Bamboo Innovator Weekly Insight – The KS Way to Scale Up a Compounder: The Case of WhatsApp, Phison and Naver

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Dear Friends and All,

 

The KS Way to Scale Up a Compounder: The Case of WhatsApp, Phison and Naver

 

“I want to do one thing, and do it well.. On the internet there is a lot of flash and fad. What we are trying to build here is a long-term persistent sustainability.. The simplicity and utility of our product is really what drives us. We won’t stop until every single person on the planet has an affordable and reliable way to communicate with their friends and loved ones.. People starting companies for a quick sale are a disgrace to the Valley. If you run a startup and your goal is to get on techcrunch, you are doing it wrong. Next person to call me an entrepreneur is getting punched in the face by my bodyguard. Seriously. ”

– Jan Koum, WhatsApp founder

 

“We are our own worst enemy. We have to be patient and concentrate on the things we are doing.. The first question I asked them was, why do they want to create their own startups and be an entrepreneur. About 70% of them immediately replied me that they want to be rich. If that is the case, then I believe that 99% of them will fail.”

– KS Pua, CEO of Taiwan-listed Phison Electronics

 

How can 55 full-time employees (32 engineers) handle more than 19 billion messages and simultaneous connections per day (50 billion across seven platforms), equivalent to the total worldwide volume of SMS text messages, with speed, reliability and few technical errors (99.9% uptime)? Disruptions under load – whether coming from hardware failures (servers, network gear), software breakdowns or management misadventures in serving the growing user population base – has prevented the scalability of business model as the business grows bigger. The value destruction risk that comes from limitations in scaling up the core business inevitably diverts the attention of entrepreneurs to seek alternative growth paths, often self-dealing ones, resulting in fads and fashion in the business and tech world with no genuine compounders to last the distance in a bubbly valuation playground. Read more of this post

Filed under Bamboo Series

The wine business is ripe for disruption, and this man is doing it

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

The wine business is ripe for disruption, and this man is doing it

By Jason Karaian @jkaraian 5 hours ago

“There are only two important people in the wine business—the winemaker and the wine drinker. Right now, they’re both getting screwed.” Read more of this post

Filed under Life

Bitcoin ATMs Open in Singapore even as the once-dominant Mt. Gox exchange said it was filing for bankruptcy protection

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Feb 28, 2014

Bitcoin ATMs Open in Singapore

By Newley Purnell and Lorraine Luk

Bitcoin machines began operating in Singapore and Hong Kong even as the once-dominant Mt. Gox exchange said Friday it was filing for bankruptcy protection. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

For years China has been billed as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse but the nation’s massive manufacturing industry generates only thin margins due to its inability to turn out key components and parts

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Lack of R&D means thin profits for China’s smartphone makers

2014-02-26

For years China has been billed as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse but the nation’s massive manufacturing industry generates only thin margins due to its inability to turn out key components and parts, as typified by the status of its mobile-phone industry. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China to be No.1 corporate bond market but defaults a possibiity

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

China to be No.1 corporate bond market but defaults a possibiity

Staff Reporter

2014-02-28

China’s economic slowdown has brought severe tests to the operation of various industries in the country, especially those featuring high-leveraged operations, notably power generation and construction materials, as their debts doubled their equity capital as of the end of September 2013. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Uni-President eats into Master Kong’s instant noodle market share

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Uni-President eats into Master Kong’s instant noodle market share

Staff Reporter

2014-02-27

At the end of 2013, the battle between Uni-President China Holdings and its main rival Tingyi Holdings, the largest instant noodle producer in China which sells under the Master Kong brand, began to heat up. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation

Debt and a lost generation; They are happy to enjoy today, live in a comfortable home, drive a nice car and pay later.

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Debt and a lost generation

They are happy to enjoy today, live in a comfortable home, drive a nice car and pay later.

Feb 28,2014

One of my college friends has always been peculiar. Although he graduated with a humanities degree, he got a banking job. He said he had a dream, which was to borrow millions, or billions if possible, and use them up and die without ever repaying them. I laughed at his joke. But then he suddenly turned dead serious. He had his own philosophy behind this bizarre so-called dream. “What is capitalism anyway?” he asked. “It breeds on credit. Credit builds when one borrows more. The credit could be limitless if one borrows and repays well. You will see. One day, everyone will live on debt. The day will come when the biggest beneficiary will be the one who manages debt well.” Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

The absence of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is likely to have a significant impact on the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, leading to what could potentially be the longest management vacancy since the group’s establishment

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

SK Group’s future uncertain with Chey in jail

Stock prices rose despite risk

Mar 01,2014

The absence of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is likely to have a significant impact on the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, leading to what could potentially be the longest management vacancy since the group’s establishment.
The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed a four-year prison sentence for Chey, who was convicted of embezzling corporate funds for personal gain. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

