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 time. In particular, I talk about how Pop Mart used blind boxes. How Joy Spreader and Ruhnn Holding used influencer marketing. And how everyone is using community group buying. You […]
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. I have three strategy questions for Baidu going forward: How competitive will a stand-alone search engine be against China’s larger digital giants over time? Can Baidu create a second large […]
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 ByteDance. What is its best growth opportunity? I think cloud. Did it need to go into content? How far? Can it compete in the attention market? Search plus feed. You […]
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 2010. But strange things have been happening since then. Baidu has moved into entertainment, services (for a while), content creation and self-driving cars. I’m not sure if these were […]
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 to anything else. But their competitive strength is really impressive. For example: Google Search is dominant globally, with +85% of the market. Bing and Yahoo are 2nd and 3rd globally, […]
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 iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. My competitive strength and defensibility pyramid: My handwritten checklists for various companies. Charlie Munger’s Speech on the Psychology of Human Misjudgment. Located here. […]
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 I thought it was a good example of a common playbook for venture capital-backed early stage companies. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Andreesen Horowitz […]
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 new ecosystem is a fascinating question. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Types of platforms: Marketplace Platforms Payment Platforms Innovation and Audience-Builder Platforms Coordination, Collaboration and […]
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 almost a decade. And as iOS is a closed system, it is really about Huawei taking on globally dominant, open source Android. It’s a big deal. I recently spoke with […]
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 whether China’s ecommerce giants can or will go international? You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. The McKinsey & Co article I mentioned is here. Related […]