What’s Next for Alibaba: My 10 Questions (Part 2 of 2)

In Part 1, I laid out four of the questions I am struggling with about Alibaba. Here are the rest. Any answers you might have would be much appreciated. Question 5: How much are manufacturers and CPG companies going engage directly with consumers in China? One of the strangest things about Singles’ Day is that […]

What’s Next for Alibaba: My 10 Questions (Pt 1 of 2)

I’ve been thinking a lot about Alibaba since Singles’ Day. Which was awesome by the way. My take-aways from that are here and here. I have a list of questions about Alibaba. I think they’re important but I don’t really have good answers for them (yet). So I thought I would throw them out to […]

Jeffrey Towson – What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? (Video)

From one of my standard talks on digital China. Given in Singapore in 2018. Video is below and Youtube link is here. Part 1: What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? Part 2: Give Consumers Exactly What They Want Part 3: In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP Part 4: In Digital China, Get Ready for […]

中国数字巨头的四项超能力(2/3)

在之前的文章中,我阐述了阿里巴巴在中国的发展历程。虽然这是零售市场的案例,但其实在许多中国的数字巨头身上也可以看到类似的模式。 这种演变到了下一阶段就成了“新零售”,而它又为这种模式带来了巨大的改变。但首先,我想就数字化中国和企业正在培养的数字化超能力发表几点看法。

从7个方面看阿里巴巴及其他中国超级平台的崛起(1/3)

阿里巴巴的发展实在让人感到困惑。 阿里巴巴的规模越来越大,业务也越来越多元化。在其他国家,还真没有像阿里巴巴这样的公司。比如,国外大多数的电子商务网站都还没有电影工作室和足球俱乐部。

My 6 Take-Aways from CES 2019

So I’m waiting for a flight out of Las Vegas. Along with the +170,000 other people who attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year. It’s crazy. The CEO of Delta Airlines said they added an additional +30 daily flights to Las Vegas for the event. Crazy. I was here for five days and attended […]

The 4 Superpowers Of China’s Digital Giants (Pt 2 of 3)

In Part 1 (here), I laid out how Alibaba has evolved in China. It was for a retail marketplace, but you can see a similar pattern in many of China’s digital giants. The next phase in this evolution is “new retail”, and it is changing this pattern in a big way (coming in Part 3). […]

At Home And Abroad, Chinese Companies Can Beat You Fair And Square

*The following is an excerpt from our new One Hour China Contrarian Book (which is available here.). “Jonathan Woetzel (McKinsey & Co, Peking University) and I have written three speed-read China books together. In this latest one, we have put together a collection of our essays that basically make four main contrarian points. These are: […]