Baidu, China’s leading search engine, is a “learning platform” that becomes smarter with increased user activity. Founded by Robin Li in 2000, it was designed to cater to search users, webpages, and advertisers. Baidu, like other learning platforms, can serve both human and digital agents, enhancing their service based on the overall and individual user activity.
Years ago, I started mapping out the evolution of Alibaba with pictures. I was having a hard time keeping all the moving parts in mind. And I was becoming more and more convinced that digital company development is path dependent. What comes next depends on what just happened. Microsoft is only capable of its current […]
I keep an eye on the larger moves by Alibaba. Not the constant stream of announcements and endless initiatives but the larger strategic moves that I think will change the trajectory of the company. This usually means talking with management when I can and following the investor days. A couple of years ago, Maggie Wu […]
I recently met with Rodolfo Chung, CEO of rapidly rising Zé Delivery in Brazil. This is a beverage delivery service that was launched by AB InBev right before Covid – and then took off like a rocket during the lockdown. Basically, it’s a mobile app that lets you order any of 500 SKUs for beer, […]
I have been giving you lots of frameworks and concepts. And after a while, it can all get kind of confusing. Is this new software critical for my business? Is this new business model going to seriously impact our industry? Is this like Amazon completely disrupting retail? Is this more like Mobike, which was nice […]
I wrote about Alibaba’s 5 growth strategies under “Domestic Consumption”. But CEO Daniel Zhang has also outlined 5 growth strategies for Alibaba Cloud. And their cloud business is what everyone has been speculating about. It’s the most exciting growth opportunity but it also has the greatest uncertainty. I’ve argued Alibaba is 100% in the platform […]
Expedia’s experience in China is a cautionary tale for any foreign company entering the market. The company made a number of mistakes, including failing to adapt to Chinese culture and underestimating the competition. However, there are also some lessons to be learned from Morgan Stanley, which has been successful in China.
Uber China’s exit from the market has lessons for Tesla and Silicon Valley.
The company failed to overcome Didi Chuxing’s first-mover advantage, adapt to China’s mobile ecosystem, and navigate government regulation.
Learn from Uber China’s mistakes and avoid making the same ones in your own business.
I often get asked how JD competes with Alibaba (in ecommerce). Who is going to win? My answer is below. But first a little theory on the sources of competitive strength. My Checklist for Competitive Advantages I put competitive advantages in five buckets, with a total of 15 sub-types. That’s my checklist. But keep in […]
I’ve been thinking about Luckin Coffee, which was a big story a few years ago in China. It was a digital upstart taking on giant Starbucks. It was Jack Ma’s “new retail” applied to retail coffee. It was a digital innovator. Blah, blah, blah. It was mostly a lot of hype. And the company crashed […]