In this class, I talk about my interview with He Xiaodong of JD. And about how chatbots are evolving into conversational AI. Plus the basics of AI economics. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Related podcasts and articles: JD and Competitive Advantages vs. Entry Barriers in China Retail (Daily Lesson […]
A couple of topics for today’s lesson / update. Why Steve Jobs Chose China for the Assembly of the iPhone In my One Hour China book, I included the following bit about Steve Jobs and China: “There is a great story about Steve Jobs freaking out about six weeks before the first iPhone was released. […]
The big digital China / Asia news this week was the expansion of the US entity list ban to include TSMC. In theory, Huawei cannot get advanced semiconductors from American companies directly or by having them manufactured with American equipment at companies such as TSMC.It’s a big deal.This was the political bombshell everyone was waiting […]
In this class, I talk about what can be done with Luckin Coffee post-scandal. Should another company or investor buy it? You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. Who should buy Luckin Coffee? Starbucks 711 or other convenience store HeyTea Alibaba or other ecommcerce company Financial investors Related podcasts and […]
In this week’s podcast (Can Shopee / Garena Beat Lazada? Tencent vs. Alibaba In SE Asia. (Podcast 29)), I teed up the idea of an escalating “arms race” for demand online. I argued that there is an increasing fight for the attention, engagement and spending of consumers. And that this is a natural result of […]
In this class, I talk about Shopee (ecommerce) and Garena (online gaming) in SE Asia – and the complementary platform businesses Sea Limited is building. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. The previous articles and books I cite are: Platform Revolution (book) This is part of Learning Goals: Level 4-5, […]
In this class, I talk about Ant Financial/Alipay, AI factories and the basics of payment platforms. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. The previous articles I cite are: From Big, Dumb Bureaucracies to Zero-Human Operations: The Holy Grail of the Digital Age (pt 1 of 2) How Ant Financial […]
In Part 1 (From Big, Dumb Bureaucracies to Zero-Human Operations (pt 1 of 2), I made the following argument: In the industrial age, enterprises were built on the advantages of scale. Companies went from workshops and small factories to big factories capable of mass production. Superior scale gave companies multiple advantages, including cost efficiencies and […]
In this class, I talk about Meituan and the evolution toward more advanced types of services marketplaces. You can listen here or at iTunes, Google Podcasts and Himalaya. What Should Meituan Do?: Geographic expansion Focus on transportation services (i.e., Didi) Focus on hospitality services (i.e., Ctrip) Jump into an ancillary opportunity: Financial Services or […]
Most of this course has been about strategy. Well, the intersection of strategy and digital. Basically, Michael Porter meets Jack Ma. But an important part of the executive tool kit is M&A. If you’re going to run a company or be a senior manager, you have to know how to buy other companies. You have […]