"By creating the concept that data is a factor of production, China Inc. has formalised and legislated the stance that data itself is valuable rather than the algorithms it helps train.

1) Let's talk about the question of 'how should we think about Chinese tech'

What do we talk about when we talk about Chinese tech? Who is 'we' here? How do you pronounce Elema?

I've hit 10k in followers and it's time to earn my stripes as a thinkboi.

2) Chinese tech is a loaded term. The very fact that we have to say 'Chinese' tech rather than tech demotes its otherness.

So what does a place of origin signify? The different market conditions, political context and imo most importantly, the development stage of the country.

3) I think @benedictevans and @ToniCowanBrown's podcast on 'How to think about Chinese tech when you know fa about China' (my title, not theirs), lays some of the groundwork here.

China's different market conditions and political context often means a parallel tech world

4) This means a fundamental rethinking of first principals that's hard to stomach for most Western tech folks
- Copy is not wrong, in fact, it shows you've picked a de-risked business model
- There are no unscalable resources, esp when labour is

5) But I think the most important factor that gets overlooked is that China tech demotes something very particular. It is coming from a developing country. The life stage of a country is different from its cultural context.

What happens when a developing country is innovating?

1) Let's talk about how Alibaba has achieved the holy grail of big data - a holistic view of the consumer - through a plethora of product offerings and investment.

This is their overarching moat. And Amazon's got nothing on them.

2) To the outsider, Alibaba's product range is confusing af. It's all over the place and there seems to be no core competency they are focusing on.

A few divisions - Taobao (B2C marketplace), Tmall (High-end B2C marketplace), Alibaba (B2B marketplace, Cainiu(logistics)..

3) ...Elema (Food delivery), Autonavi (maps), Youku (streaming) and Feizhu(travel booking)

Also the promotional strategy is weird, In the lead-up to singles day, half the time they were promoting some cat rearing in-app mini game.

Wtf?

4) When we view Alibaba's strategy as working to create a full view of a consumer's life, including their preferences, social network and spending capacity (and ability). Then everything starts to make sense.

4) Whether a consumer buys on Tmall or Taobao tells Ali about their preferences and budget, delivery address for packages and food lets Ali know where they live and where they work (also cross-referenced with property data to infer wealth level + occupation).

1) Let's talk about a key part of the Chinese creator economy. The creator management and incubator agencies known as Multi-Channel Networks (MCN). We''ll summerise key lessons for the western creator economy.

And know how Li Ziqi got her 12m YouTube subscribers

2) MCNs are modern-day talent agencies (but more) who target influencers and creators as their clients. It originated in the US but has proliferated in China, with industry estimates of 5k-7k Chinese MCN operating as of 2020.

3) Typically, as creators gain enough following, they find it difficult to be an-all-in-one content creator, editor, customer support rep, accountant, lawyer, and marketing guru that the job demands.

Enter the MCNs who offers the creator the following:

4) Audience and traffic growth, PR management, monetisation through ads & e-commerce and support with retail fulfillment.

Their services are more holistic than western MCNs, who's offerings are more domain-specific.

5) Agreements between Chinese MCNs and creators can get into guarantees of the number of followers provided, copyrights, subtitling and distribution help, as well as providing analytical feedback on their content.

1) Let's talk about my favourite video platform Bilibili. What is it, what it isn't and and how it makes money. It's been called the Chinese YouTube that that framing lacks imaginary.

The $bili stock also 5x in 2020 - who knew weebs could be so lucrative

2) Grossly simplified, it's the Chinese equivalent of Youtube. Except it's not. It's like if Youtube, Twitch, Steam, Patreon, TokyoPop and Netflix had a CRISPR-baby, and that baby was a weeb, but that weeb is also super down with Chinese Gen Z

3) Bilibili was founded in 2010 by avid Anime, Gaming and Comics (AGC) fan Yi Xu from a frustration that the mainstay Chinese anime platform kept crashing with no consistent access to his beloved vocaloid Miku

4) Serial entrepreneur Rui Chen went from an angel investor to CEO, having obtained Yi Xu's trust by correctly identified the origin of Bilibili as from the anime "A Certain Scientific Railgun". Anime knowledge is life.

5) Currently it's the biggest mainstream portal for the Chinese Gen Z with user-generated video sharing, live streaming, mobile gaming, online comics and event ticketing. It’s also diversified its content coverage with coverage on beauty, e-sports, pop culture and many others.

