Tech Review: 1) Tencent & WeChat's Pony Ma, 2) Browser Market Share

Tech Review (TR 2018-08-04)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Tencent & WeChat's Pony Ma, 2) Browser Market Share--Where's Amazon Silk? 3) Investing: The Week: Apple at $1T, Investing Notes: a. Disrupted, b. $FB Record Loss, c. U.S. at 3% Growth Next 4-5 Years? 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) China’s Tencent & WeChat Billionaire

Pony Ma is one of the richest people in the world. He created Tencent (domain: tencent.com), China's tech colossus, one of the ten largest companies in the world and developer of the WeChat app (domain: wechat.com), China's ubiquitous multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app. But few signs in his early years suggest that he would become such a success. Bloomberg.com video above first published 11 Jul 2018.

Tencent Holdings Ltd   HKG: 0700

Tencent's $143 Billion Rout Is World's Biggest as Tech Sinks--Bloomberg.com July 30, 2018--Tencent's stock has dropped 25% from its January peak, erasing $143B in value, as global investors became wary of big tech's potential growth.

2) Browser Market Share Worldwide (all devices) June 2018--Where's Amazon Silk?

• Chrome 58.94% (Google)
• Safari 13.7% (Apple)
• UC Browser 7.46% (Alibaba)
• Firefox 5.17% (Mozilla Foundation, Mountain View, California)
• Opera 3.5% (Chinese consortium)
• IE 3.12% (Microsoft)

Editor's note: The dominant market leader is definitely Google's Chrome browser, and #2 Safari offers real competition only on Apple devices (Apple's 'walled garden'). But watch Opera's future market share growth on cheap smartphones, particularly in China, India, and Brazil. Also watch if Amazon's Silk browser expands beyond Amazon devices. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), could be just a few steps away from a broad array of new products and services, including a competitive search engine to Google and Microsoft's Bing, built on its core ecommerce platform, its AWS technology (aws.amazon.com), its Twitch (twitch.tv) subsidiary, and its expanding Amazon Advertising Platform--advertising.amazon.com/amazon-advertising-platform.

source: Statista.com

source: Statista.com

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.9% | S&P 500 Index +0.8% | DJIA +0.1%

Apple $AAPL Jul 27-Aug 2, 2018

Apple $AAPL on Thursday, August 2, 2018, became the first $1Trillion market cap company.

Wall Street's Charging Bull

Investing Notes:

a. Disrupted: "the staid taxi industry slept through the arrival of smartphones – and what an app-based system could do. While there are now apps for taxi services, it’s too little too late"--WolfStreet.com.

b. Facebook's Big Single Day Market Cap Loss in Context:

source: Statista.com

c. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he sees at least 3 percent growth for next 4-5 years--reuters.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Q2 2018 Results of note this past week: Apple $AAPL & Tesla $TSLA. 

• 342M smartphones were shipped worldwide in Q2 2018, down 1.8% YoY from 348.2M, with Huawei passing Apple to ship the second-most smartphones--IDC.com.

• Chinese smartphone market declined 7% YoY in Q2 2018, fourth consecutive quarter of annual decline; Huawei's marketshare grew from 20% to 26%--counterpointresearch.com.

• Amazon has 70% of the U.S. home speaker market, followed by Google with 24% and Apple only 6%. The number of smart speaker devices in use in the U.S.? 50 million--CNET.com.

• 5G: Nokia & T-Mobile US agree to $3.5B 5G network hardware deal--reuters.com.

• "Logistics is hard"--Walmart stumbles with its 'last mile' package delivery plan--reuters.com.

• Cryptocurrency: California college student who allegedly was a member of OGUSERS, allegedly stole over $5M in cryptocurrency by "SIM swapping" (hijacking cellphone numbers)--motherboard.vice.com.
• Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I’m a Crypto Skeptic--Paul Krugman in the New York Times | NYTimes.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | Samsung All-in-One Android Smartphone Computer (video)

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Features •  1) Samsung DeX: Android Smartphone & Desktop, 2) Q1 2017 Earnings Season, 3)  Digital Learning, Browsers, and Apps, 4)  PayPal On The Edge, 5) The End of Retail as We Knew It, 6) ICYMI Tech News: 12 Quick Takes, and 7) One Last Thing.

