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.
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 […]
The Chinese services market is a hotly contested space, with Meituan, Ctrip, and Alibaba all vying for market share. In this episode of Jeff’s Asia Tech Class, Jeffrey Towson discusses the factors that will determine which company wins in this space. He talks about the importance of bundling services, network effects, and switching costs.
自访问美团总部以来我写了许多有关该公司的内容（参见第1部分、第2部分和第3部分）。如今，美团的整体情况非常引人关注。
这是我参观美团点评北京总部后所得感想的第3部分。第1部分详述了我主要的感想。第2部分阐述了我所认为的人们对美团的错误看法。 “城市服务”是今年的热门话题。我们也看到中国的数字巨头们都在这一领域有大动作。
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 […]