H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (28 November 2018) – Achieving Platform Dominance + Investors do all kinds of exercises to make sense of the world-modeling scenarios in spreadsheets, conducting diligence on management, or reading pitch decks. But few exercises help clarify your thoughts better than writing.

H.E.R.O.’s Journey in Tech (28 November 2018) – Achieving Platform Dominance + Investors do all kinds of exercises to make sense of the world-modeling scenarios in spreadsheets, conducting diligence on management, or reading pitch decks. But few exercises help clarify your thoughts better than writing.

Companies

• Keyence’s miraculous margins (FT)
• Nintendo Switch Loses Shine With Shipments Seen Missing Target (Bloomberg)
• Chinese AI champion iFlytek censors politically sensitive terms on its translation app (SCMP)
• Innodisk Launching Revolutionizing Industrial-Grade Graphics Card in M.2 Form Factor (BI)

BATTSS – Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, TSMC, Softbank, Samsung

• Taobao is now testing new feature that includes product reviews from Xiaohongshu (Technode)

FAANNMG – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Microsoft, Google

• Microsoft Becomes World’s Most Valuable Company After Apple Rout (Bloomberg)
• Amazon’s Cloud Unit Will Sell Satellite Data Service; Lockheed Martin is building a ground antenna network that will work with Amazon’s new satellite service (Bloomberg)
• Amazon Unveils Server Chip, Challenging Intel on Price (Bloomberg)
• Apple Watch study could have benefits for preventive medicine; Data from 400,000 users shows people respond to tangible incentives to exercise more (FT)
• YouTube shifts to make new exclusive shows, movies free to users (Reuters)

Asia Tech & Innovation Trends

• Did ‘billion-dollar’ gambling loss in Saipan imperil Chinese smartphone maker Gionee? (SCMP)
• AI company FaceMe rattles tin for Series A raising; The company puts its assistants in retail stores, where they take the pressure off human staff by offering answers to simple questions, finding products and dispensing relationship advice (AFR)
• Japan Sniffing Out Its AI Niches (EE Times)
• Korea’s Huge Bet on Semiconductor Exports Adds Risks to Economy (Bloomberg)
• Online bookseller Booktopia is seeking up to a $10 million equity injection to help fund further automation in its distribution centre and buy more stock. (AFR)
• Skype co-founder raises $105m for Southeast Asian fintech startup; Oriente races big brands to reach unbanked Indonesians, Filipinos and Vietnamese (Nikkei)

Global Tech & Innovation Trends

• Seeing Some Light in Chip Equipment; Demand for EUV gear is growing despite expected reductions in overall capital spending (WSJ)
• Fortnite Battle Royale addiction is forcing kids into video-game rehab (SCMP)
• Spotify Secures Rights to Booming Indian Music Market (Bloomberg)
• Outrage Over Human Gene Editing Will Fade Fast; Fears of designer babies are overblown, and the disease-fighting benefits are too great to ignore. (Bloomberg)
• Salesforce Jumps on Strong Sales, Continuing Rapid Growth (Bloomberg)
• Good Things Come to Those Who Wait for Unicorn IPOs; Despite less of a first-day pop, more established companies do better in the long run. (Bloomberg)

Life

• Avengers Hero Kit teaches kids to code with Marvel superheroes (Age)
• Investors do all kinds of exercises to make sense of the world-modeling scenarios in spreadsheets, conducting diligence on management, or reading pitch decks. But few exercises help clarify your thoughts better than writing. (Morgan Housel)
• Achieving Platform Dominance: Most business model innovations are platform plays. Platforms are business models and enabling infrastructure that create value for multiple, complementary constituencies through powerful network effects. Tipping dynamics can produce a dominant platform in a particular application, content, or market domain. This paper explores three questions of importance for platform entrepreneurs, investors, and users. Why do dominant platforms often emerge? What are the secrets of their success? How can you win the race for platform dominance? It uses the combination of a causal loop model and case studies to analyze the dynamics that shape the lifecycle of a platform. Past research emphasizes the economic value created by platforms. We highlight the value created by social features, e.g., sharing, conversation, collaboration, and influence, the importance of social network effects, and the role of functional features in enabling the social dynamics of platforms. This paper considers three critical phases of a platform’s development, each with its own signature dynamics. The three phase model highlights the strategic imperatives for successful platform development. The dominant dynamics at each phase are different, but set the stage for the subsequent phase. These evolving dynamics should define the focus and objectives of a platform development strategy. (SSRN)