I had a good interview with Arthur du Passage and Edouard de Mezerac of Artefact, a data consulting and digital marketing company. And I thought they had a really good vantage point for how AI / ML is being used on the ground in China. I’ve summarized my 3 take-aways from our discussion. An Introduction […]
Use cases are a good way to approach the subject of AI. Just hunt industry by industry and see what companies are using AI for and not. It’s the best way to separate out the hype. And make sure you look at industries other than your own. I find scanning use cases across industries is […]
Online insurance company ZhongAn was the first mover in “digital meets insurance” in China. A strategy Ant Financial would later refer to in its IPO filing as “InsureTech”. And in both the ZhongAn and Ant cases, we saw: An awesome digital strategy and vision in a very big market. Limited traction after years of effort. […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how revenue scale and operating leverage differ for software and AI companies. He argues that software companies can achieve economies of scale more easily than AI companies, which can lead to higher profit margins. Towson also discusses the importance of data and talent for AI companies, and how these factors can affect their ability to scale.
I have listed 5 types of platform business models: Marketplace and transaction platforms (e.g., Taobao, Meituan, Lazada) Innovation and audience-builder platforms (e.g., YouTube, TikTok, Android) Collaboration / coordination and standardization platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, Adobe) Payment platforms (e.g., MasterCard, Alipay) Learning platforms Here are examples of the first two. But I have not really […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how Bytedance’s “attention factory” business model is a threat to Facebook. He argues that Bytedance’s ability to collect and analyze user data, combined with its focus on short-form content, gives it a significant competitive advantage. Towson believes that Facebook needs to adapt its business model to compete with Bytedance.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
This is a follow-up to my article on conversational AI with He Xiaodong at JD (article here, podcast here). I also spoke with Tao Mei, who is Vice President of Cloud & AI – and Technical support Vice President of JD. We talked about how AI was being used in fashion, which is a fascinating […]