Jumia $JMIA Beating Amazon $AMZN & Alibaba $BABA In Africa (video)

Why Jumia Is Beating Amazon And Alibaba In Africa

Jumia has been dubbed the "Amazon of Africa" as Africa's largest e-commerce operator, surpassing Amazon and China's Alibaba, and it's the first African tech start-up to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. Investors had high hopes for Jumia when it went public on April 12. Now, Jumia is adjusting to its new international status, and figuring out what that status means for the African continent.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, former McKinsey & Company employees, founded the company in 2012. Like Amazon and Alibaba, Jumia allows customers to buy products like cell phones, shoes, and groceries online. Jumia also offers bill paying, food delivery, and cellular data plans.

China Daily, a Chinese state-run news organization, says that Alibaba serviced 4.2 million African customers through its AliExpress services since it entered the continent.

Jumia serviced 4.3 million users and 81,000 active sellers in 14 countries. Amazon is available in 11 countries on the African continent, but neither Amazon nor Alibaba have had the benefit of getting their start in African countries. Jumia, for example, offers unique features like allowing customers to pay for items upon delivery. CNBC video above published Jun 25, 2019.

Jumia is an e-commerce platform for electronics, fashion, and more. It has partnered with more than 81,000 local African companies and individuals and is a direct competitor to Kilimall in Kenya and Konga in Nigeria. Started in 2012 in Lagos, the company currently has a presence across 12 African countries.

Jumia Technologies AG

• Domain: jumia.com  / group.jumia.com
• Founded: Nigeria
• Traded as: NYSE: JMIA
• Founders: Sacha Poignonnec, Raphael Kofi Afaedor, Tunde Kehinde
• CEO: Sacha Poignonnec (2012–), Jeremy Hodara (2012–)
• Parent organization: Rocket Internet

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How MeUndies Sold Millions of Pairs of Underwear Direct to Consumers

How MeUndies Sold Millions Of Pairs Of Underwear

How did direct to consumer startup MeUndies (domain: meundies.com) sell over 10 million pairs of underwear? Founder Jonathan Shokrian talks to CNBC about shock advertising, social media and MeUndies' road to success.

Jonathan Shokrian started MeUndies after a negative experience buying underwear at a department store. He raised $400,000, mostly from friends and family, and launched the millennial-friendly direct to consumer underwear start-up in 2011.

"Ecommerce is not just Amazon. It’s every online retailer out there, including the tiniest mom-and-pop operations. It’s manufacturers selling directly to consumers. In fact, it’s manufacturers in India or China selling directly to US consumers as third party-vendors on platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and others. The entire world is trying to sell directly to US consumers, bypassing classic middlemen, wholesalers, distribution channels, importers, and of course, brick-and-mortar retailers."--Wolfstreet.com

According to Shokrian, MeUndies has sold over 10 million pairs of underwear and has been profitable in each of the past three years. The company will end 2019 with at least $75 million in annual revenue. How did MeUndies start a successful direct to consumer brand? MeUndies was off to a slow start until it turned to social media and harnessed the power of provocation. CNBC video above published June 7, 2019.
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Tech Review | Entrepreneurs' Top Tips for Startups Raising Money (video)

Tech Review (TR 2019-06-15)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Entrepreneurs' Top Tips for Startups Raising Money, 2) Google and Facebook vs. Journalism & Democracy, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: Why Trump Will Win The Trade Wars, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Huawei, AT&T, Verizon, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce, and more.

1) Entrepreneurs' Top Tips for Startups Raising Money

Top entrepreneurs offer advice on how to raise money and spend it wisely. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Jun 7, 2019.

2) Google and Facebook vs. Journalism & Democracy 

Facebook and Google control 60% of the online ad market, and why that's bad for journalism and democracy, according to this CNN Business video published Jun 7, 2019.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.7% | S&P 500 Index +0.5% | DJIA +0.4%  *The major indexes are still showing strong gains for June — the Dow is up 5.1% and the S&P 500 is up 4.9%. 

