SHENZHEN, China, Feb. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As the demand for data to train Generative AI models surges, developers are facing a critical dilemma: how to manage aggressive AI scraping while protecting their original content and infrastructure costs. To address this, Tencent Cloud EdgeOne has officially released its Basic Bot Management capabilities to all users—including those on the Free Plan. This update introduces two core features: AI Crawler Control and the CAPTCHA Page.
Ending the Crawler "Whac-A-Mole" Game
Unlike traditional web crawlers, modern AI crawlers are stealthier, operate on a massive scale, and are increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate traffic. Developers often find themselves trapped in an endless game of "Whac-A-Mole"—blocking one crawler IP only to see dozens of new ones appear the next day under different guises. This results in unauthorized scraping of original content and wasted server bandwidth.
Tencent Cloud EdgeOne's new AI Crawler Control solves this by utilizing advanced User-Agent feature recognition. The system continuously updates its identification rules to pinpoint mainstream AI bots, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended.
Developers no longer need to write complex scripts to defend their sites. With a simple configuration in the EdgeOne console, users can apply diverse actions based on their specific business needs:
- Monitor: Observe crawler behavior without interference.
- Block: Instantly stop unauthorized data harvesting.
- Allow: Permit friendly bots to access your site.
- Challenge: Trigger a verification step for suspicious traffic.
This flexible strategy ensures developers can block malicious data harvesting while still embracing a friendly AI ecosystem when beneficial.
Intelligent Defense for High-Value Scenarios
In addition to crawler management, the update includes the CAPTCHA Page feature designed to mitigate automated attacks. This function intelligently identifies suspicious Bot behavior and triggers a human-machine verification CAPTCHA.
Crucially, this is done without degrading the experience for real users. It builds a robust security line for high-stakes scenarios—such as digital content rights protection, e-commerce flash sales, and financial transactions—ensuring that automated scripts cannot manipulate metrics or disrupt services.
From Passive Defense to Active Management
"With the rapid evolution of AI technology, the governance of content and data access is a long-term challenge," said Yun Li, Head of Tencent Cloud EdgeOne Product Team. "By making our Basic Bot Management capabilities free, we aim to help every developer shift from passive defense to active management, giving them full control over their digital assets."
The new features are available now in the EdgeOne console. Tencent Cloud EdgeOne is committed to continuously refining its Bot Management and security capabilities, helping developers establish clear boundaries between AI technology application and content rights protection.
About Tencent Cloud EdgeOne: EdgeOne is Tencent Cloud's integrated platform for edge security and acceleration.
Click the link to learn more about EdgeOne: https://edgeone.ai/?from=ai_crawler_control
About Tencent Cloud:
Tencent Cloud, one of the world's leading cloud companies, is committed to creating innovative solutions to resolve real-world issues and enabling digital transformation for smart industries. Through our extensive global infrastructure, Tencent Cloud provides businesses across the globe with stable and secure industry-leading cloud products and services, leveraging technological advancements such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT, and network security. It is our constant mission to meet the needs of industries across the board, including the fields of gaming, media and entertainment, finance, healthcare, property, retail, travel, and transportation.
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Tencent Cloud EdgeOne Launches Free AI Crawler Control: Empowering Developers to Reclaim Content Sovereignty
Tencent Cloud EdgeOne Launches Free AI Crawler Control: Empowering Developers to Reclaim Content Sovereignty
Tencent Cloud EdgeOne Launches Free AI Crawler Control: Empowering Developers to Reclaim Content Sovereignty
