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.
There was an interesting report about China ecommerce trends released by Coresight Research, which specializes in retail meets tech consulting. It’s run by Deborah Weinswig, who I’ve crossed paths with a few times in the last couple of years. I find their research to be very data-driven and generally close to my own thinking. So […]
Didi and Uber are two of the largest ride-hailing platforms in the world. However, they are facing increasing competition from other companies. In order to maintain their market share, these companies need to make it difficult for drivers to switch to other platforms. One way to do this is to create high driver switching costs.
Jeffrey Towson discusses what Ofo could have done to avoid its downfall. He argues that Ofo made a number of strategic mistakes, including burning through too much cash, expanding too quickly, and failing to innovate. Towson believes that if Ofo had taken a more conservative approach, it might still be in business today.
Jeffrey Towson argues that Chinese startups like Luckin Coffee, Mobike, Didi Chuxing, and WeWork are facing increasing challenges. He says that these companies are facing more competition, regulatory scrutiny, and rising costs. As a result, it is unclear if these companies will be able to achieve profitability in the long run.
Digital China has arrived. It has unicorns, huge market opportunities and a pervasive cultural impact. Everything is now at world-class scale. Unfortunately, the distorting impact of hot money and hype has also scaled up. And this appears to be increasing. But first…consider joining my executive education course Jeff’s Asia Tech Class for deeper insights into […]
From one of my standard talks in 2018 (since retired). This is about bike-sharing, mobility and super-apps. Video below and Youtube link is here. Part 1: What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? Part 2: Give Consumers Exactly What They Want Part 3: In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP Part 4: In Digital China, Get […]
In Part 1 (here), I laid out how Alibaba has evolved in China. It was for a retail marketplace, but you can see a similar pattern in many of China’s digital giants. The next phase in this evolution is “new retail”, and it is changing this pattern in a big way (coming in Part 3). […]
最近我参观了滴滴-99公司位于圣保罗的总部。在第1部分里，我讨论了司机需求和服务在巴西和中国有何不同之处。以下是两者之间存在的一些其他差异。
中国的数字巨头在某种程度上正在走向国际舞台。