The only way to survive the years of struggle required to master something is to do what you love. You must develop the discipline to ignore the distractions of the modern era if you ever want to be great

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

FEBRUARY 28, 2014 by ERIC BARKER

Seduction, Power and Mastery: 3 Lessons From History’s Greatest Minds

What can we learn about human nature and the way the world works from reading history? This has been the territory of Robert Greene. Read more of this post

Filed under Life

What More Than 630 Startups Have Taught Paul Graham

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

What More Than 630 Startups Have Taught Paul Graham

BY LAURA MONTINI

Y Combinator founding partner Paul Graham spoke recently at a conference, revealing more about why he’s leaving and what he’s learned. Read more of this post

Filed under Life

The Rise And Future Of The New York Startup Ecosystem

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

The Rise And Future Of The New York Startup Ecosystem

Posted 20 minutes ago by Nick Beim (@NickBeim)

Like many who have been active in the New York startup ecosystem over the past decade, I am optimistic about its future. The last 10 years have seen an increasing number of startup successes in New York. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

What Can Indian Startups Learn From The Facebook Acquisition That Didn’t Happen

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

What Can Indian Startups Learn From The Facebook Acquisition That Didn’t Happen

Posted 13 hours ago by Pankaj Mishra (@pankajontech)

Little Eye Labs was not the only acquisition Facebook was chasing in India last year. Salorix, a social media analytics startup that had raised $3.5 million in Series A from Inventus Capital Partners and Nexus Venture Partners in November 2011, was approached by Facebook in October last year. But by December, the acquisition talks were stalled. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

More Taiwanese use Facebook per capita than anywhere else in world

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

More Taiwanese use Facebook per capita than anywhere else in world

CNA
March 1, 2014, 12:01 am TWN

TAIPEI — Facebook Inc.’s penetration rate in Taiwan is higher than in any other market in the world, an executive of the world’s largest social network said Thursday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

Achieving leadership greatness means leveraging luck and navigating between extremes, says INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Morten Hansen

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

INSEAD’s Global Thought Leaders: Morten Hansen

Feb 28, 2014

Achieving leadership greatness means leveraging luck and navigating between extremes, says INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Morten Hansen in an interview with INSEAD Knowledge. The transcript is below

Read more of this post

Filed under Life

Warren Buffett’s annual letter: What investors will be looking for

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Warren Buffett’s annual letter: What investors will be looking for

Josh Funk, Associated Press | February 28, 2014 5:29 AM ET
OMAHA, Neb. — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investors will be looking for details of how the conglomerate performed and the best advice CEO Warren Buffett has to offer in his annual letter this Saturday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

WhatsApp and the Wild, Weird, Wacky World of Investing

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

WhatsApp and the Wild, Weird, Wacky World of Investing

26 FEB 2014 – VITALIY KATSENELSON

Recently, in a conversation with another investor, I referred to a company’s management as being “extremely honest.” I was corrected, that honesty is binary and cannot be described with an adjective — a person is either honest or not. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed

Tyler Durden on 02/27/2014 23:18 -0500

And just like that the Chinese yuan devaluation has shifted away from the merely “orderly.”

In the past few hours of trading, China, which as we reported two days ago has started intervening aggressively in the Yuan market (for the reasons why, read this), has seen its currency crash by nearly 0.9%, which may not seem like much, but is in fact the largest drop since December of 2008, and at last check was trading at around 6.18, even as the PBOC fixed the CNY reference rate 0.02% higher from the last official close to 6.1214, erasing pivot support point at 6.1346 and 6.1408.  Naturally this means that the obverse, the CNYUSD, has crashed to as low as 0.1620. Should this move sustain without reverting, this will be the biggest weekly loss ever! Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Loss-saddled Sony to sell its Tokyo birthplace

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Updated: Friday February 28, 2014 MYT 5:32:46 PM

Loss-saddled Sony to sell its Tokyo birthplace

TOKYO: Sony will sell properties at a prestigious Tokyo site where it had its headquarters for six decades, as the once world-beating firm struggles to improve its bottom line, reports said Friday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China falls out of love with cash

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

February 28, 2014 4:22 am

China falls out of love with cash

By Patti Waldmeir and Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

image001-14

China is rapidly ditching the centuries-old habit of paying its bills with trunkloads of cash, and making the shift to virtual forms of payment faster than any other country on earth. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation

WhatsApp and Tesla set the scene for soaring valuations; Danger that valuations will touch off a wider euphoria

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

February 27, 2014 6:11 pm

WhatsApp and Tesla set the scene for soaring valuations

By Richard Waters

Danger that valuations will touch off a wider euphoria

It is often a sign of a bubble when analysts and commentators rush to explain away each new upward step in valuations – and then come up with expansive arguments to justify why prices should be even higher. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

Higher Ed’s Illusions: Academics think their students are prepared for the workforce

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Higher Ed’s Illusions

Academics think their students are prepared for the workforce.

