This week’s podcast is about Snowflake, the “data ecosystem” company. It is one of the most compelling digital business models out there. It is one …Read More »

My writing is mostly on business models and digital strategy. As these are can give you insight into value creation over the longer-term. It’s really …Read More »

In Part 1 and Part 2, I laid out a framework for Snowflake’s “data ecosystem” business model. I described it as +3 complementary platform business …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about core vs. adjacency growth. This is a good framework for thinking about growth in digital businesses’. You can listen to …Read More »

In Part 1, I laid out the basics for Snowflake, a “data ecosystem” or “data warehouse as a service” company. The company appears to have …Read More »

In late 2020, it was revealed that Berkshire Hathaway had an investment in newly public Snowflake, the “data warehouse as a service” company. That was …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about how digital impacts society, business, news and politics. And how centralized planning might be the best solution in a digital …Read More »

I’ve covered three topics that relate to digital valuation: DCF Discount rates and Cost of Capital Growth, ROIC / RONIC and value Plus I did …Read More »

I’ve covered three topics that relate to digital valuation: DCF Discount rates Growth, ROIC / RONIC and value However, I have made one big assumption …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about growth and how it relates to value and valuation. ROIC vs. RONIC is an important part of separating past and …Read More »

This is my third article on digital valuation. In Part 1, I talked about DCF – and where it works and where it doesn’t. In …Read More »

In podcast 101 (Why DCF Sucks for Digital Valuation), I went through how I use DCF for digital valuation. And I basically argued that much …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about how to apply DCF in valuations of digital companies. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts. …Read More »

I have been expanding from digital strategy to digital valuation as a topic. I recently summarized (briefly) how I do valuation long hand (i.e., pen …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Hillhouse Capital and how they are buying and digitizing Chinese and increasingly Asian companies. I talk about their deals with …Read More »

Chinese recruiting company Kanzhun has gone public on the Nasdaq. It runs a pretty interesting recruiting platform called Boss Zhipin. An Introduction to Boss Zhipin …Read More »

This week’s podcast is my second on Ram Charan’s new book “Rethinking Competition Advantage“. I think it has a lot of great insights about the …Read More »

I’ve been trying to get a handle on the growth and development of cloud in China. But the four companies that account for about 80% …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Ram Charan’s new book “Rethinking Competition Advantage“. I think it has a lot of great insights about the basics of …Read More »

Pinduoduo (PDD) has really stood out in digital – both for its ability to break into a market dominated by Alibaba and JD and for …Read More »

I first went through the financials of Bilibili in 2018, shortly after it went public. It was a very interesting company because of its rapidly …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about assessing specialty ecommerce companies (i.e,. the anteaters) vs. the ecommerce giants (i.e,. the lions). Which will survive? Which will thrive? …Read More »

Given the political shake-up in China tech, I’ve been shifting my focus to smaller companies that: Are not of a size that puts them on …Read More »

I have been re-assessing my focus in China tech. The tech giants are now, likely perpetually, on the government’s radar. That will likely create more …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about the recent political issues around China tech and Alibaba in particular. You can listen to this podcast here or at …Read More »

Grab, Gojek and especially Shopee are really getting international attention now. As I’m writing this, Sea Ltd is at +$125B market capitalization. SE Asia has …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Ctrip, Didi and their current situation as subscale services marketplaces in China. You can listen to this podcast here or …Read More »

I have mentioned a few times on the podcast that I use a one page sheet to do an initial estimate for valuation. I got …Read More »

Legendary emerging markets investor Mark Mobius recently commented that the China “crackdown” on big tech is likely going to help some smaller digital companies. Those …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about how to profit from political involvement in China tech. But really it is about how to think systematically about the …Read More »

In my latest podcast, I teed up the idea that the State is not just a source of risk or uncertainty in China. It can …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about how to profit from political involvement in China tech. But really it is about how to think systematically about the …Read More »

There are a lot of interesting ecommerce plays at the intersection of food and on-demand services. Meituan, GoJek, Grab and Dingdong to name a few. …Read More »

I did a podcast about how to assess the political risk of China tech. But really, I was talking about the Role of the State …Read More »

