What is Alibaba’s Best Growth Strategy? (Tech Strategy – Podcast 50)

In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses Alibaba’s growth strategy and which of its 11 strategies is the most effective. He argues that Alibaba’s best growth strategy is to expand its digital economy user base and consumer wallet share. Towson believes that this strategy will allow Alibaba to continue to grow its market share and become the leading digital economy in the world.

Chinese Ecommerce Is Quietly Going Global (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Daily Lesson / Update)

China’s cross-border ecommerce business doesn’t get a lot of attention. It seems peripheral to China ecommerce. There are a lot of logistics, taxes and customs requirements. There are tons of regulations. And it’s just not sexy. But it is also non-political. It doesn’t have any of the national security concerns of telecommunication (i.e., Huawei and […]

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Alibaba Launches a Horizontal Attack on Education; Mutual Aid Finally Cracks Digital Health (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Daily Lesson / Update)

There was a fascinating announcement from Alibaba. From CX Tech: “E-Commerce Giant Taobao Steps Into China’s Online Education Market” “Taobao, an e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba, is seeking to penetrate China’s already crowded online tutoring market with a massive plan aimed at connecting more than 1,000 online education service providers with 100 million new students […]

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The Next Big Trends in Chinese E-Commerce (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Daily Lesson / Update)

There was an interesting report about China ecommerce trends released by Coresight Research, which specializes in retail meets tech consulting. It’s run by Deborah Weinswig, who I’ve crossed paths with a few times in the last couple of years. I find their research to be very data-driven and generally close to my own thinking. So […]

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How Ant Financial / Alipay is Building an AI Factory in Financial Services (pt 2 of 2)

In Part 1 (From Big, Dumb Bureaucracies to Zero-Human Operations (pt 1 of 2), I made the following argument: In the industrial age, enterprises were built on the advantages of scale. Companies went from workshops and small factories to big factories capable of mass production. Superior scale gave companies multiple advantages, including cost efficiencies and […]

How Can Meituan Compete with Alibaba? And Prepare for Next Gen Services Marketplaces? (Tech Strategy – Podcast 27)

In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how Meituan can compete with Alibaba in the Chinese services marketplace. He considers factors such as geographic expansion, focus on transportation or hospitality services, and ancillary opportunities such as financial services or cloud services. For example, Meituan could expand into new markets, such as Southeast Asia, or it could focus on its core strengths, such as food delivery and ride-hailing.