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
Article out today with my name in the headline. No interview. No fact check. Reporter sent an email saying “hope this is accurate”. Sheesh.— Jeffrey Gundlach (@TruthGundlach) January 13, 2019
To be clear: “Hope this is accurate” email was sent with a link to the article, but only after the article was already run in global media.— Jeffrey Gundlach (@TruthGundlach) January 13, 2019
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:
- 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.com. FTC (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.com. Qualcomm 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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