There is a lot to like about Alibaba (from a strategy and competition perspective). Massive, almost unprecedented, competitive strength. It’s a complementary platform and a digital-physical hybrid. That puts it at the top of my competitive strength pyramid. It is riding the mother of all secular trends – the rising wealth of Chinese families. And […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses the potential value of WeChat Mini Programs, which are small, standalone applications that run within WeChat. He argues that Mini Programs could revolutionize the way people use WeChat, and could make the platform even more powerful for businesses and consumers.
This week was the annual WeChat Open Class conference in Guangzhou. And one of the perks of being an influencer-type is I get invited to most of these. I find them to be really helpful for getting a good read on what management is focused on. On what they think the strategic imperatives are. On […]
Tencent’s acquisition of Sogou is a major deal that will have a significant impact on the Chinese search market. This deal is a sign of Tencent’s continued dominance in the Chinese tech industry, and it is a reminder of the importance of digital and information economics in the digital age.
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how companies like WeChat and TikTok are changing the way businesses compete for consumers’ attention in the digital age. He argues that the share of the consumer mind is becoming a more important competitive advantage than ever before. Towson provides examples of how WeChat and TikTok are using digital tools to capture the consumer mind, and he discusses the implications for businesses of all sizes.
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 […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses whether Shopee, backed by Tencent, can beat Lazada, backed by Alibaba, in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market. He considers factors such as market share, investment, and strategy. For example, Shopee has a larger market share in Indonesia, while Lazada has a larger market share in Thailand.
Most of this course has been about strategy. Well, the intersection of strategy and digital. Basically, Michael Porter meets Jack Ma.But an important part of the executive tool kit is M&A. If you’re going to run a company or be a senior manager, you have to know how to buy other companies. You have to […]
Two topics for Today’s Update / Lesson. Tencent Quarterly Results Are Awesome, Yet Again It’s almost boring how these digital giants keep putting up fantastic numbers. Numbers that any other business would dream of. Most businesses are long, hard slogs where you struggle and struggle. Margins are usually small. And growth is difficult and expensive. […]
I like audience builders as platform. They have interesting complexities and variations. They are more interesting than marketplaces and payment platforms. Plus, audience builder platforms are combining with e-commerce quite nicely. Spotify, TikTok, and China Literature are all audience builders I like. But they are really different, even though they all basically connect content creators […]