Feb. 27, 2014 7:15 p.m. ET

For years, polling data has shown that Americans hold the U.S. Congress in low esteem, with the Members’ approval often sinking into the teens. So guess which American institution is on course to join them? It’s our colleges and universities. Congress at least admits it’s doing a poor job. The colleges don’t. Read more of this post

Filed under Life

Missing at Mobile World Congress: Innovation

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Missing at Mobile World Congress: Innovation

This Year’s Show Offered Another Cascade of Glass-Slab Devices That Varied in Size and, Maybe, Color

SAM SCHECHNER

Feb. 27, 2014 3:25 p.m. ET

Startups have taken over the old home of Mobile World Congress. Christopher Pommerening, a venture capitalist and organizer of the ‘Four Years From Now’ project, explains why he wants to get mobile startups and investors together in a single place. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

For Some Retailers, Less Red Is New Black

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

For Some Retailers, Less Red Is New Black

Penney, Sears Reported More Losses Last Year, but Results Weren’t as Bad as Some Feared

DREW FITZGERALD and SUZANNE KAPNER

Feb. 27, 2014 7:19 p.m. ET

For some of the country’s weakest retailers, less red is the new black. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation

Baidu’s Search for Elusive Profit Growth

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Baidu’s Search for Elusive Profit Growth

AARON BACK

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 11:41 a.m. ET

China’s online-search behemoth Baidu BIDU +3.48% is doing what it must to stay competitive. But in a theme Chinese Internet investors should get used to, profit growth isn’t going to be as bubbly as previously hoped.

image001-13

That was the company’s message to investors Thursday. Revenue surged by 50% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter while profits were flat, as expected. But in a conference call with analysts, Baidu Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Li dropped a bombshell, saying the company doesn’t expect any increase in profit this year as it continues to invest. Pity the analysts, who according to FactSet had optimistically forecast a 31% rise in 2014 net profit. Now they are asking where the money will be spent. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

Copycat Business Model Generates Genuine Global Success for Start-Up Incubator

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Copycat Business Model Generates Genuine Global Success for Start-Up Incubator

By MARK SCOTTFEB. 27, 2014

BERLIN — For Linio, think Amazon for Mexicans. For Zalora, think Zappos for Malaysians. For Easy Taxi, think Uber for Nigerians.

And for all of them, think Rocket Internet, a budding tech empire here in Germany’s capital. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

Asset theft is top economic crime in China

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Asset theft is top economic crime in China

Friday, February 28, 2014 – 10:07

China Daily/Asia News Network

CHINA – China’s economic crime rate may be lower than that of the world, but many companies in the Chinese mainland are extremely concerned about bribery, corruption and procurement fraud, according to a PwC survey released on Thursday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China’s Leaders Take Aim at Internet Security

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

China’s Leaders Take Aim at Internet Security

Xi, Other Top Communist Party Officials to Helm New Committee

PAUL MOZUR

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 11:04 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s government appears to be tightening its grip on online discourse with the formation of an Internet-security committee led by top Communist Party officials. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

3D Systems Prints Everything But Money

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

3D Systems Prints Everything But Money

SPENCER JAKAB

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 4:33 p.m. ET

It is appropriate that a movie starring molded blocks of polymer, “The Lego Movie,” is tearing up the box office. Three-dimensional printing, a technology that can turn plastic and other materials into almost anything, has been a runaway hit on Wall Street recently. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

Pimco’s Gross Defends Competitive Culture

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Pimco’s Gross Defends Competitive Culture

Allianz is ‘Very Happy’ with Pimco’s New Management Structure

GREGORY ZUCKERMAN and KIRSTEN GRIND

Feb. 27, 2014 8:20 p.m. ET

Bill Gross isn’t changing his style—and his bosses say they are fine with that.

The co-founder of bond behemoth Pacific Investment Management Co. on Thursday defended its competitive culture, saying in an interview that the trading floor can’t thrive on “sweet talking” alone but that the firm is still a family of sorts. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

South Korea’s Growth Model; Seoul pushes domestic deregulation over export promotion

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

South Korea’s Growth Model

Seoul pushes domestic deregulation over export promotion.

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 6:01 p.m. ET

Japan’s Abenomics may be struggling, but at least economic reform isn’t dead in Asia. Witness South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye is proposing a reform package that could be a model for the region and many other parts of the world. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

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