In 2022, luxury e-commerce platform Secoo Holding Ltd filed for bankruptcy in Beijing. After 14 years of operations, this was a disappointing end to the largest luxury marketplace in the world’s largest luxury market. The company (founded by Li Rixue in 2008) grew out of a second-hand handbag shop. It went digital and found itself […]
I wrote about Alibaba’s 5 growth strategies under “Domestic Consumption”. But CEO Daniel Zhang has also outlined 5 growth strategies for Alibaba Cloud. And their cloud business is what everyone has been speculating about. It’s the most exciting growth opportunity but it also has the greatest uncertainty. I’ve argued Alibaba is 100% in the platform […]
I have one B2C “super chart”. It’s a bit ridiculous but stick with me. I think it is actually a good prediction of the future of B2C. The basic idea is that ecommerce is combining with entertainment. We see that in Taobao Live and TikTok already. And this is also being combined with social media […]
There is an interesting company in China called MyTherapist. It is a digital marketplace platform for services. But instead of connecting consumers with drivers and restaurants, it connects them with therapists and life coaches. That is a really interesting idea and highlights how marketplace platforms are really still in their infancy. Marketplace platforms began with […]
In this class, I talk about the difficulty of moving luxury into ecommerce. And how Chinese consumers will likely determine who finally cracks this problem. Secoo and Farfetch are two companies that are on this frontier right now. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Question: Will Farfetch or Secoo win […]
The big digital China / Asia news this week was the expansion of the US entity list ban to include TSMC. In theory, Huawei cannot get advanced semiconductors from American companies directly or by having them manufactured with American equipment at companies such as TSMC.It’s a big deal.This was the political bombshell everyone was waiting […]
In Part 1 (Why the #1 Business Solution to Coronavirus in China Is Live Streaming, Especially Taobao Live), I argued three big things are happening in digital China right now. Covid19 is radically altering the behavior of hundreds of millions of consumers (and businesses), resulting in what is being called the quarantine economy. Everyone is […]
Ctrip has forecast its revenues will drop 45-50% in first quarter. From KrAsia: Coronavirus spurs somber outlook for online travel companies Chinese major online travel agency Trip.com announced on its recently released Q4 earnings report that revenues would decrease by about 45% to 50% year-on-year (YoY) as a result of the coronavirus. Trip.com has already […]
Huawei released their 2019 financial results last week. And I had the opportunity to interview Karl Song, the VP of Corporate Communications, prior so I knew what was coming (but I got embargoed). You can see that interview here. And it was fascinating. Step back and consider what a truly crazy year Huawei had. Has […]
In this class, I talk about the basics of Didi and the importance of switching costs on the supplier side of the platform. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. This is part of Learning Goals: Level 3, with a focus on: #15 Basics of Didi and Switching Costs Pictures […]