Reply to this post Bad guidance is worse than no guidance at all. Tencent reported Q1 18 results that beat expectations but increased my concern that Tencent has a problem with managing investor expectations which has arguably already cost the company $60bn. Q1 18 revenues / net profit were RMB73.5bn (up 43% YoY) / RMB23.4bn...
Reply to this post Facebook security stats reveal flaws. Facebook disclosed Q1 enforcement data for the first time and while it is clear that Facebook is trying very hard, there are still massive problems that need to be overcome. During Q1 2018, Facebook deactivated (and I presume deleted) 583m fake accounts, took down 837m pieces...
Reply to this post Alexa leaves Cortana out in the cold. HP’s integration of Alexa into its all-in-one PC is yet another sign that Microsoft’s Cortana is really struggling for relevance in the cut throat world of the digital assistants. HP’s new version of its HP Envy all-in-one 34” version is the first PC...
Reply to this post This could be the end of Tidal. Tidal has received allegations of serious misconduct which if proved true, are likely to spell the end of the music service. Tidal has been accused of deliberately manipulating its usage data such that albums from Beyoncé and Kanye West were massively over represented in...
Reply to this post I don’t think that India is Walmart’s priority. Walmart’s agreement to take a controlling stake in Flipkart has all the hallmarks of a defensive move to throw a spanner in Amazon’s plans for global domination. Walmart will purchase a 77% stake in Walmart for $16bn where Tiger Global, SoftBank and Accel...
Reply to this post A rather subdued affair. Android P offered up such marginal improvements that Google was forced to rely on previews of long-term work in progress to generate any meaningful wow factor. As has become customary, Google ignored the really important issues with its Android operating system and instead rolled-out a series of...
Reply to this post Comfortably ahead of Amazon AWS and Alicloud Microsoft announced incremental improvements to its best in class offerings for enterprises and knowledge workers in a session that demonstrated its lead in corporate AI services but further highlighted to me how slow the pace of AI development really is. Microsoft’s offering is based...
Reply to this post Another excellent year ahead. Alibaba reported excellent FQ4 18 results and guided very strongly for the year to come as its investments in offline retail begin to contribute to revenues. However, this does come at a cost as offline retail is unlikely to ever match the profitability of Alibaba’s online market...
Reply to this post Prospectus yields valuation of $33.3bn. Being as optimistic as I dare, I can only value Xiaomi at $33.3bn, one third of the mooted $100bn IPO valuation. Xiaomi has filed for its IPO in HK meaning that real numbers can be applied to the valuation logic that I applied in part I...
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.
Smart speakers – Pregnant pause
Reply to this post Pause while products improve. Google is catching up with Amazon in the smart speaker race, but there are signs that growth may soon grind to halt until some of the shortcomings are fixed. Data from Strategy Analytics indicates that total smart speaker shipments were 9.2m units in Q1 18 up 278%...