I had a good interview with Arthur du Passage and Edouard de Mezerac of Artefact, a data consulting and digital marketing company. And I thought they had a really good vantage point for how AI / ML is being used on the ground in China. I’ve summarized my 3 take-aways from our discussion. An Introduction […]
In this podcast, Jeffrey Towson discusses his concerns about Alibaba’s long-term prospects. He argues that the company is facing increasing competition from domestic rivals, regulatory scrutiny, and a slowing Chinese economy. He believes that Alibaba will need to make some significant changes in order to remain competitive in the years to come.
Grab, Gojek and especially Shopee are really getting international attention now. As I’m writing this, Sea Ltd is at +$125B market capitalization. SE Asia has really arrived as a tech market. The investor who always comes to my mind when I think about these companies and SE Asia is Tom Russo. He has been investing […]
In my latest podcast, I teed up the idea that the State is not just a source of risk or uncertainty in China. It can also create tremendous economic value in companies. I referred to it as the “mother of all catalysts”. How to Profit from Politics in China Tech (Asia Tech Strategy – Podcast […]
I was mulling over investing in Expedia during the beginning of the pandemic. It made sense that travel would take a hit for a couple of years. And then it would likely come back. Plus, digital marketplaces are good at scaling up and down. But I didn’t buy as I feel more comfortable with Asia […]
I recently wrote about Shein and how they are increasing on rate of learning (plus low prices). That article is here. And I characterized their rapid updating of their site (adding +1,000 new products per day) as “retail at the speed of algorithms”. However, there are other types of rate of learning. One is when […]
Softbank-backed Dingdong and Tencent-backed Missfresh have both gone public, to minimal investor enthusiasm. Both companies were launched: To solve the difficulties of selling perishable and difficult to transport groceries online. To tackle some of the pain points for both Chinese families and farmers. To capture a massive opportunity. And to get to operating profitability. They […]
In the past weeks, I have sent you multiple emails with various types of competitive advantages. Such as switching costs, network effects, purchasing economies and location and transportation cost advantages. The links are below: Walmart, JD and Purchasing Economies at Traditional and Online Retailers (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) Beer, Southwest and […]
When you look for big competitive advantages on the cost side, it is usually about economies of scale – when a company with a larger volume has a lower per unit cost. Or, to be more precise, when a company has… …lower per unit costs based on a higher volume of production or throughput being […]
The Didi financials are finally out. And they are an interesting mix of good and bad. Didi has market dominance and tech leadership in the largest market for shared mobility. But it is also chronically unprofitable. For investors, this could be a fantastic opportunity. Because Didi’s ongoing losses will scare off investors and likely lower […]