The Great Firechat

After a several month hiatus Adeh and Kevin are back with season 2!This week we delve deep into ElonMusk's Twit-tastrophe and examine the odds of his success, and the success of other superapps. Then we segue to the China gaming market which is finally on the thaw.1) Twitter to Superapp - What Musk needs to do to turn it into a Superapp, and can he do it?Douyin making smart Superapp plays2) Gaming:Blizzard and Netease end partnership after 15 yearsTencent gets first gaming license after freezeTencent to expand Honor of the Kings into it's own metaverse

Today we chat with Duco van Breemen.Just looking at what Duco has done – starts his first company (of many) at 11 years old, spends a decade in China doing government relations and supporting start-ups, moves to Australia and becomes CEO of a major coworking space and incubator in the heart of Sydney's Chinatown, then ends up doing one of the biggest NFT events in the country – the guy sounds like a business monster.But listening to him, I think you'll find him quite human and humble. Enjoy!Links:Duco is CEO of Haymarket HQ https://www.haymarkethq.com/Duco's brilliant and hilarious NFT project "The Kimmies" https://www.thekimmies.com/Duco's co-organized event with Aussie street artist E.L.K. https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/edge-of-chaos

Adeh and Kevin sit down with Robby Wade, CEO and Co-founder of Thisapp, "an all-in-one chat platform that makes it easy to connect with anyone and organize anything". We explore everything superapps from their success factors, determining their viability in the West to Elon Musk pulling out of the Twitter deal.Claim your Thisapp username at https://www.thisapp.com/"The First Superapp" book: https://www.kevinshimota.com/

This week we are all about how to front-run the opportunity:Bytedance is making an Instagram copy in China to compete with RED, but does the West need a RED copy?With a mess of review platforms in the West, we think it’s time for a review revolution!Didi's year-long data debacle seems to finally be at an end with one big last fine. Chinese gaming companies increasingly look overseas, while Chinese look for new ways to play games, like LARPing, which has apparently become big enough to cause some problems. Enjoy!1) Bytedance to launch KeSong 可颂 'criossant' - Instagram-copy to compete with Xiaohongshu in China2) The jury is out - Didi fined USD 1Billion3) Netease opens new gaming studio in Seattle focused on first-person narrative action 4) China’s Communist Party cracks down on larping5) Kevin explains Suprapps to the Wall Street JournalBONUStranslation of a chinese article on the birth of Douyin/TikTokOriginal Article in Chinese 

Write-up:This week we talk about China's big tech to give NFTs a new name in a tech rebranding to attempt to revitalize the industry in the gov's eyes, which is needed because companies like Alibaba are suffering small but telling 'burns' from the government. China's livestreaming could use some rethinking as they're hit with more content restrictions and Tencent closes their "WeGame" mobile app showing a failure to consolidate their gaming empire in China.1) China tech is rebranding NFTs2) Alibaba gets a 'sick burn' from Hangzhou metro3) China's livestreaming is now 'wholesome-content only'4) Tencent closes "WeGame", a Steam-like mobile game portalBONUS Article: Inside Didi's 60 billion dollar crash by Bloomberg

Bit of a monstruous episode this week, we normally try to stick to 4 stories, and we ended up going into about 10. We chat out the electric vehicle market, examine data security concerns from the national and corporate level, get an update from gaming criss-crossing the Pacific, and lastly, provide you with an authentic China-experience by selling you a product while teaching you Chinese - I dub this 'educational informercials' and I think we're just seeing the beginning of this new China-fad.1) BYD becomes third-largest car company by market cap2) After a year of probing, Didi is back online3) speaking of probing for data security, Tiktok 'lied' about user data (or did they?) ; and an NYT article on the same topic.3.5) Bytedance's foray into VR ; and Tencent opens a BD on 'extended reality'4）Tencent and Netease bring games to Msft's Xbox ; and, after another freeze, Beijing is approving more games(4.5) speaking of Tencent, they invested $250mn in Flipkart (indian eCommerce)5) New Oriental finds surprising success by innovatively combining eCommerce livestreaming and English education - or what I dub, "the educational infomercial"Bonus: Elon Musk holds town hall meeting with 5k Twitter employees and says he wants to turn Twitter into WeChat-style superapp

