Rishi Taparia - Issue #8
This week has Amazon and Alibaba striking a partnership deal, the battle for online grocery ordering in China, Somaliland leading the world in driving a cashless society, Facebook handing over ads to Congress and more. Enjoy!
Commerce
Kindle promotion with Alibaba shows Amazon’s shrinking China ambition
Keep your friends close, but enemies closer? Amazon partnering with Alibaba has huge implications, particularly on the state of China and challenges entering the market. Amazon at one time thought it could really compete with Alibaba. They, like everyone else, are starting to feel it
The Transformation of the American Shopping Mall
Headlines claim malls are dying, and some are. But many others are having second lives as churches, schools, hospitals, even farms. An interesting look into the potential future of shopping malls around the US.
Led by cash-rich Flipkart and Amazon, Indian e-tailers will burn up to 60% more cash this festive season
What funding crunch and pressure for profits? It’s India’s biggest festive season and, as usual, e-commerce players are splurging - talk about a VC to C business model.
JD vs Alibaba: The war for China's fresh food
The next massive market that has JD and Alibaba battling: grocery. One of the fastest growing sectors in the country ($14bn in 2016 up almost 70% YoY) and a huge market opportunity, it makes sense. Some fascinating market stats in this piece.
FinTech
The surprising place where cash is going extinct
Somaliland, a self-declared republic in East Africa, faces high illiteracy and has an economy ravaged by a civil war. But it might just become the first cashless society on Earth.
10x, founded by the ex-CEO of Barclays, raises $46M to take on ancient banking infrastructure
Big money raised by the former CEO of Barclays. To do what exactly, remains to be seen.
Google debuts Tez, a mobile payments app for India
Google launches a mobile payment solution in to India after several weeks of speculation and leaked details. Using Audio QR to process the payments, bypassing the need for NFC (which makes sense considering how few terminals in India are NFC enabled), Google is quick to point out that Tez is not a Wallet unlike companies including PayTM. One of those solutions that feel a little late to the party to me but let’s see where this goes.
Technology
The Seed Squeeze is the New Series A Crunch
Funds are getting bigger, seed rounds are the new A and bar for raising a round is getting higher.
16 Ways QR Codes are Being Used in China
QR codes - way of the future or legacy technology that should go the way of T9 typing and Snake? I for one think they are here to stay.
Facebook to Turn Over Russian-Linked Ads to Congress
The company said it would turn over 3,000 ads linked to Russia to Congress after growing scrutiny about its role in last November’s presidential election.
Random Tidbits
The Difference Between Open-Minded and Close-Minded People
Another great piece by Farnam Street, taking lessons from Ray Dalio’s new book Principles. Worth reading, then pausing to calibrate on which type of person you are!
Bookstores Are Dead. Subscribe to an 'Intellectual Gym' Instead
Can for-profit libraries save the book?