Read online Dear Readers, Apologies again for being so late. I had a busy week and also had a hospital day today (I go every 8 weeks) for treatment. What is on my mind: When Amazon Web Services (AWS) has issues, it impacts the Internet. Last week, I learnt that many e-commerce businesses were impacted. Amazon's logistics business likely has a backlog of several million packages. In Latin America, Mercado Libre, iFood, and PicPay were disrupted. Mercado Libre likely lost millions of Reais of...
9 days ago • 9 min read
Read online Dear Readers, The three questions on my mind this week: Walmart is partnering with OpenAI. Is this to ensure Walmart can be found via ChatGPT, or is this the Jackal coming into the hen house? The launch press release is scant on details, but why would any retailer want a third-party to index any of its content? I understand this is where the world is going but are we going back to walled gardens and customers having to use different LLMs to access the opportunity to purchase...
16 days ago • 8 min read
Read online Dear Readers, To those who celebrated Columbus Day yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful long weekend. The three questions on my mind this week: Flipkart is going to do a public listing in the next six to 12 months. Moving the company domicile from Singapore to India, selling non-core assets such as their shares in Aditya Birla Lifestyle stake through Rs. 950 crore ( $106M). The question for me remains what the valuation will be and how large a stake Walmart is planning to own....
24 days ago • 8 min read
Read online Dear Readers, Apologies - this is late. I have had a busy week and got behind with my reading. The three questions this week: Alibaba is starting to use Lazada as a Trojan horse. By partnering with Gmarket, Lazada is able to move South Korean products (and in particular beauty products) into SEA. Being able to move products into SEA, it's likely to me that these products could also be moving into China VIA Lazada's partnership with Tmall. I tend to believe that this is the next...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Read online Dear Readers, Happy Golden Week to readers in China. I cannot believe its that time again. The three questions this week: Amazon has settled its Prime membership deception case for $2.5 billion without admitting to wrongdoing. What is interesting is how this has been communicated by the FTC and Amazon. Amazon got off lightly - the company generates a settlement in revenue every 33 or 34 hours. That said, Amazon is playing the long game, as another class-action lawsuit has been...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Read online Dear Readers, Apologies for the late newsletter, I had to deal with a very fearful little Jack Russell amidst rain in Cape Town.. The three questions this week: We had two initial public offerings last week, StubHub and Pattern. One company will be able to leverage scale to generate quarterly revenues without owning inventory, whilst the other (whose staff looked dejected) will face a very tough environment once its quarterly earnings reports underwhelm analysts. I hope we see...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Read online Dear Readers, Apologies for the late newsletter, I fell in the garden on my back on Saturday and then had to rush my Jack Russell to the ER vet. Everyone is okay. The three questions this week: Amazon Ads is partnering with Netflix to offer Amazon DSP customers advertisers with direct access to Netflix's premium ad inventory.. Amazon is continuing to grow its DSP amid Google's legal drama and gaining digital real estate that it can monetize. Ads remain a must-have for marketplace...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Read online Dear Readers, The three things on my mind this week: I was shocked to learn that eBay turned 30 years old this past week. The original marketplace pioneer will continue to operate the way it has over the last decade. The most interesting note is that eBay management thought this was the time to mention that they are also working on incorporating AI. CEO Jamie Iannone then made a bold claim that, to his knowledge, eBay had never passed a counterfeit item through any of its...
2 months ago • 8 min read
Read online Dear Readers, Firstly, to those who celebrate Labor Day, - hope you are having a good long weekend! The three things on my mind this week: I cannot remember when I last saw so many pixels and characters spent on a topic. The end of the de minimis exemption will reduce cross-border shopping but benefit sectors such as resale/recommerce or off-price retail. The biggest losers are Etsy and eBay. It will also lead to less selection and longer waiting times for goods. Will this lead to...
2 months ago • 7 min read