2019-01-19

Tech Review | Why Communist China Has So Many Tech Billionaires

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2019-01-19)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Why Communist China Has So Many Tech Billionaires, 2)Ecommerce: Online Spending Putting Traditional Retailers Under Pressure, 3) Investing: The Week; Notes: Why You Can't Trust Most "Financial News" and more,  4)ICYMI Tech News: Amazon AWS, Facebook, Tencent, Robotics, 5G, Apple, IBM, Vodafone, and more. 

1) Why Communist China Has So Many Tech Billionaires

By one estimate, China mints a new billionaire every two days, far exceeding the rate of countries like the United States. But how did China remain a nominally Communist state while becoming a hotbed for billionaires-in-the-making? Bloomberg QuickTake explains how capitalist compromises and moves begun decades ago have made China the not-quite-Communist country it is today. Featured: Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group (alibabagroup.com) $BABA. Bloomberg (bloomberg.com) video above published Jan 9, 2019.

2) Online Spending Putting Traditional Retailers Under Pressure

Richard Lim, CEO of Retail Economics (retaileconomics.co.uk), discusses the U.K. retail sector after M&S and John Lewis suffered their worst Christmas sales since the financial crisis. CNBC International TV video above published Jan 10, 2019. #retail #ecommerce #bricknmortar

Ecommerce & Truckers: since consumers now buy online appliances, treadmills, outdoor grills, etc., national trucking companies are buying up local delivery operators.--bloomberg.com.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The WeekNASDAQ Composite +2.7% | S&P 500 Index +2.9% | DJIA +3.0%

Notes: Why You Can't Trust Most "Financial News"
Editor's note: "Hope is not a strategy."

Other Notes:
  • China signals more stimulus as economic slowdown deepens--reuters.com.
  • Eurozone: risks besieging European Bonds spill over into 2019--bloomberg.com.
  • Germany: German GDP grew 1.5% in 2018, compared with 2.2% in 2017, the weakest growth rate in five years--Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) (flash data).
  • Why digital strategies fail: for most companies, the pace of disruption is uneven, and they can’t just walk away from existing businesses. They need to digitize their current businesses and innovate new models--mckinsey.com.
  • WeWork a/k/a WeCompany: "You can’t put lipstick on a property gamble and call it a Tech paradigm shift"--morningporridge.com: "Softbank founder Masayoshi Son was the perfect mark"--Editor's note: We Work was expecting a $16 bln capital injection from Softbank’s Visionfund.
  • Index funds are dominated by only three asset management firms--Vanguard (Jack Bogle RIP), BlackRock, and State Street Global--marketwatch.com
  • Brexit: UK Government's next steps will be tabled on Monday 21 January. It will be debated Tuesday 29 January.  Most likely now: renegotiate withdrawal agreement or leave with "no deal" March 29, 2019. More on Brexit here.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
  • Amazon Web Services announced Jan 16, 2019, AWS Backup, its fully-managed, centralized service for customers to back up their data from across AWS services and on-premises--press.aboutamazon.com
  • German antitrust order in the works re Facebook and user data--reuters.comFTC (US) commissioners met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for failing to safeguard user privacy, violating 2011 consent decree--TheHill.com.  
  • UK engineers have finished building Quantum, the first fully software-defined communications satellite that can be reprogrammed in orbit, launching this year--bbc.com.
  • Tencent's Xiaowei, AI voice assistant for WeChat, integrates with Tencent's own services and apps by third-parties such as Meituan or Didi.
  • 10 robotics companies to watch in 2019--therobotreport.com.
  • 5G network and deployment, investment implications--seekingalpha.comQualcomm says every Android phone maker will beat Apple to 5G.
  • IBM links up with Vodafone for $550m cloud computing contract--cityam.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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