Rishi Taparia - Issue #56
This week we look at Go-Jek numbers, Target earnings, Costco going contactless, how NFL teams use RFID technology, why physical books continue to grow in share, some amazing motion transfer video and more. Enjoy!
Commerce
How GO-JEK’s Ecosystem Enables MSMEs to Compete with Big Businesses
Go-Jek put out a blog post this week illustrating some of the ways they help improve the lives of small businesses in Indonesia. Well worth a read to see just one example technology helps put SMBs on more even footing against large enterprises. Embedded in the blog post and this article, however, are some Go-Jek numbers.
20-25mm monthly active users
Over 250,000 merchants using the Go-Jek platform
65% of merchants of merchants that accept Go-Pay are SMBs
GoFood (Go-Jek’s thriving food delivery business) drives 3x volume for restaurants that take advantage of it
203,000 online businesses utilize the Go-Jek infrastructure to do item delivery
Some impressive numbers that back up the recently raised $1.5bn fundraise, and a notice to chief competitor Grab (who themselves recently closed a $2bn raise) that they’re not backing down.
Target Ramps Up Its Own Brands To Sustain Turnaround
Earnings season continued this week, with Target showing great gains of their own. The retailer has launched three new house brands, the latest additions to a roster of exclusive merchandise aimed at keeping its turnaround going and so far it seems to be working. The company posted a 7% increase in revenue in the quarter, but more importantly, 6.4% increase in store traffic, and 6.5% increase in same-store-sales Y-o-Y (the largest gain ever seen). Not too shabby!
Inside Danny Meyer’s Lonely War on Tips
Three years ago, the influential New York restaurateur abolished tipping at his restaurants in what he knew would be a serious test of his leadership. Now, his view of the future of restaurants and hospitality still remains a controversial experiment many have been glad to see happen, just not take part in themselves.
Alibaba Escalates Attack on Meituan Ahead of Rival's IPO
China’s food delivery and online services business is estimated to be around $1.3 trillion (with a T) business. It’s no wonder the battle between Meituan, who filed to go public a few months ago and is backed by Tencent, and Ele.me, Alibaba’s business unit that this week merged with Koubei and got $3bn worth of cash from Softbank, is burning so hot.
FinTech
Costco adopts Apple Pay as it embraces contactless payments
Costco is finally going contactless. The payment journey at the retail giant has been anything but smooth sailing. After switching their famed Costco Amex to a Citi Visa card, they have been slow to enable acceptance of anything non-card based. Now finally on the NFC train (read: we’re doing it for Apple Pay) the hope seems to be attracting a younger demo into the store, which feels like a stretch to me (at least here in the US).
Lenders Shunned Risky Personal Loans. Now They’re Competing for Them
It seems like banks and fintech companies in the US aren’t learning from what’s taking place in China when it comes to lending. Firms big and small are plunging with a renewed vigor into the risky area of consumer finance, as “lenders mailed a record 1.26 billion solicitations for these loans, according to market-research firm Competiscan.” Yowza.
Technology
The Promise and Perils of AI Medical Care
A lot has been made about the opportunity that artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning can bring to healthcare. The reality seems to be, like in many other verticals, true application of the technology is limited. For perspective:
…despite all the hype, there have only been 14 peer-reviewed publications involving computer-vision software interpreting medical imagery, according to a running tally maintained by the cardiologist and medical writer Eric Topol. So far there’s been only one — one! — peer-reviewed study of a prospective trial, a study using AI to spot small polyps in colonoscopy images in real-time. But, as Topol notes, this hasn’t stopped the U.S. FDA from approving AI-enabled products – it has greenlit 13 so far, most of which haven’t published peer-reviewed research on their software’s performance.
It’s easy to buy into the hype of new technology. Most startups (understandably) talk about how the world is going to be 5 to 10 years from now - that’s where all the exciting, hard, crazy stuff happens. However, no matter how exciting to create the future it’s important to be pragmatic about bridging the gap between present day and the future and for startups to be able to explain the path they are taking to get there.
Technology helps Eagles track recovery of players such as Carson Wentz
As a Philadelphia Eagles fan (Go Birds!) articles like this make me happy. It also nicely illustrates just how using technology and data to make decisions has become table stakes, even in ‘industries’ you wouldn’t expect. Chips installed in footballs, chips in pads, chips sewn into jerseys all provide information that can be leveraged to make, in this case a football team, better. Awesome stuff!
Everybody Dance Now
Creating fake video content, as an example falsely portraying politicians or celebrities saying or doing things that they actually didn’t, has been cited as a negative and damaging repercussion of the AI and neural network technology. However, the ability to generate video, transposing motion from one source onto another while doing facial synthesis can also be AMAZING as this paper (and the below video) shows.
Everybody Dance Now
Random Tidbits
China economy FAQ
We talk about China quite a bit (ok, A LOT) in this newsletter. I came across this Medium post recently that does a terrific job outlining (with resources). It covers History and Background, Liberalisation and development, The Chinese Economy Today, Trade Wards, the race for technology, the ‘new economy’ and more! Check it out (and bookmark!)
Gutenberg’s Revenge
Physical books and their publishers just will not go gently into that good night. Physical books are the only form of physical media that have seen growing sales over the last few years and with the expectation that they will continue to see positive demand in the years to come. This shouldn’t be new for regular readers as we talked a few weeks ago about how bookstores are seeing a resurgence (for reasons including community, curated selections, and events bringing authors and their readers together) , but still good to see even more supporting data. Keep reading (physical where you can!)
You only think you're eating Indian food
A fun read on the realities of food origin, this time focused on Indian food.
A history lesson
Chilies arrived in India with the Portuguese in the 15th century. Cream and yogurt sauces showed up with the British starting in the 16th century.
Tandoori chicken, butter chicken and tandoori roti — staples of Indian restaurants — are also not originally Indian, but creations of the British under their rule…More food shenanigans happened when Britons moved back home from India. They created curry powder for convenience and replaced mangoes with apples or turmeric with lemon juice.
Chicken tikka masala — traditional fare on U.S. and U.K. menus — is said to be the result of recipes jotted down by Britons once living in India.
Quote I’m thinking about: “Something frightening poses a perceived risk. Something dangerous poses a real risk.” - Hans Rosling