From Didi to Mobike to Luckin: How Money and Hype Are Distorting Digital China

Digital China has arrived. It has unicorns, huge market opportunities and a pervasive cultural impact. Everything is now at world-class scale. Unfortunately, the distorting impact of hot money and hype has also scaled up. And this appears to be increasing. But first…consider joining my executive education course Jeff’s Asia Tech Class for deeper insights into […]

7 Things Everyone Is Getting Wrong About the Luckin IPO (Pt 2 of 2)

The Luckin Coffee SEC filing is out. So we can finally see their numbers. This is Part 2 of what I think is being misunderstood about Luckin. Part 1 is here. #5: Luckin is not really about increasing mass-market coffee consumption in China. Luckin is engaged in a Herculean effort to get Chinese to drink […]

7 Things Everyone Is Getting Wrong About the Luckin IPO (Pt 1 of 2)

So Luckin has filed for an IPO and we finally got to see their numbers. And yes, there are red flags all over the place. Big operating losses, funky corporate structures, speculative revenue growth and so on. And this is not uncommon in a tech / internet ipo. But I don’t recall ever seeing this […]

阿里巴巴的“新零售”如何增强平台战略(第3部分,共3部分)

我始终认为,新零售业比所有人在谈论的超级市场、送货员和便利店要大得多。它并不只是魔镜(magic mirror)、机器人服务员和人脸识别支付等炫酷的新工具。虽然,这些工具都很有意思。

The One Number That Matters for Luckin Coffee vs. Starbucks in China (And Maybe Tim Hortons)

The Luckin vs. Starbucks fight is accelerating, both in terms of stores opened and hype. Luckin has IPO’d. And Tim Horton’s is jumping into the China coffee biz. What is going on? Why is there so much activity in the previously sleepy business of Chinese retail coffee?   Recall, a similar thing happened in bike-sharing […]

Jeffrey Towson – The Race for Assets in New Retail (Video)

From one of my standard talks in 2018 (since retired). This is about bike-sharing, mobility and super-apps. See below. Youtube link is here. Other parts of talk are below: Part 1: What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? Part 2: Give Consumers Exactly What They Want Part 3: In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP Part […]

Facebook Copying WeChat Could Result in Stunning Growth (pt 2 of 2)

In Part 1, I argued that Mark Zuckerberg’s memo on “privacy-focused messaging and social networking” is actually an aggressive and potentially stunning growth path for the company. I called it the ultimate gangster move. Their move to consolidate their messaging services creates a big global tool. And it looks a lot like the foundation of […]

Facebook Copying WeChat is the Ultimate Gangster Move (pt 1 of 2)

Mark Zuckerberg’s memo on “privacy-focused messaging and social networking” has some really big implications. It is focused on private messaging and the WeChat-type operating system. To me, it looks like the first move in a strategy to turn Facebook into a much larger and more powerful company. That such a big power play is dressed […]

What’s Next in New Retail in China? (Video)

From one of my standard talks in 2018 (since retired). This is about bike-sharing, mobility and super-apps. See below. Youtube link is here. Other parts of talk are below: Part 1: What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? Part 2: Give Consumers Exactly What They Want Part 3: In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP Part […]

Jeffrey Towson – New Retail Is Bigger Than You Think (Video)

From one of my standard talks in 2018 (since retired). This is about bike-sharing, mobility and super-apps. See below. Youtube link is here. Other parts of talk are below: Part 1: What is the Engine of Chinese Bike-Sharing? Part 2: Give Consumers Exactly What They Want Part 3: In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP Part […]