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 »

This week’s podcast is about revenue scale and operating leverage in traditional companies vs. software vs. AI. And these things can be really different. Especially …Read More »

Last week, I wrote about how mindless behavior, chemistry and habits can be demand-side competitive advantages, which I put under the catch-all title of “share …Read More »

I’ve written a lot about Ant Financial (and its delayed IPO) because I think it is a cool example of a zero-human operation. It’s an …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about Roblox and the question of whether this media type will really take off. And I argue this is an interesting …Read More »

I have talked a lot about competitive advantages on the demand side (sometimes called revenue advantages). These are structural advantages that enable premium pricing, repeat …Read More »

Kuaishou Technology is going public in Hong Kong. From the IPO filing, the basic story is that Kuaishou does short videos and live streaming. It’s …Read More »

This week’s podcast is about network effects. And I argue they are actually three effects at the same time. Plus some stuff about So-Young’s marketplace …Read More »

I’ve been teaching a private equity class at CEIBS in Shanghai for like 5 years. I call it private equity but it’s really about how …Read More »

In the last week of the Trump administration, Xiaomi was placed on the US Department of Defense blacklist for alleged ties to the Chinese military. …Read More »

  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 …Read More »

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 …Read More »

Shopee / Garena / Sea Limited (SE) was one of the biggest investment opportunities of 2020. With the share price rising 4x during the year. …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is my third on the well-known 7 Powers framework by Hamilton Helmer. I go through the last 4 of his 7 …Read More »

Korean Naver corporation is a confusing digital company. It’s great and it’s messed up. That makes it an interesting target for investing. There is the …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is more on the well-known 7 Powers framework by Hamilton Helmer. I go through three of his 7 powers. You can …Read More »

It’s hard to write and speak about Asia tech without talking about SoftBank and its billionaire Chairman Masayoshi Son. He has been a major player …Read More »

I have listed 5 types of platform business models: Marketplace and transaction platforms (e.g., Taobao, Meituan, Lazada) Innovation and audience-builder platforms (e.g., YouTube, TikTok, Android) …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is on the well-known Five Forces framework by Michael Porter. I go through some of its limitations and where I think …Read More »

I’ve been thinking a lot about mapping companies. On one hand, they are typical “information goods” companies, most of which have had their economics turned …Read More »

Singapore-based Sea Limited, which runs Garena, Shopee and AirPay, is one of the biggest tech investment stories of 2020. In the first quarter of 2020, …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is on the well-known 7 Powers framework by Hamilton Helmer. I go through some of its limitations and where I think …Read More »

Ruhnn Holding is a Chinese company that not many people follow. Based in Hangzhou, tied with Alibaba and vaguely described as a talent agency and/or …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is on Ant Financial vs. Square. And has an introduction to the inside vs. outside view and base rates. You can …Read More »

The market capitalization Square has exceed $100B, which makes it about 1/3 of what Ant Financial / Group was expected to list at (prior to …Read More »

Taiwan-based HTC is fighting for its survival. Since 2015, the company has experienced a massive drop in its revenues. Falling from $4.3B (2015) to $355M …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is on Airbnb and what I think people are getting wrong about its business model and future in Asia. Which has …Read More »

In my previous article on Farfetch, I asked the question of whether Alibaba or another Chinese company might buy the company – and at what …Read More »

Luxury marketplace platform Farfetch has had a long courtship with JD, Alibaba and Chinese consumers. In the next update, I’ll go into my thoughts on …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is on Airbnb and what I think people are getting wrong about its business model and future in Asia. Which has …Read More »

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 …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is on innovation, which often is discussed in fuzzy terms. I present some of the better language used to discuss this …Read More »

Long-term investors search for high quality companies they can buy and hold. They ignore the near-term swings in stock prices and, instead, try to capture …Read More »

  This week’s podcast is more about the fuzzy idea of ecosystems, which I call the new collaboration-based business business models. We have clear frameworks …Read More »

  Correction: I had Michael Jacobides’ name incorrect throughout this episode. My apologies. Podcasting while sick may not have been my best idea.   This …Read More »

Hey. Here are the draft summaries of all the content. One slide for concepts. One slide for companies. The goal is to show how it …Read More »

  This podcast is more about the strange but important economics of digital. And on how digital economics can impact well-established competitive advantages like economies …Read More »

  These are my predictions for the biggest trends in digital China / Asia for 2020-2030. They are all underway already. And most of them …Read More »

  This podcast is more about the strange but important economics of digital. And on pricing, in particular. It is becoming increasingly complicated with bundling, …Read More »

