I have one B2C “super chart”. It’s a bit ridiculous but stick with me. I think it is actually a good prediction of the future of B2C. The basic idea is that ecommerce is combining with entertainment. We see that in Taobao Live and TikTok already. And this is also being combined with social media […]
In Part 1, I argued that Amazon’s ecommerce business was getting stronger over time (in terms of competitive strength). It has an impressive series of competitive advantages. Amazon Has a Winning Long-Term Strategy. Amazon Prime and Netflix Don’t. (1 of 2) (US-Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Article) I also teed up the idea that Amazon’s […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses how Amazon’s moat in ecommerce is growing, while its moat in video is falling. He compares Amazon’s video business to Netflix and argues that Amazon will need to make some changes in order to maintain its leadership position.
I’ve discussed Amazon’s basic business model in an article and podcast. What Amazon Should Copy from Alibaba and Pinduoduo (Tech Strategy – Podcast 124) Why I Really Like Amazon’s Strategy, Despite the Crap Consumer Experience (US-Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Article) And I basically argued that I look for 3 things in this type of […]
For the past five years, I’ve been watching Alibaba pull farther and farther ahead of Amazon in its consumer offerings. Alibaba’s ecommerce products have integrated with entertainment, especially live-streaming (which is fantastic). Payment, credit and wealth management products were built upon Alipay. Ecommerce services, like food delivery and hotels, have been added with ele.me Social […]
Amazon can learn a lot from Alibaba and Pinduoduo in terms of how to improve its consumer experience. Alibaba has integrated its ecommerce products with entertainment, payment, credit, and wealth management products, while Pinduoduo has focused on social commerce and group buying. Amazon could benefit from adopting some of these strategies in order to stay ahead of the competition.
I break competitive advantages into those on the demand-side and those on the cost / supply-side. Plus government-granted advantages. It results in a list of 15 types. On the demand-side, everyone dreams of network effects. Especially for digital businesses. But these are actually quite rare. On the cost and supply-side, companies talk a lot about […]
In Part 1, I laid out some basic theory about marketplace platforms for services, which is a fascinating interesting subject. And it is much more complicated than marketplaces for products. Ecommerce for services just has a much longer development pathway. As ecommerce and marketplaces move into more complicated services, such as medical care, legal and […]
GoTo is a digital platform that combines the services of two of Indonesia’s largest tech companies: Gojek and Tokopedia. The company has a strong presence in the country’s e-commerce and ride-hailing markets, and it is growing rapidly. However, GoTo faces stiff competition from other tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent.
The recently merged Gojek and Tokopedia (i.e., GoTo) has gone public in Indonesia. And I finally got a look at their filings (thanks to a subscriber who sent me a translated copy). GoTo is basically what you would expect. It’s a marketplace platform for local services (i.e., Gojek) combined with a marketplace for products (i.e., […]