I recently met with Rodolfo Chung, CEO of rapidly rising Zé Delivery in Brazil. This is a beverage delivery service that was launched by AB InBev right before Covid – and then took off like a rocket during the lockdown. Basically, it’s a mobile app that lets you order any of 500 SKUs for beer, […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the return of Ant Group after 2 years in restructuring. He talks about Ant’s new international payment initiative, Alipay+, and how it could disrupt the global payments market. He also discusses the challenges that Ant faces in its new incarnation, such as regulatory scrutiny and competition from other tech giants.
A few years ago, I wrote about how Alibaba.com was launching an ambitious global platform strategy around B2B cross-border transactions. Alibaba.com was attempting to build a marketplace platform that digitized and democratized global trade. It was a sweeping vision. Basically, they were creating digital tools and connections that enabled SMEs to buy and sell products […]
A few years ago, I wrote about how Alibaba.com was launching an ambitious global strategy around B2B cross-border transactions and solutions. It was a sweeping vision. Basically, they were creating digital tools and services that enabled SMEs to buy and sell products and supplies like multi-nationals. It was super cool as an idea. And this […]
In Part 1, I went through the basics of Nubank, which is building a digital bank in Latin America. And you can make an analogy between the first digital bank and the first online travel sites. In both cases: A digital business model was taking on long-established physical business models. Digital economics enabled a far […]
A few months ago, I wrote about Stone Co, which is one of the new digital natives rising in Latin America. My thinking on Stone Co is that the company is mostly serving SMEs with a split focus on financial services and enterprise software and services. That is a bit confusing. And their operations reflect […]
Stone Company in Brazil is a really interesting contrast to Ant Financial in China. And to Square in the USA. All three companies are somewhat trying to do the same thing: To build out an alternative payment platform for SMEs. And then to add additional platforms and services on top of that. It’s a big […]
This week’s podcast is about separating networks (an asset) from platforms (a business model) from network effects (a phenomenon). And the three standard types of network effects. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. I put networks into 3 types: Physical Networks Protocol Networks People Networks I put network effects into 3 […]
This week’s podcast is on Ant Financial vs. Square. And has an introduction to the inside vs. outside view and base rates. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Key question: What will drive Square’s growth? Common metrics for base rates: Sales growth Gross profitability (gross profits […]
The market capitalization Square has exceed $100B, which makes it about 1/3 of what Ant Financial / Group was expected to list at (prior to delay). Both companies are using platform business models to invade and expand the payment and financial services space. Fortunately, Ant is further along this trajectory and offers some interesting insights […]