Ant Financial is a Chinese financial technology company that provides a variety of financial services, including payments, lending, and insurance. Ant has revolutionized finance in China by providing convenient, affordable, and accessible financial services to millions of people. Ant is facing challenges from regulatory scrutiny and competition from other tech giants, but it is well-positioned to continue to grow and disrupt the financial services industry.
Category Archives: SMILE Marathon: Machine Learning, AI Factories and Zero-Human Operations
Ant Financial’s Big Money is in Asset-Light Credit Tech (Winning Tech Strategy – Daily Article)
Ant Financial (now Ant Group) filed for IPO and there are tons of cool insights in their filing document. I’ve already written about the overall strategy, which is basically 3 platform business models combined. Ant Financial Is 3 Platform Business Models Combined. (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Daily Lesson / Update) In that article, I […]
Ant Financial Is 3 Platform Business Models Combined. (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update)
The IPO filing I have been waiting two years for finally arrived. Alipay / Ant Financial (now called Ant Group) has filed. And their +600 page prospectus is just a fantastic read. But it’s a lot. I have 40 pages of notes. So I thought I would begin with some of the key points. This […]
Huawei, Luckin and the SMILE Marathon (Tech Strategy – Podcast 34)
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how Huawei and Luckin Coffee are using digital technology to create a sustainable competitive advantage. He argues that these companies are winning the “SMILE Marathon” by competing on scale, scope, efficiency, and effectiveness. Towson provides examples of how Huawei and Luckin Coffee are using digital technology to improve their operations, and he discusses the implications for businesses of all sizes.
How Big Will Ant Financial / Alipay Become? (Tech Strategy – Podcast 28)
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how big Ant Financial, the financial arm of Alibaba, could become. He considers factors such as its current size, its growth rate, and its plans for expansion. For example, Ant Financial is already the world’s largest mobile payments company, and it is growing at a rapid pace.
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 […]
From Big, Dumb Bureaucracies to Zero-Human Operations: The Holy Grail of the Digital Age (pt 1 of 2)
There was a good paper recently published by Martin Reeves and Raj Varadajaran of the Boston Consulting Group. The paper (When Resilience Is More Important Than Efficiency) touched on a lot of issues related to digital competition – but there was one chart that I thought really hit at the center of a lot of […]