TBC Insider 4/9 Digest
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Insider Digest 4/9/21: BigOne Ecommerce Update, Qdama, Genki Forest
Thank you so much to those of you who answered our poll. Based on your responses, we are switching to 1x a week digests and starting a WhatsApp group (both were voted on by a supermajority of you). Over half of you also expressed that you’d like to see the Digest arrive on the weekend instead of the week. I may start instituting that next week. If you feel differently, please respond to the poll so that I can take your opinions into account!
Meanwhile, for those of you interested in joining our Insider WhatsApp group, here it is … I know, I know, I thought the vote would’ve been for WeChat, but WhatsApp won by a large margin. I promise to keep the group low volume and on-topic. Joining is completely optional as the content will be all posted to the forum.
In addition, we are going to try to continue holding our weekly get-togethers for now on Fridays at 6-6:45AM PST / 9-9:45PM Asia time. I will be sending out a calendar invite to everyone, but it has been known to get lost in mailboxes (something I am still working on fixing). If you do not receive it, please just join us on the Zoom here.
Qdama - JD backed, fast growing grocery chain getting into CGB
Genki Forest - Applying internet thinking to Bottled Beverages
Update on J&T Logistics (see comments section)
Qdama - JD backed, fast growing grocery chain getting into CGB
I’d love some feedback on whether or not you guys are interested in knowing about pre-IPO companies that I think are relatively under-covered in English but have disproportionate “heat” in China. In any case, Qdama is certainly one of those companies. They’ve been on my radar for a few months now and are now rumored to go IPO. A JD-backed grocery chain, they have a novel discount / freshness policy (10% discount every 30 minutes until free at 11:30PM) that have earned them fast fans across Guangdong & increasingly across China. Normally this wouldn’t make it into the tech universe, but it is now trying to get a piece of the CGB action and is a differentiated enough player that I thought warranted a deeper look.
BigOne - Q1 Update, CGB, ECommerce, Bilibili vs. Douyin
Definitely the highlight of this digest. I obtained a copy of the presentation for insiders only. Only the audio portion of the session will be publicly available. A few highlights —
Xingsheng holding onto lead in Hunan and its stronghold provinces
Meituan warehouse efficiency 50% higher than Pinduoduo in terms of items sold
Only Didi selling primarily fresh foods, everyone else has gone into branded nonperishables and even electronics
Douyin now at 19% of Tmall in terms of GMV, up from 9% last year, and exceeding Kuaishou which is 13%
Douyin remains clothing dominated, Kuaishou is jewelry
Bilibili head creators finding significantly higher engagement on Douyin than on own platform
Definitely click through for the full presentation and my notes.
Genki Forest - Applying internet thinking to Bottled Beverages
The $6Bn beverage company has been coming up a lot in conversation and so even though there were no immediate news, I did a quick profile on them anyways along with my thoughts. The company’s gaming DNA is their main differentiator, and I think the way they are presenting themselves is Coca Cola for the internet age. That is, how would you design a beverage company with the digital tools available today for A/B testing, digital marketing, data-driven analysis of every step of the consumer journey? And how would you design the whole process when your customer is in it for the taste as much as the memes? Thanks to D. Hsu, whose deep experience in foodtech is showing through in the comments section for both this post and the one earlier for Challenjer, the fund that spawned Genki and which I cheekily compared to Shunwei.
Meanwhile, I’d also suggest you go back to a few old posts that have new activity because new events have happened, such as …
Update on J&T Logistics (see comments section)
The logistics company & close partner of Pinduoduo just raised a massive round of $1.8Bn led by Boyu, with capital from Hillhouse and Sequoia. This is a significant development for the Alibaba dominated logistics field. Logistics is the unsung hero of Chinese ecommerce and this is really just very good news for the sector, IMO, as J&T is forcing some low, low prices on everyone …
That’s it! Please check the forums for amazing contributions from our members and join the WhatsApp group! Pending more responses, I’ll most likely be sending out the Digest on a different day next week (based on survey results) so if you have an opinion, please speak up by filling out the poll!
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