1) Android desktop: all you need is a smartphone and dock + external monitor + keyboard + mouse--Samsung’s DeX dock for the Galaxy S8 costs $150 and will ship in April--T-Mobile is giving a free dock to its @Work enterprise customers who reserve the Galaxy S8 in-store. The Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus connects to the DeX Station via USB-C and lets you also plug in an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse.--TheVerge.com

UPDATE April 3, 2017: Android overtakes Windows for first time | StatCounter.com: "Android now world’s most popular operating system in terms of internet usage."

Samsung DeX puts your Galaxy S8 on your desktop:

Video above published Mar 29, 2017: Samsung's new DeX dock uses special Android apps to give you a full-screen experience, like a PC. More info here. See also CNET.com's first Galaxy S8 impressions.

Reminiscent of Motorola's Atrix 4G Lapdock (no longer produced), you can expect other Android manufacturers will come out with competing products similar to Samsung's DeX. Will Apple's iPhone and iOS ever catch up with Android? 

Android desktop demo:

Video above published Mar 29, 2017: Currently compatible with Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, Samsung DeX provides an Android-based, desktop-like experience that enables users to seamlessly access mobile apps, edit documents and browse the web. See also: [Hands-On] 8 Galaxy S8 Features You Should Know About | Samsung.com

Other Tech News:

2) Q1 2017 earnings season: Apple: Panic Time, Again? | Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) | SeekingAlpha.com: Significant share loss in China. Challenges in penetrating Indian market. Declining gross margins for iPhone. A mature and slowing smartphone market. See also Apple iCloud hack threat gets worse: Here's what we've learned | ZDNet.com. Q1 2017 earnings coverage on Domain Mondo (alphabetical order): Alibaba BABA; Alphabet GOOG / GOOGL; Amazon AMZN; Apple AAPL; Facebook FB; GoDaddy GDDY; Rightside NAME; Tucows (TO:TC) (NASDAQ:TCX); Twitter TWTR; Verisign VRSN.

3) Digital Learning, Browsers, and Apps | Technology and Learning | insidehighered.com:

"Many of us working in edtech thought that the app would supplant the browser for digital learning. The app seemed to have so much going for it. First, we thought that digital learning would follow social media - migrating from the computer (and the browser) to the mobile device (and the app). Next, we also believed that the app was a more robust and powerful platform to design immersive learning environments than the browser. Web applications were thought to be clunky as compared to the potential elegance of the app. We were wrong. In 2017 online courses continue to be designed for, and run mostly through, our browser based learning management systems (LMS). Every LMS platform has a mobile app, but they continue to be mostly add-ons and appendages to the primary action that occurs in the browser. Nobody has come up with a mobile-first, or mobile-only, LMS app that has the potential of supplanting the browser-first design of the dominant learning management systems."

4)  PayPal On The Edge Of A Cliff  (NASDAQ:PYPL) | SeekingAlpha.com: PayPal will likely face off either directly or indirectly with the big ecosystem plays--Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), in the next five years.

5) The End of Retail As We Knew It--The Retail Death Spiral Continues | SeekingAlpha.com Mar 28, 2017--"... eBay CEO Devin Wenig, March 27, 2017, cnbc.com:

"The fourth quarter, the last holiday season, was a really important inflection point. That was the end of retail as we know it. The restructuring of retail is going to happen much faster than many people expect. I'm not sure that many retailers will make it to the next holiday season." ... Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, recently dumped his decades-old position in Wal-Mart (WMT), and he almost NEVER sells ..."

6) ICYMI Tech News: 12 Quick Takes:

1. GOP faces backlash over attack on internet privacy rules | TheHill.com
2. The 265 members of Congress who sold you out to ISPs, and how much it cost to buy them | TheVerge.com: "chump change"
3. With Washington’s Blessing, Telecom Giants Can Mine Your Web History | WSJ.com: "Congress’s repeal of FCC privacy rules could be data boon for Verizon, Comcast, AT&T."
4. Here's exactly what information of yours ISPs can now collect and sell | mic.com
5. Latest WikiLeaks release shows how the CIA uses computer code to hide the origins of its hacking attacks and 'disguise them as Russian or Chinese activity' | dailymail.co.uk
6. The Sleazy Origins of Russia-gate | washingtonsblog.com
7. Cisco exposes uncomfortable truths about U.S. cyber defense | Reuters.com
8. T-Mobile Introduces New Network Technology to Protect Customers from Phone Scams | T-Mobile.com
9. FCC Moves to Confront Scam Robocalls & Malicious Spoofing | Federal Communications Commission | fcc.gov
10. The Wall Street Informant Who Double-Crossed the FBI | Bloomberg.com
11. James Comey’s Twitter Account | gizmodo.com
12. 3 billion solar mass black hole rockets out of a galaxy at 8 million kilometers per hour. | blastr.com