This week we delve into ecommerce boom of short-video apps in China Douyin and Kuaishou then look at how ecommerce is and will evolve outside of China. Can Facebook and Instagram create a similar ecommerce pivot with their social media platforms?Meanwhile, India is creating a new centralized digital commerce platform, which accomplishes something similar to China's recent regulation on the fintech: creating a level playing field and breaking down monopolistic barriers in the digital realm.1) Douyin’s ecommerce sales more than tripled over the past year 2) Alibaba-backed smart-vending machine Ubox to IPO in HK 3) Apple moving more production to Vietnam 4) India making ecommerce a public good with Open Network for Digital Commerce 5) SouthEast Asia Tech is cooling off Honorable mentions: www.stratechery.com by Ben Thompson

This week we delve into the big slowdown of Tencent, and greather big tech in China, and look at how these companies are looking overseas markets for revenue potential, especially in games.We then talk a bit about WeChat; "private traffic" is a major trend in China driving business decision and it pairs with influencer and live-streaming economy yet it's not well understood outside of China. Similarly, Elon Musk in an interview this week, explains that WeChat is "really an excellent app" and his Twitter product road map would be to make a WeChat-style superapp.1) Tencent stops growing, down $500bn since 2021 peak  2) Chinese mobile game companies set eyes on US, Europe and overseas markets3) "Private traffic" trend in China 私域流量4) Elon Musk wants the West to make a WeChat-style SuperappBonus article: Wired on Shein

This week Adeh and Kevin team up with Fabian Gems and Lisa-Maria Stöger from GIN (Global Incubator Network) as we chat about the metaverse, how China's metaverse will look similar and different from the rest of the world, and a few fun digressions. Enjoy!(no cool links to sources this week as this was more a live, adlib convo)

With Elon Musk acquiring Twitter and upending the status quo of the Western tech, Kevin and Adeh analyze and foretell the impact of the EU's two new upcoming tech regulation policies by examining China's tech crackdown as precedence.They end on a more optimistic note by looking at how parts of China's tech is continuuing to flourish and the crackdown beginning to ease.1) Musk bought Twitter, a $44 bn deal2) EU tech crackdown: EU approves Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act3) China tech crackdown: $1 tn tech stock value loss during crackdown, venture cap funding down 77% yoy4) Shein valued at $100 bn USD, more than H&M and Zara combined5) China hands out game licenses after 9 month freeze  5b) Tencent didn't get a license but still rolling in the dough

This week we talk about how China's big tech are coping with new regulations on recommendation algorithms; they are simply allowing users to 'turn them off'.Meanwhile, a Shanghai's games developer "Genshin Impact" becomes the first major Chinese game to go global. This marks a major milestone in China's gaming industry, and some of the most valuable IP content (Intellectual Property) to be created in Greater China since the likes of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Bruce Lee movies.1) Douyin, Baidu, Taobao, and WeChat now offer an option that allows users to turn off their recommendation algorithms2) Shanghai game "Genshin Impact" focuses on Japan and US markets, earns $2bn USD in first year3) Chinese authorities are considering requiring Tencent Holdings Ltd. to include WeChat Pay in a newly created financial holding companyBONUS ContentDouban is seeking a public apology from Weibo and demanding a symbolic RMB 1 ($0.15) indemnity and the litigation fees from the case. Podcast interview with author of Cashless, all about China's CBDC (Central Bank Digital Coin)

This week Adeh and Kevin cover the latest Chinese government directive from the “Two Meetings”, as they predict the tech crackdown is finally consolidating and bottoming out. I mean... we can only go up from here, right? Also, we look at how East Asia is finally starting to reject their smartphone addictions.How is smartphone addiction perceived in your country? Are you and/or your friends beginning to reject smartphones, or maybe taper smartphone their addictions? We'd love to hear from you!1) Beijing's Two Sessions illustrates gov direction 2) Tencent potential big fine for violating anti-money laundering regulations3) Tencent firing around 20% of employees, Alibaba about 30%4) Businesses boom to help kick smartphone addition

This week's theme was 'continuity' – Adeh and Kevin are becoming real podcasters as they revisit previous topics. They recap the impacts of the crackdown on China's tutoring and gaming industry's, notice that another EV company is jumping into smartphones, and examine new policies on food-delivery platforms as Beijing's crackdown on tech continues. 1) 90% of tutoring companies have closed since July after gov crackdown 1b) First edtech company to IPO since crackdown "FenBi"; going for $300 mn USD2) Nio hires former president of Meitu's smartphone unit  3) Netease looking to be more global as gov crackdown on gaming continues4) New gov policy to limits merchant fees on food-delivery platforms, and Meituan's stock falls 15%, losing $25 bn market value