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 …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about political risk in China tech, but really it is about how to think systematically about the role of the State. …Read More »

There is a lot of political uncertainty around China tech stocks these days. But this is not anything new. China and other rapidly developing economies …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Warren Buffett and combining competitive advantage with compounding. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Here are …Read More »

I recently wrote about Shein and how they are increasing on rate of learning (plus low prices). That article is here. And I characterized their …Read More »

In Part 1 – and in Podcast 90 (Can Dingdong Win in Groceries and Specialty Ecommerce?), I teed up questions about how specialty ecommerce companies …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Dingdong, a specialty ecommerce player in China focused on fresh groceries. It has gone public while still operating profit negative …Read More »

Softbank-backed Dingdong and Tencent-backed Missfresh have both gone public, to minimal investor enthusiasm. Both companies were launched: To solve the difficulties of selling perishable and …Read More »

In Podcast 89 (Truck Alliance’s Fight for Complicated Network Effects), I laid out some of the basic information about the company – and why it …Read More »

In 2009, Brian Acton and Jan Koum founded WhatsApp to ride the wave of mobile apps kicked off by the launch of the iPhone. The original purpose …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Full Truck Alliance, a B2B marketplace platform for freight and cargo. There are a lot of lessons on the difficulties …Read More »

In the past weeks, I have sent you multiple emails with various types of competitive advantages. Such as switching costs, network effects, purchasing economies and …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Skillz and Electronic Arts. There are some interesting and evolving strategy aspects to gaming – especially as it goes to …Read More »

When you look for big competitive advantages on the cost side, it is usually about economies of scale – when a company with a larger …Read More »

The Didi financials are finally out. And they are an interesting mix of good and bad. Didi has market dominance and tech leadership in the …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Didi’s upcoming IPO. They have released their numbers and it shows market dominance but operating losses. This is my explanation …Read More »

Digital transformation and disruption are usually about attacking the cost structures of established business models. Software companies have long used digital economics to devastate traditional …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about separating networks (an asset) from platforms (a business model) from network effects (a phenomenon). And the three standard types of …Read More »

Network effects are the brass ring of the digital age. Companies and investors, especially venture capitalists, are actively reaching for them. And, like platform business …Read More »

I look for four types of competitive advantages on the revenue and demand side: Share of the Consumer Mind, Share of the Producer Mind and …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about “criticality” as a type of switching cost. And specifically about Wabco, one of Warren Buffett’s companies that has fairly powerful …Read More »

Strategy thinking has traditionally been focused on linear processes that create mostly tangible products and services. It’s a legacy of the industrial age when everything …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about how “traditionally great” logistics businesses like DHL and ecommerce giants like JD Logistics are both doing major digital upgrades in …Read More »

Competitive moats (i.e., structural advantages) tend to be viewed as one thing. But it is usually two. And it is helpful to view it this …Read More »

Take-Away 1: With reports of +1,000 new products being added to Shein every day, there is a lot of speculation that this is a newer, …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about the US-China DTC retailer Shein, which has rocketed upwards in the past months. Analysts are starting to pay close attention …Read More »

Take-Away 1: Chinese ecommerce company Shein is reaching Amazon-level downloads in the US. With similar numbers reported in other countries. And possibly 100% annual revenue …Read More »

Alibaba just released its 2021 financials, along with management commentary. I don’t usually cover earnings announcements but I thought it was worth doing a quick …Read More »

This podcast is Alibaba’s 2020 earnings and the strategy implications. But it is really about how Alibaba is positioned as a “product / service + …Read More »

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 …Read More »

Sea Limited is rocking and rolling. Jumping from gaming to ecommerce. Then to payment and financial services. And now to Mexico. There is a growing …Read More »

This podcast is about the super cool economics of Adobe Inc. And how they capture the economics of digital by also building strong competitive moats. …Read More »

Take-Away 1: Adobe Inc. is a good example of many of the strengths of traditional software economics. It has evolved and expanded over decades to …Read More »

On a 2018 earnings call, Elon Musk said he disagreed with one of Warren Buffett’s core investment principles — that companies should use strategic “moats” …Read More »

