Slack is not as essential as its valuation implies Comparing Q2 2020 for both Zoom and Slack is a strong indicator that the recovery is not that strong at the smaller end of the market which is where the real recovery needs to happen. Slack and Zoom both derive a large proportion of their revenues from small and mid-size businesses...
Epic and Apple both shoot themselves in the foot. Both Apple and Epic have done more damage to themselves than to each other as the confrontation rolls around into the countersuit stage. Apple has countersued Epic games seeking both monetary and punitive damages for Epic’s conduct and on the bare facts of the issue, there is a case to answer....
Sync 4 is encouraging but there is much more to do. Ford Sync 4 is one of the most promising infotainment experiences I have seen from a manufacturer but despite solving some of the core user experience issues, the functionality needs to be richer and deeper to keep Google at bay. The only commonality that Sync 4 has with its...
SMIC becomes another political football. The possibility that SMIC is added to the entity list has hammered its share price and it may become another casualty in the ongoing trade dispute between the USA and China. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is partially owned by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as some of the shares are publicly listed in...
The end result should be greater transparency for users. While Apple’s position on app tracking serves to perpetuate the myth that the internet is free, the inevitable response from developers should increase visibility on how apps and services are paid for. Apple’s position on privacy is fundamentally correct but it tends to distort the economic reality of the app economy....
The opposite of that which is intended. A proposal to cut app store fees to 20% in Russia but also force developers to contribute a further 30% to a fund that trains IT specialists will have exactly the opposite effect of that intended. Fortunately, the proposal is very unlikely to ever pass into law. Draft legislation submitted to the lower...
Samsung inches towards a cure. Not only are Google and Samsung in discussions for Google to have a bigger role on Samsung handsets (see here) but there have been a string of departures from the Bixby team further indicating how poor Samsung’s AI really is. Many of these defections are members of the original Viv Team that Samsung acquired and...
Momentum crushes valuation. Zoom reported outstanding results driven by the work from home trend that has been triggered by the pandemic but as usual, the real question is whether the shares are worth 49x 2021 sales and 165x 2021 PER. Q2 2021 revenues / EPS were $663.5m / $0.63 which were miles ahead of estimates at $500.4m / $0.37. This...
China does Facebook et al a favour. China’s move to obstruct the sale of the international operations of TikTok is a self-defeating move that increases the likelihood of TikTok being shutdown opening the way for alternatives. On Friday, August 28th, China updated its list of controlled exports for the first time since 2008 to include “personalised information recommendation services based...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
TikTok – Remote control lobby.
TikTok lobbies for an extension TikTok’s transparency briefing actually explains very little about how the algorithm works and looks to me to be an attempt to get the press to lobby the US administration for an extension to the September 15th deadline after which TikTok will be blocked. TikTok held a virtual media event on Wednesday that attempted to explain...