Tag: Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship, Start-ups

Didi & Uber China: End of the Car Hailing War, End of Pride and Prejudice

China's TrailblazersOn the heels of Didi announcing the deal to acquire Uber China, The Economist reflected on some of Western media’s historical pride and prejudice against Chinese internet firms in its cover article – “China’s tech trailblazers”. China’s internet market has many unique characteristics – the Great Firewall, government censorship, unique and complex culture, and some local firm’s unconventional (or highly questionable) competitive tactics. To many Western media, it is easy to conclude that local firms flourished because of protectionism. To me, this inference is more level-one thinking. Would the competitive outcome be different without the above constraints against foreign firms? The answer is No. Let’s first tally the scores of some of the well-known internet wars: Continue reading “Didi & Uber China: End of the Car Hailing War, End of Pride and Prejudice” →

Entrepreneurship, Start-ups

A Mental Model for “Cold Launching” Start-ups (Four Launch Modes)

Disclaimer: I cannot claim originality to the framework used here but owe it to Cao Zheng, a former core member of Baidu’s business analysis group, 4399.com chief architect, and a current gaming entrepreneur from China. He is an avid thinker/ blogger on the internet business, from whom I have learned much (link to Cao Zheng’s public account on WeChat “caoz的梦呓”)

After more than half a year in incubation, a friend recently launched the beta version of his marketplace app for people to rent or buy things from people nearby, yes, the old “neighborhood sharing economy” concept again (aka. using app to borrow a power drill from your neighbor). I have served as an adviser to him prior to the launch. During our conversations, one counterfactual I constantly used to push the discussion was all the neighborhood sharing apps that have struggled to gain traction before, which is well documented by this article on FastCompany – The “Sharing Economy” is Dead, and We Killed It.

“Everything made sense except that nobody gives a sh**. They go buy [a drill]. Or they just bang a screwdriver through the wall.”

Continue reading “A Mental Model for “Cold Launching” Start-ups (Four Launch Modes)” →

Entrepreneurship, Start-ups

Demystifying Bitcoin/Blockchain: How it Actually Works

Note: This my second blog post on Bitcoin/Blockchain. My previous post provided an overview of Bitcoin/Blockchain and some brief commentary on the evolution of its applications, as well as its implications on securities trading. Of course, the potential impact is beyond just payment or exchanging non-physical assets. However, in order to truly appreciate the potential and shortcomings of Blockchain, one has to go back to the origin (Bitcoin and Blockchain were born together as one) and understand how the Bitcoin system works, ACTUALLY.  Only then can one cut through the fog and begin to tell what is truth and what is a myth, and start to appreciate the complexities. Inevitably, this Blog runs the risk of oversimplifying things and may appear naive to the true Bitcoin experts. But for the novice and non-techies, this is where we start diving into the rabbit hole… Continue reading “Demystifying Bitcoin/Blockchain: How it Actually Works” →