4/29 TBC Insider Digest
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Insider Digest 4/29/21: Kuaishou Creator Conference, Meituan & Tencent Antitrust, Manner Coffee, Hello (Bike) IPO
Announcement: I’ll be taking a week off for vacation next week to celebrate my 40th! I’ll leave you with one or two interesting private companies to chew on, but you’ll have to wait until I’m back for more regular posts ^.^ I do have a bunch of tweets scheduled for my Twitter so you won’t miss my presence there …
For those who are new, feel free to join our WhatsApp group if you want real time communications with the rest of the community! It’s pretty low volume and always on topic!
I guess it’s Meituan & Tencent antitrust tomorrow for the weekly Friday Chat TOMORROW at 6-6:45AM PST / 9-945AM EST / 9-9:45PM Asia time. I will send out a reminder on WhatsApp, but please just join us on the Zoom here!
Kuaishou Creator Conference Review
I didn’t see too much chatter about this but this was actually one of the most well-covered news in China tech. Partly because I bet Kuaishou spent a lot of money on the PR, but partly because the age-old question of Kuaishou v. Douyin, who will win the long game, is just so fun to speculate on. I’m still Team Douyin, but that’s hardly because Kuaishou is not formidable. Read their stats and prepare to be impressed. But more importantly, read my thoughts on the two companies’ strategies and let me know what you think!
The Kuaishou creator is more likely to have their own distinct style independent of what the rest of the platform is doing, because they are building a community, whereas the Douyin creator is more likely to be chasing (or trying to create) trending memes, because that's how one gets traffic on Douyin.
4/26/21 Meituan SAMR Investigation
Where I explain what Meituan was doing for its 2-choose-1, go through a selection of the court cases it’s already lost, summarize the justice department’s perspective on 2-choose-1 (it keeps out competition and capital and hurts the consumer, which is defined as any user, even if they do not pay), and how Meituan was trying to fight back even in March 2021. Read and decide for yourself if the fine will be above or under $500mm …
4/29/21 Tencent Antitrust Penalties Coming?
Well, after Meituan, there’s Tencent. Reuters is saying the fine has to exceed $1.5Bn. Well, it would need to be in violation of a few things to get there. Also rumored are potential forced divestitures of Kugou and Kuwo from Tencent Music. I mean, it does happen, and it’s apparently the more effective remedy. Who’s next, JD or Pinduoduo? >.<
The Post-Luckin Era Coffee Unicorn Manner Coffee
Luckin used the arguments of cheap legal addictive substance that is still drastically under-sold on a per capita basis and far too expensive for the average citizen in China to sell Wall Street on a coffee empire. Well, someone else has turned that empire into a reality called Manner Coffee. $1.3Bn valuation at 108 shops. Not tech, but a brand I’m sure you’ll run into the next time you visit China.
Well, at least one of the bikesharing companies made it. The Alibaba (technically, Ant) backed shared transportation company filed to go IPO. $926mm revenues in 2020, yes but ... only 11% gross margin and -19% operating margin. I don’t have too many good things to say about this one, do any of you?
Other Posts from the Community:
Sky is looking for good reports on Chinese enterprise software. A few of us have some suggests, do you have more?
Enrique’s post on his Enterprise/SaaS watchlist got some new responses. See if you have anything to add!
AGW asked about how the chokepoint technologies might affect Chinese autonomous driving companies. Read the thread and see if you have any input!
Things You Might Have Missed from the WhatsApp chat:
Anton shared the link to Huawei’s business results for Q1 2021.
I was entertained by this interview of Hong Lu, Masayoshi’s Son’s first co-founder and the founder of UT Starcom.
Kevin summarized a one-hour presentation from the legendary Morris Chang, founder of TSMC, on what he thought about the new Arizona fab, China, and his real competitor. It’s Samsung.
And I leave you with this ultra popular photo I tweeted of a new coffee chain in China … not Manner, but one called Algebraist, started in Suzhou. People were really impressed by the design:
That’s it! Please check the forums for amazing contributions from our members and join the WhatsApp group!
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