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 […]

Massive Chinese Brainpower Is the Next Really Big Thing

*The following is an excerpt from the One Hour China Book, for which a 2017 version is available here.   “There is a great story about Steve Jobs freaking out about six weeks before the first iPhone was released. It was reported by The New York Times and has become part of the folklore of […]

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。

Jeffrey Towson – Get Ready for Super Platforms in Digital China (Video)

From one of my standard talks in 2018 (since retired). This is about bike-sharing, mobility and super-apps. Video below and Youtube link is here. 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 4: In Digital China, Get […]

Jeffrey Towson – In Digital China, Re-Imagine Operations ASAP (Video)

From one of my standard talks in 2018. This is about bike-sharing and re-imaging operations. Video is below and Youtube link is here. 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 4: In Digital China, Get Ready […]

Jeffrey Towson – Behind The Scenes at Alibaba Singles’ Day 2018 (part 2) – Video

I was part of the “global influencers” group that was behind the scenes at Alibaba Singles’ Day 2018. It was pretty great. And I got to learn a ton about some of their latest initiatives. I vlogged the day. Part 1 is here. Here is part 2 (of 2). Youtube link is here. ————- I […]