Competitive advantages can be build on the demand and the supply side. And advantages on the demand (i.e., revenue) side are usually about customer capture …Read More »

It’s easy to get lost in all the factors and phenomena emerging as digital and data technology transform industry after industry. As I have argued …Read More »

Take-Away 1: Hello bike-sharing is a marginally profitable, small services business. Its recent shift to ebikes (and subscriptions) is increasing its revenue and making it …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about online-merge-offline (OMO) platforms. A business model that is just emerging in China. I talk about Sun Art Retail and Beike …Read More »

One of the big digital China IPOs of 2020 was KE Holdings. Which does business under the brand names Lianjia and Beike. Lianjia, founded in …Read More »

In Part 1, I wrote about hypermarkets as business models. It is one of the few retail business models I kinda like. But it is …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about the current political risks around Alibaba. But also about the very important concept of Worst Case Scenario. You can listen …Read More »

A subscriber suggested I look at Sun Art Retail as a potential investment opportunity. And, wow, thanks for that. There is a lot of fascinating …Read More »

I recently wrote about Baidu as an example of learning platforms (one of my five platform types). Located here, I said: “My definition for learning …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about how to think tactics that generate short-term growth and results. And we see these coming out of China all the …Read More »

At the suggestion of a subscriber, I looked at Joy Spreader Interactive Technologies. It is a digital marketing company that rose on the back of …Read More »

In Part 1 and Part 2, I laid out Baidu’s core search engine and some of the complexities that have evolved in search over time. …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Baidu and its key strategic questions: Can it thrive as a stand-alone search engine? Against competitors such as Tencent and …Read More »

In Part 1, I laid out some basic theory for Baidu and search engines. I think it was a pretty solid picture for Baidu circa …Read More »

I like search engines. But they are very strange animals. They remind me of giraffes and ant eaters. Unique animals that you can’t really compare …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about my investment checklist. Which is really just 9 questions. Shown below. You can listen to this podcast here or at …Read More »

In November 2020, beauty unicorn Perfect Diary went public in the USA after 4 years of stunning growth. Founded in 2016, the company rose to …Read More »

Fiverr is an Israeli company, so not an Asia tech company per se. But it has a lot of freelancers in developing Asia. And it …Read More »

This week’s podcast is Fiverr and their classic approach to building a marketplace platform (for freelance services). I don’t go into it too much but …Read More »

I like the saying that winning in digital B2C is like catching lightning in a bottle. But winning in digital B2B is more like mining. …Read More »

Baidu-controlled iQiyi (IQ) is one of the big leaders in video in China. And video is the most popular online activity in China’s massive market. …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Huawei’s big operating system initiative. It’s the first serious challenge to Android’s global dominance. And how to break-in with a …Read More »

Huawei is “all in” on building a third mobile operating system and ecosystem. This is the first major challenge to the Android-Apple iOS duopoly in …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about JD Central in Thailand. I had an interesting visit and interviewed the CEO. And it raises a bigger point of …Read More »

In Part 1, I summarized my visit to a media event at JD Central (JDC) Thailand. And I teed up some of the difficulties for …Read More »

Last week, I attended a media event at JD Central in Bangkok. And I interviewed CEO Vincent Yang. This is JD’s joint venture with Central …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about JD Logistics. It’s an interesting case of a capability becoming a service business. And maybe a new type of ecosystem. …Read More »

In Part 1, I described JD Logistics (JDL) as being three things. A unique capability that parent JD can leverage in its retail and marketplace …Read More »

I have been thinking about JD’s logistics operations for like 4 years. I visited a couple of their warehouses. I toured their robotics laboratory. And …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about the Coupang of South Korea. An interesting case of local dominance (geographic) based initially on competitive advantages on the cost …Read More »

The latest big tech IPO out of Asia is Coupang, a likely $50B listing called the “Amazon of South Korea”. More on that annoying phrase …Read More »

Online insurance company ZhongAn was the first mover in “digital meets insurance” in China. A strategy Ant Financial would later refer to in its IPO …Read More »