I was mulling over investing in Expedia during the beginning of the pandemic. It made sense that travel would take a hit for a couple of years. And then it would likely come back. Plus, digital marketplaces are good at scaling up and down. But I didn’t buy as I feel more comfortable with Asia […]
Airbnb is heading for its IPO. Their numbers are public and it’s pretty much what we expected. Airbnb is a simple marketplace platform that is growing and close to operating profitability (pre-Covid). And lots of people are having fun doing valuations this week. If you’re curious, here is NYU valuation professor Aswath Damodaran’s valuation. His […]
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 […]
In this class, I talk about the crazy collision of Ctrip, Meituan and Alibaba in services in China, particularly in hotels. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. How do Ctrip and Meituan compare in the following aspects? Bundling of services The Assets of a Marketplace Platform: Users, Activity and Data […]
Since visiting Meituan headquarters, I’ve written a quite a lot about the company (see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). And Meituan’s world is kind of fascinating right now. They have gone public. Awesome. Congratulations. A well-funded war has been launched against them by Ele.me (i.e., Alibaba) in food delivery. Ouch. Meituan and several […]
Greetings from Peking University, I am back in Beijing after China’s big holiday week. I generally try to avoid the tourist craziness that happens every year at this time. In terms of digital China, the giants just keep accelerating and surprising everyone. Lots of interesting things happening in mobility (Didi) and new retail (JD) right […]
This is Part 3 on my visit to the Meituan-Dianping headquarters in Beijing. Part 1 was my main take-aways. Part 2 was what I think people are getting wrong about Meituan. “Local services” has been a hot topic this year. And we have seen big local services moves by many of China’s digital giants. Tencent-backed […]