  Matthew Brennan has published: Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China’s ByteDance It’s a great read, with lots of interesting ideas about how …Read More »

In this class, I have used the terms digital and data technology interchangeably. And I have described them as things made of bits and bytes. …Read More »

So Ant Group is getting ready to IPO and their filing has lots of interesting details about ownership and control. And the take-away is: Jack …Read More »

   At Alibaba’s Investor Day, CEO Daniel Zhang outlined 11 growth stratgies. Five were under Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun). These are the early days of cloud …Read More »

This is Part 2 of two articles on Alibaba Investors Day. In Part 1 (Dissecting Alibaba’s 11 Growth Strategies), I wrote about their 5 growth …Read More »

  At Alibaba’s Investor Day, CEO Daniel Zhang outlined 11 growth stratgies. Five were under Domestic Consumption. The question for this class is which is …Read More »

So Alibaba Investor Day was this week. Actually it was three days. And there were lots of presentations and publications. But people generally want to …Read More »

  This is Part 3 in a three part series about Ant Group / Ant Financial. In this part, I talk about how sustained innovation …Read More »

In Podcast 41, I talked about 3 ways network effects suck. They do have some major problems. And these are not discussed as much as …Read More »

  This is Part 2 in a three part series about Alibaba and Ant Group. The focus was on Alibaba’s ability to continually adapt to …Read More »

This is Part 1 in a three part series about Ant Group. And my basic argument is Ant is well positioned to disrupt and potentially …Read More »

Last week, I wrote about Epic Games and the potentially large disruption coming from gaming engines. That article is below. How Epic Games and Game …Read More »

  This is Part 2 about Pinduoduo and the idea of interactive / engagement-driven ecommerce. In Part 1, I discussed a recent whitepaper with its …Read More »

Ant Financial (now Ant Group) has filed for IPO and there are tons of cool insights in their filing document. I’ve already written about the …Read More »

The IPO filing I have been waiting two years for finally arrived. Alipay / Ant Financial (now called Ant Group) has filed. And their +600 …Read More »

  This is Part 1 about Pinduoduo and the idea of interactive / engagement-driven ecommerce. Our guests for this podcast were Matthew Brennan and Elliott …Read More »

The following link is to a 6 Part Primer for Epic Games by Michael Ball. Michael is a highly regarded thinker on US media and …Read More »

  This is part 2 about Xiaomi, Meitu and 7 reasons why platforms / ecosystems succeed or fail. Part 1 is here. You can listen …Read More »

There was a good article this week in Insead Knowledge by Jason Davis and Vikas Aggarwal. What I liked about it was the below question …Read More »

  In this class, I talk about why platforms fail and do an introduction to ecosystems vs. platforms. You can listen here or at iTunes, …Read More »

There was a great article by the Boston Consulting Group. Some really well-thought out points. Here are some excerpts. I have added the bold and …Read More »

In this class, I talk Tencent’s recent purchase of Sogou. And go through more digital and information economics. You can listen here or at iTunes, …Read More »

In this class, I talk about network effects. And some of their strengths and weaknesses. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and …Read More »

  In this class, I talk how to fairly basic platform business models (Shopee, Lazada) compete. As the capabiltiies and strategies are similar this is …Read More »

There have been numerous press reports about Shopee surpassing Lazada in parts of Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam. But these are mostly using monthly active users, …Read More »

You have completed Level 6. And you are now at Level 7. All concepts are in the Content Library, where you can see my overall …Read More »

  In this class, I talk about the role of the state as a key factor in certain industries and countries. This tends to be …Read More »

In this class, I talk about the difficulty of moving luxury into ecommerce. And how Chinese consumers will likely determine who finally cracks this problem. …Read More »

China’s cross-border ecommerce business doesn’t get a lot of attention. It seems peripheral to China ecommerce. There are a lot of logistics, taxes and customs …Read More »

You have completed Level 5. For Level 6, there are 5 learning goals. All concepts are in the Content Library, where you can see my …Read More »

You have completed Level 4. Congratulations. And welcome to Level 5. For Level 5, there are 5 learning goals.   All concepts are in the …Read More »

There was a fascinating announcement from Alibaba. From CX Tech: “E-Commerce Giant Taobao Steps Into China’s Online Education Market” “Taobao, an e-commerce platform owned by …Read More »

  In this class, we go through 6 digital superpowers, which is a simple high-level checklist for when digital tools can significantly change the competitive …Read More »

  In this class, I talk about the share of the consumer mind as a revenue competitive advantage. And how companies like WeChat and TikTok …Read More »

In this class, I go into the how digital native education companies like LAIX are challenging traditional companies like New Oriental. You can listen here …Read More »