7) One Last Thing: "... Google’s geopolitical aspirations are firmly enmeshed within the foreign-policy agenda of the world’s largest superpower. As Google’s search and internet service monopoly grows, and as it enlarges its industrial surveillance cone to cover the majority of the world’s population, rapidly dominating the mobile phone market and racing to extend internet access in the global south, Google is steadily becoming the internet for many people. Its influence on the choices and behavior of the totality of individual human beings translates to real power to influence the course of history. If the future of the internet is to be Google, that should be of serious concern to people all over the world—in Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the former Soviet Union, and even in Europe—for whom the internet embodies the promise of an alternative to US cultural, economic, and strategic hegemony ..."--Julian Assange, Google Is Not What It Seems | wikileaks.org

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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Alibaba's UC Browser: Mobile Internet Gateway to China, India, Indonesia

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

UCWeb: UCWeb Inc. (also known as UC Mobile) is a Chinese mobile Internet company that offers products and services including mobile browser and search. Its flagship product, the UC Browser, topped the China, Indonesia and India markets in 2013.

"In June 2014, UCWeb was acquired by Alibaba Group in the largest Chinese Internet merger deal through which UCWeb will form the Alibaba UC mobile business group by assimilating and consolidating part of mobile-related businesses within the Alibaba Group. After the merger, under the leadership of Yu Yongfu, chief executive of UCWeb since 2006, the Alibaba UC mobile business group will oversee the browser, search, location-based service, app store, mobile gaming and mobile reader operations" (Wikipedia)

Domain name: ucweb.com

"Alibaba's (NYSE:BABA) UCWeb has seen significant market share gain over the past year when BABA acquired the asset ... UCWeb leads India's mobile browser market share with 54% and Indonesia's mobile browser share with 49% ... a solid foundation for BABA to expand its e-commerce presence ... UC Browser's popularity is driven by its speed and ease of access to local content and services that is similar to user preference towards Chrome over Internet Explorer in North America. As a one-stop mobile gateway, UC Browser provides users with a convenient access to various mobile and local services, thereby creating a sticky user experience for its 100m daily active users. With a leading position in China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, UCWeb is positioned to capture significant growth opportunities in emerging markets as mobile internet takes off." Source: Alibaba: Owning The Mobile Internet Gateway - Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) | Seeking Alpha (emphasis added)

Tweets by @UCBrowser

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Internet Browser Usage Market Share Globally, It's A Chrome World

Below: A world map with countries in different colors representing the most used web browsers in the world for both computers and mobile devices. (Data from Stat Counter)

By Wilbysuffolk (Stat Counter) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Above: most used web browser by country as of June 2015 according to StatCounter:

Google Chrome - Green
Firefox - Orange
Safari - Dark Gray
UC Browser - Yellow
Internet Explorer - Blue
Opera - Red

Android Browser - Purple
No info - Light Gray

Internet Browser Usage Market Share - Global, All Devices - July 2014-15

In an increasingly Cloud-Mobile-Web environment, the internet browser is the new OS, and increasingly it is a Chrome world. Above, global browser market share, all computing devices, July 2014-2015. Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share

See also

• Browser Statistics from W3schools.com which gives Chrome a 63.3% browser usage share as of July 2015;
• Usage share of web browsers - Wikipedia
• google.com/chrome
• google.com/work/chrome/browser
• google.com/chrome/browser/features
• google.com/chrome/education/browser
• google.com/chrome/browser/mobile
• chrome.blogspot.com
• youtube.com/user/googlechrome
• https://www.google.com/work
• chromeexperiments.com
• chromium.org

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Global Browser Market Share (graphic)

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Market Share - March 2014 - April 2015 -  Internet browser market share worldwide: Chrome, IE, Safari, Firefox, Android, Opera, UC Browser, Nokia, IE Mobile


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