Leadership unconnected with past is needed. Faraday Future has secured a life line that ushers it back into the increasingly crowded electric vehicle start-up space, but I have concerns as to whether Jia Yueting is the right person to lead the company from here. Despite its already very chequered history, Faraday Future has managed to secure $2bn in funding...
KaiOS works better than Android at the lowest end. Google is having another crack at social networking and an important part of its success could end up being dependent on KaiOS, the feature phone OS that has risen spectacularly from the ashes of Firefox OS. Google’s first attempt to compete with Facebook in social networking was Google+ which failed...
Reply to this post A better shot at the $100bn club. Meituan has filed for an IPO which, in my opinion, has much better fundamental reasons to justify a $100bn valuation than Xiaomi where reality seems to be pushing the listing valuation gradually downwards. Meituan was created from the merger of Meituan and Dianping both of whom specialise in online...
Reply to this post Instagram hammers two more nails into Snap. Instagram has passed 1bn monthly active users (MaUs) which combined with the launch of an offering for creators that enables longer form video content, leaves Snapchat in an increasingly unwinnable position. This has gone hand in hand with poor performance by Snap Inc’s stock...
Reply to this post Removal of bias essential for commercialisation. IBM’s debating AI is not going to fool anyone, but it does represent a step forward from Jeopardy, reinforcing RFM’s position that in the enterprise, IBM has a pretty strong AI offering. However, ensuring that the opinions are created without bias will be crucial to ensuring that the AI can...
Reply to this post JD.com will help Google shopping a bit. Sinking $550m into JD.com is unlikely to do anything for Google’s fortunes (or lack thereof) in China, but it may help somewhat with the biggest weakness of the Google Assistant in developed markets: shopping. It is also a recognition that if one wants to...
Reply to this post Amazon: 480 – Alibaba 600,000+. Alibaba is already streets ahead of Amazon when it comes to total business transactions and its move into retail shows that it is China where all the new ideas are happening first. Amazon has a much higher market valuation than Alibaba but when looks at the...
Reply to this post Insurance industry has no choice but to resist. While the regulatory environment is moving towards an acceptance of autonomous vehicles far more quickly than I thought, I still think that the main resistance will come from the insurance industry, despite some studies indicating to the contrary. Research from Bloomberg Industries and...
Reply to this post Sony is gifting Microsoft a big opportunity. Sony does not seem to have learned from the destruction of its personal music player business at the hands of Apple and looks to be more than happy to repeat it with its massively successful gaming business. There is no question that Sony has...
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.
KaiOS – The long arm of Google.
Google’s long arm extends into feature phones. The hopes of handset makers and operators wishing to escape from Google’s clutches in emerging markets have been dealt a blow as Google Ventures is leading an investment round in KaiOS. KaiOS is a feature phone platform that has managed to take 15% share in India on the basis of it offering...