Investor Notes: Why Trump Will Win The Trade Wars

US: U.S. Stocks Still Look Better Than Anywhere Else | bloomberg.com--"while American outperformance continues to defy history, the rest of the world remains trapped in a bear market."

• Editor's note: Why Trump Will Win The Trade Wars: US exports make up only 12% of the US economy, of which nearly a third go to Canada and Mexico, with which Trump has already made  trade deals (USMCA). In addition, many of the most valuable US exports are 'must-have' items such as Qualcomm chips. In short, Trump is playing with a much stronger hand (and he knows it), than China or Germany, the world's two largest exporters, both of which are heavy net exporters to the U.S., and upon which their economies are more dependent. Trump doesn't need to bluff, 'everyone in the game' knows he is holding the better hand (unless they are delusional or in a state of denial). China may still be trying to adjust to the culture shock of Trump's 'negotiating style' but the 'cold hard truth' is China’s Likely to Lose a Tech Cold War--bloomberg.com.

Germany, the world's second largest exporter, and dominant member of the EU, is actually a more complicated situation than China, with Brexit still an "uncertainty"--see UK Parliament Rejects Move To Block No-Deal Brexit--but if I were advising Germany, I would be worried. Germany will likely have to adjust to a new level playing field with the U.S. in trade, something long overdue, and which Germany has never had to face in the post-World War II era (now going on for almost seventy-five years), during which the U.S. generated big trade deficits with Germany as one way to stabilize and strengthen Europe to counter the Soviet Union. See Germany Struggles to Figure Out How to Get Trump to Back Off--bloomberg.com.

"If President Trump has a poker style it is almost certainly loose aggressive. It is the most challenging style to play well and the most difficult to play against. It is very hard to read a loose aggressive player, to know what they might do next. Such players are constantly taking the initiative, dominating the game. They are predictable only in their unpredictability. Sometimes they go down in flames but usually it is the loose aggressive players that win the money. Loose aggressive stands against tight weak. President Carter would probably play tight weak as would [UK Prime Minister] Mrs. May, although it is hard to imagine either at a poker table."--Arthur Goodhart 

• U.S. Mobility: 38 percent of US respondents say they are mobile with the resources, ability, and inclination to make a move. In fact, 5 percent of respondents say there is a 100 percent chance of their moving. The mobile are most likely to live in cities, though the income and educational background of "the mobile" and "the rooted" are similar.

• Borrowing costs are now lower than at any time since the founding of the US Federal Reserve in 1913 (or in the UK, since the Bank of England was established in 1694).

                        

EU: Foreign investment into Europe falls for first time in 7 years--CNBC International video  interview of  Andy Baldwin, EMEIA managing partner at EY, discusses the management consultancy's 2019 European Attractiveness report: "appetite to invest in Europe" has dropped to a seven-year low.

• Financial Stability, Or Lack Thereof, Drives The Eurozone Agenda | SeekingAlpha.com.

• IMF to warn Italy's debt poses major risk to euro zone economy. See also: Italy Poised to Launch Euro Parallel Currency | moneymaven.io.

• European banks? "They are burdened with an overbanked market, aging systems, a lack of resources to digitise and re-invent their services, and there are still no signs of any European banks emerging as cross border champions. European banking union is another EU initiative that seems to have drowned in the sea of bureaucracy that sinks everything. Governments still see their duty as protecting national banking champions. There is repeated regulatory failure; Danske Bank in terms of money laundering and the collapse of Spanish and Italian banks doesn’t help. No European banks are expanding, building market share. Instead they are all, and have been, retrenching. If I could think  of something positive to say about Europe ... But I really can’t"--Bill Blain Jun 4, 2019.

