Pinduoduo (PDD) has really stood out in digital – both for its ability to break into a market dominated by Alibaba and JD and for the stunning speed of its growth. Founded in 2015, PDD has grown to +800M users in six years. It grew to +$9B in revenue. Upon reaching a +$100B market cap, […]
Given the political shake-up in China tech, I’ve been shifting my focus to smaller companies that: Are not of a size that puts them on the radar for anti-trust regulation. Will benefit from government constraints on the giants. So I’ve recently written about NetEase, the #2 player in gaming in China. Is NetEase a Buying […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses 4 reasons why Didi and Ctrip should merge. He argues that a merger would create a more dominant player in the Chinese travel market, allow the companies to better compete with global rivals, and save money on costs. Towson believes that a merger is the best way for Didi and Ctrip to achieve their long-term goals.
In Podcast 89 (Truck Alliance’s Fight for Complicated Network Effects), I laid out some of the basic information about the company – and why it is a “next level” marketplace. If selling books was simple ecommerce and selling groceries was advanced, then Didi is simple mobility and Truck Alliance is advanced. It’s just a much […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the challenges of building network effects in complicated services, such as freight and cargo. He explores the different types of network effects, the factors that impact their growth, and the strategies that companies can use to succeed in these markets. For example, he discusses how companies can use on-demand pricing to match supply and demand, and how they can use route-specific network effects to balance supply and demand on each route.
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses why Didi Chuxing, the dominant ride-hailing company in China, is still unprofitable. He explores the factors that have contributed to its dominance, such as its scale and its network effects, and he discusses the challenges that it faces in becoming profitable. For example, he discusses how Didi has to invest heavily in research and development, and how it has to compete with other ride-hailing companies that are also losing money.
Take-Away 1: Hello bike-sharing is a marginally profitable, small services business. Its recent shift to ebikes (and subscriptions) is increasing its revenue and making it more defendable. But it is also changing the economics. Take-Away 2: Hello is trying to build a platform business model on its large user base. A marketplace for mobility (like […]
One of the big digital China IPOs of 2020 was KE Holdings. Which does business under the brand names Lianjia and Beike. Lianjia, founded in 2001, is one of the biggest residential real estate brokerages in China. In 2019, it had +6,000 locations across China and +120,000 real estate brokers. In 2019, they completed 2.2M […]
Fiverr is an Israeli company, so not an Asia tech company per se. But it has a lot of freelancers in developing Asia. And it has a particularly compelling marketplace strategy. So I thought it was worth covering. First, a bit of background. Fiverr is a typical marketplace platform for services. But for B2B, not […]
In this episode of the Tech Strategy podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the classic marketplace platform playbook, using Fiverr as an example. He explains how these platforms work, the competitive advantages they enjoy, such as network effects and economies of scale, and the challenges they face, such as competition from other platforms and the need to keep up with changing customer demands.