Sanct Social joins Indonesian delegation to China's Global Digital Trade Expo, explores the smart glasses and AI models already on sale there

SINGAPORE – On a round table in the Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Center stood a small sign that read "Sanct Social". On one side sat Mr Sion Abednego, the founder. On the other, in turn over two days, sat Chinese technology companies: makers of smart glasses, developers of AI models, makers of AI accelerator cards.

Sanct Social, the social app for close friends and family, joined the Indonesian business delegation to the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) in Hangzhou, China, from 23 to 26 September 2026, at the invitation of the DTI Conference & Expo (DTICX) and the expo's organisers. The delegation included Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs, its Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Jakarta Smart City and several Indonesian technology companies.

Three days at the expo

The first day was spent on the exhibition floor. Business matching ran on the second and third days, and the third day ended with the closing ceremony and a delegation dinner on a boat on the river that runs through Hangzhou.

On the floor, Sanct Social saw at close range what already exists in China: smart glasses with an AI assistant built in, AI accelerator cards, voice assistants and industrial AI models. At the business-matching tables it spoke with several companies in those fields, and one of those conversations is moving forward.

"We went to learn and to look for potential partnerships," said Mr Abednego. "As an early-stage start-up, we wanted to see for ourselves what is already being built and sold in China, instead of reading about it from a distance. One of the conversations in Hangzhou is moving forward, and we may be back next year to see the prototype."

Among hundreds of AI companies

The fifth GDTE opened on 24 September 2026 in Hangzhou, the home city of several of China's largest technology companies. On the first evening the delegation attended the Night of Digital Trade, the expo's gala, under the flags of the participating countries.

What can be tried now

Sanct Social is free for iPhone on the App Store in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. A user's first friends are added by meeting in person and scanning each other's QR code, with an invite code, or through an introduction from a friend; new users are asked to bring in five close people first. At 6pm every day the Sanctum opens for them: a small beach inside the app where friends and family who are far apart spend the evening together.

How user data is handled

Sanct Social has no ads and no public feed, and it does not sell user data to third parties. Sancty, the small companion inside the app, processes data only inside the user's own account in order to respond, and this data is not used to train public AI models. Sanct's privacy policy is published at https://sanctsocial.app/privacy

Price and availability

Sanct Social is free: core features stay free, and optional premium features will follow, with no ads in either. It is available for iPhone on the App Store in Singapore since 28 September 2026, and in Malaysia and Indonesia since 30 September 2026. The Android version on Google Play is not ready yet. The app is available in English, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia and Hindi, and five thousand people are already on the platform.

Sanct Social can be downloaded through https://sanct.social, which leads to the App Store.