                        

China: the International Monetary Fund expects Chinese growth to slow to 6.2% this year and to 6% in 2020, the weakest since 1990, but many analysts believe real growth has already dipped below those levels, confirming a grim outlook for the world economy. See also The Countries with the Most Monstrous Corporate Debt Pileups.

Hong Kong: after seven hours of marching, organizers estimated 1,030,000 people took part in the protest opposing the proposed China extradition law.

                        

Not All That Glitters: the Couple Who Scammed Warren Buffett out of over $300 Million.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

January 2019: the US Justice Department unseals Huawei indictments including 23 counts (here and here) pertaining to the alleged theft of intellectual property, obstruction of justice, and fraud related to its alleged evasion of US sanctions against Iran.

June 2019: 'Dead Man Walking' Huawei, applies to trademark its “Hongmeng” operating system (OS) in at least nine countries and Europe, deploying a back-up plan in key markets as U.S. sanctions threaten its business model. However, China's industry insiders are less optimistic that Chinese chip makers can quickly meet the challenge of supplying all the needs of Huawei and other domestic technology firms. Prospectuses of Chinese chip companies preparing to list on a new tech-focused stock exchange in China are even more blunt, characterizing China's domestic chip industry as “relatively backward,” lacking in talent, and requiring “a long time to catch up.” 
See also:

• Global tech companies shun Huawei after U.S. ban--reuters.com.

• Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer: 'Not sure Huawei survives Trump ban.'

• Huawei indefinitely postpones the announcement of a new Windows laptop, originally scheduled for June, 2019, due to ongoing US trade sanctions.

• Google Is Moving More Hardware Production Out of China--Trump’s tariffs push tech giant to boost Taiwan manufacturing, while companies, both foreign and domestic, increasingly seek to pivot production away from China due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to reset the  parameters for global trade and manufacturing. Foxconn says it can assemble Apple iPhones outside China.

• Huawei v. United States: why trademark professionals must follow this IP technology dispute.

AT&T: Dish Network Corp is open to merging its satellite television business with AT&T Inc.’s pay TV service, DirecTV, since both Dish and DirecTV are hemorrhaging subscribers as viewers continue to shift to cheaper online streaming services such as Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime video service. Unfortunately, AT&T's problems don't end there as AT&T appears to have no viable plan for its WarnerMedia streaming service a year after the Time Warner merger closed.

Verizon: 7 Reasons To Turn Bearish--upcoming Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 technology may disrupt the wireless mobile industry by making free or low-cost city-wide Wi-Fi a reality.

Amazon is Betting Big On Satellite Internet. See also: Amazon is offering flight booking on its platform in India, and it wants to build a one-stop app to offer customers a wide range of services which will attract users to Amazon Pay in the crowded digital wallet industry.

A $6 Billion Record Fine may be coming next year against Apple--see Spotify's complaint against Apple filed with the European Commission--timetoplayfair.com.

Why Sell Microsoft--new tax law ramifications .. cloud computing has no moat ... Windows 10 has continuing quality and performance issues [Editor's note: most people would be better off to forget about Win10 and just get a Chromebook] ... Microsoft behind in artificial intelligence (AI).

Salesforce: $CRM all-stock deal valued at $15.7B, for data visualization company Tableau (NYSE: DATA).

Instagram, a fashionista favorite, helped unknown labels find an audience but now "big bucks are changing the game" as cash rich luxury goods groups such as LVMH and Kering use increased social media budgets to drown out rivals on platforms once seen as a leveler for brands big and small.

IPO: Pet care company Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) (domain: chewy.com), closed up 59% at $34.99 after its debut IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 14.

A Bad Use of Technology: "Illegal robocalls are not just a drain on individual households' peace of mind, they are also a drain on our economy," FCC Chief Economist Babette Boliek and Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger wrote in a blog post, before the FCC voted unanimously to let carriers block robocalls by default.

Personal Tech: Google’s Login Chief Would Rather You Use Apple’s Sign-In Button Than Keep Using Passwords--‘I honestly do think this technology will be better for the internet.’