1) Let's talk about social-commerce, limitations of growth for a community and why there is no good Chinese Instagram equivalent.

In modern China, XiaoHungShu aka Little Red Book aka RED is no longer the Mao manifesto, but rather a shopping app.

2) XHS was founded by friends Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao in 2014. Initially, it was conceived as a travel app, the founders wanted something that let them know what spots were cool and what goods to get when they're abroad

3) For context, I would say shopping abroad has been a major Chinese middle-class hobby due to:
1) Perception that foreign goods are of higher quality
2) Cheaper prices for equivalent goods relative to China as no import tax
3) Verified authenticity

4) XHS tapped into this desire by creating an online community where people can share details of what they brought and where. In elaborate posts with multiple accompanying pictures. Showing off your lavish life while being helpful is fun.

5) After building up a robust and lively community among mostly affluent young women, XHS moved into cross-border commerce in 2015. Now rather than just looking at the pretty items from France, you can buy them.

Charlie Munger almost doubles his $BABA position in Q4!

On the back of an 82% add last quarter too

@MadConX There seems to be a lot of short-term pain coming $BABA's way: lower consumption due to the lock-downs, another wave of regulation in the fintech sphere, cloud as a matter of national security and an increased focus on state-owned cloud providers.

Decreased growth and margins have likely led to multiple contraction. Furthermore, in a developing market like China, stocks tend to be highly volatile. Then there's the "China image" problem in the eyes of a western investor.

But *despite* all these headwinds, $BABA has been increasing it's free cash flow, has been quickly adapting to the changing regulatory environment and - my favorite - has a spawner's mentality.

Shirt-term trends look bad and some threats will stay long-term (CCP, the image, competition). The environment has been and will be challenging.

Yet $BABA is adapting and compounding. This says a lot about the culture they have and it makes me really confident about the future.

@Rosanna_Trades I had $BIDU at $185 as a trade during the Archegos blow up & sold a couple days later near $220~

I’ve heard good things about $JD but not as informed on it at the moment & near fully invested so not much to throw into a new position 🤷🏼‍♂️

$JD Health and $BABA AliHealth

$JD Health and $BABA Ali Health are $JD and $BABA's newest competition ground and the two biggest online medical platforms in China . Here is a thread on the things you need to know for $JD health and $Ali health.

Let’s get started! 👇👇

1. Problem
China have MANY medical problems. These include: poor structure of the Chinese medical system, inadequate/unequal resources, long waiting time, expensive medical services, sub-par medical quality and insufficient or unskilled medical staff.

2. Long waiting time
It is very inconvenient to visit a doctor in China unless you go to expensive private ones. There is not a clear distinction between a GP and a specialist, causing many elderlies, to crowd the hospital even when they only have a small medical issue.

2.1 A typical hospital visit in China may take up to 2-3 hours, half a day, or even a full day. You can basically image a Chinese hospital is like your favorite next door grocery stores constantly at 120%-200% capacity.

3. Medical Expenditure
Although the Chinese medical system has been improving, it is still unorganised and inefficient, causing medical services/medicine to be ‘expensive’, especially to low-income earners in China. Medical service is more expensive in China than the US % wise.

Thread/

$BABA cloud business is being completed missed by the market.

Let me explain why Alibaba Cloud, which makes up just ~10% of LTM revenues, could become worth more than the entire current market cap by FY25

1/

Alibaba Cloud made US$9.2 Billion in revenue for FY21 and grew 33% YoY.

They have ~38% market share of the cloud industry in China. Which is slightly more market share than AWS has in the US.

2/

In their investor presentation, $BABA projected that the cloud market in China will grow at a 37% CAGR until 2025.

The IDC estimated the CAGR to be 33% over the next 5 years.

The global cloud market is estimated to grow at 17.5% annually.

3/

If we take the IDC’s more conservative annual growth estimation of 33%, and $BABA maintains their 38% market share, they would generate $28.8 billion of revenue in FY25.

Alibaba cloud even benefit from scale economies and continue to take more market share.

4/

If we apply a 10x sales multiple we get to a $288 billion valuation for the cloud business in FY25.

Analysts typically value AWS, Azure & Google cloud at closer to 15x sales. So a 10x multiple for a company with more domestic market share and a higher CAGR isn’t unreasonable