This week’s podcast is about Elon Musk’s attempted purchase of Twitter. But it is really about how the control and curation of information flows how become a key issue in the digital age. The lack of effective curation at scale has become a major problem in society. Elon Musk may be the person to finally […]
Category Archives: WeChat

What I Don’t Like About Alibaba (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Update)
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 […]

Pay Attention to the Potential Value of WeChat Mini Programs. (Tech Strategy – Podcast 66)
This week’s podcast is about some of the bigger strategic initiatives at WeChat. Specifically mini programs, search, mini games and WeChat Work. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Related podcasts and articles are: WeChat, TikTok and Capturing the Consumer Mind in a Digital Age (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – […]

4 Take-Aways from WeChat Open Class 2021. Plus My 6 Levels of Digital Competition. (Tech Strategy – Daily Article)
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 […]

WeChat, TikTok and Capturing the Consumer Mind in a Digital Age (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Podcast 36)
In this class, I talk about the share of the consumer mind as a revenue competitive advantage. And how companies like WeChat and TikTok are changing this with digital tools. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Related podcasts and articles: Why Didi Needs Driver Switching Costs. Uber Too. (Jeff’s […]

Facebook Is the Wild Card of Asia Ecommerce (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Daily Lesson / Update)
In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg released a memo on “privacy-focused messaging and social networking” – and charted a new direction for Facebook. The memo had some really big implications. It looks like the first move in a strategy to turn Facebook into a much larger and more powerful company. And it mostly seems like a copy […]

The Next Big Trends in Chinese E-Commerce (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Daily Lesson / Update)
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 […]

Why Asia and Meituan Are Better At Food Delivery, Tencent’s Awesome Financials (Daily Lesson – Jeff’s Asia Tech Class)
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. […]

WeChat and TikTok’s Starkly Different Visions for Digital Information Flows (pt 2 of 2)
I recently went to the WeChat Open Talk meeting and founder Allen Zhang raised some questions that have really stuck with me. He talked about about the increasingly important role of information flows in daily life and who controls this. His talk is here but my basic take-away is the below question. How do you […]

How WeChat, TikTok and Chinese Consumers Are Disrupting and Personalizing Luxury
In my online Asia Tech Class, I talk a lot about digital superpowers, which are digital tools that upend established business. And one of these superpowers a dramatically improved user experience, such that the traditional offering is now unacceptable to users. And this sort of dramatically improved user experience is what is happening in luxury […]