After nearly a decade of domination of social tech products, a cute metaverse avatar app seems to be challenging WeChat/Tencent. Adeh and Kevin delve deeper into the metaverse as they talk about tech issues on both sides of the Pacific.1) A year of China tech layoffs 2) Metaverse social app flies past WeChat then crashes3) Meta, Metamates, and MeBonus links:Mentioned podcast episode on Bored Ape YCBored Ape Yacht Club official website

Kevin and Adeh go through a variety of topics which depicting shifting trends in China tech.  China's tech is maturing and getting more business savvy, Electric vehicles are still booming with Geely getting more tech savvy, and China's gov is getting more savvy on the VC industry and on blockchain. We hope you savor this savvy episode.Happy Chinese New Year!- The Great Firechat Team 1) Geely to buy Meizu 2) Youzan laying off 30% of employee 3)  Upcoming regulations could dampen China's VC industry 4) China moves to create an 'approved' NFT industry or "Digital collectibles" industry

Kevin and Adeh do a deep dive into platform's algorithms and Beijing's upcoming regulations on them. These regulations are aimed at moving responsibility and risk to companies and their algorithms. How can an algorithm be responsible for anything? What would that even look like?  Adeh presents some great examples which help things finally click for Kevin.We then end on a less complex note with the booming electric vehicle market and new smart helmets that help make zoomie food-couriers safer.Links:1) new regulations; Data security (Feb 15), Algorithm March 1Beijing’s new algorithm rules shift responsibility — and risk — onto companies, not creators.ENG translation of the law2) NYTimes explains the TikTok algorithm3) BYD reports 232% year-on-year increase in passenger EV deliveries 4) Ele.me smart helmets - take order, bright lights, call ambulance, etc. BONUS) College majors for "social influencers"

As Tencent and the rest of big China tech continues to suffer from the gov crackdown, Bytedance revenue soars. However, Tencent may just be lying low and contemplating their next move as the company seems surprisingly well equipped for the metaverse and future of tech.1) Bytedance still growing strong with 60% revenue growth2a) Gov crackdown begins to traverse time into the past2b) Big China tech struggling to play nice and open up3) Tencent is lying low - quarterly revenues lowest since 2004 4) Into the metaverse - Tencent has been doing this for two decades

This week we talk about more Western tech companies pulling out of China, this time a big and successful one; Microsoft's LinkedIn.We go deep into the real industry of fake virtual celebrities, talk about Alibaba's waning eCommerce dominance, and end with impending regulation to open up content for search engines which would be a great boon to Baidu, the once massive Google-like search engine which has struggled to remain relevant the past half decade.1) MSFT pulls the plug on LinkedIn China2) The growing synthetic media business (like the 2013 movie "The Congress")https://www.36kr.com/p/1456252888033415Porsche invests in iMaker Virtual human start-up Next Gen raises $5 million in round A More on the industry in China Lil MaquelaExtra: Deep fakes of celebs3) $BABA is losing e-comm market share - and it's not just regulations4) Beijing may force tech companies to share data for search

This week your co-hosts discuss Meituan's anti-trust fine, JD.com's foray into elevator ads and pets, and then go a little deep on the responsibility platforms have for their algorithms. This is especially timely as Facebook's whistleblower cries foul in the US, while China implements policy holding products responsible for their algorithms.1 Meituan's anti-monopoly probe ends with a USD534M fine 2 JD and Baidu jointly invest $400mn in elevator ads biz now worth >$2bn. 3 JD.com make Internet Hospital for Pets4 Algorithm rules get more clear

This week Kevin and Adeh delve deep into China's tech crackdown. The crackdown has wiped hundreds of billions off the value of China's tech companies - is this the end or the beginning?Your hosts review the crackdown to date, examine how companies are mitigating the current risks, and grapple with convoluted metaphors to predict how this will all play out.China has over a billion internet usersChina's tech crackdownSummary of Tech CrackdownAli and Tencent agree to work togetherWalls are coming downBeijing to break up Alipay, separate Loans appAnt's spinoff will share data with GovAlibaba feelin' the squeeze from the crackdownChina orders Alipay and WeChat Pay to disclose IPOs, new products and int.l partnershipsWhat's next? Li Guangman's opinion pieceGames:No new games! (or 'slow' new games!)Tencent gaming global investments sevenfold increaseNetEase invests $120M in global gaming hub 'Kepler'