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman on the Strong $FVRR IPO June 13 (video)

Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman on the $FVRR IPO

Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" after the company's debut in publicly trading on the NYSE June 13, 2019, to discuss what makes the $FVRR IPO different from the likes of Uber and Lyft.

Israel-based freelancer marketplace Fiverr International ( NYSE: FVRR ) IPO raised $100 million at a market cap of $635 million. The company grew sales by 45% in 2018 to $83 million, but with a -27% operating loss. The company's stock began public trading on June 13, 2019, on the New York Stock Exchange, closing with a 90% gain in price per share:

$FVRR June 13, 2019

Domain: fiverr.com (launched Feb. 1, 2010)
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PlanetScale & GDPR | NewSQL Database-as-a-Service Startup

PlanetScale is a NewSQL DbaaS based on the open source project @vitessio. The startup's headquarters are in Mountain View, California, with original backing from VC firm SignalFire (signalfire.com).

Domain: planetscale.com

See: Andreessen pours $22M into PlanetScale’s database-as-a-service suitable for any enterprise that wants their data both secure and consistently accessible. Its ability to re-shard databases while they’re operating, can solve businesses’ issues with GDPR, which demands some data be stored in the same locality as the user to whom it belongs.

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Looker & GDPR | Google Cloud To Buy Data Analytics Startup for $2.6B

Looker + Google Cloud

Google to buy analytics software firm Looker for $2.6 billion in cash.

The Looker Platform for Data "delivers insights to user workflows, allowing organizations to extract value from data." Looker's headquarters: Santa Cruz, California.

Domain: looker.com

Looker & GDPR: Data in the Age of GDPR

Looker video above published May 30, 2019: One year on, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - one of the most comprehensive reforms to data regulation in recent times - continues to impact how companies approach their strategies for external data protections and internal data access and usage. The video on GDPR, data protection and privacy, covers:

• Data Governance: Understanding the people, processes, and technology required to create consistent and proper handling of data across the organisation.
• Data Centralization: Facilitating a more easily documentable data supply chain for GDPR compliance.
• Monitoring Data and Auditing: Determining who has access to personal data, why the data has been collected and how it will be used by your organisation.

GDPR Whitepaper: looker.com/gdprpaper

Looker Customer Stories: Data Around the World

From San Francisco to Berlin and beyond, data is evolving the way businesses operate and innovate. See how companies from Deliveroo, Stack Overflow and Kiva are using Looker to operationalize and scale their business data. Looker video above published Jan 15, 2019. Learn more about other companies data stories at looker.com/customers.
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Silicon Valley's LTSE, Long-Term Stock Exchange, Gets SEC Approval

Eric Ries, Founder and CEO, The Long-Term Stock Exchange

Eric Ries, author, The Lean Startup; founder and CEO, The Long-Term Stock Exchange, in conversation with Leigh Gallagher, Fortune.com. Management teams are often pressured to make decisions based on short-term interests and not the long-term potential for their business. Can the public marketplace create better incentives to rid us of our need for fast results in favor of governance that benefits companies, investors, and our communities? Video above published Jun 27, 2018.

Domains: longtermstockexchange.com and ltse.com

34-85828 May 10, 2019 Long Term Stock Exchange, Inc. (Findings, Opinion, and Order of the Commission)
File No.: 10-234
See Also: Notice of Filing of Application for Registration as a National Securities Exchange under Section 6 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

"We are building a market where companies are rewarded for choosing to innovate, to invest in their employees, and to seed future growth. And where companies can run their businesses with the stewardship that similarly aligned shareholders, stakeholders and society demand. Our vision is that companies in every industry will be able to go public while continuing to prioritize and pursue strategies for long-term success. That's a step forward for all of us."--Eric Ries, CEO and founder, LTSE 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday approved the creation of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, or LTSE, a Silicon Valley-based national securities exchange, proposed to the SEC in November 2018, by technology entrepreneur, author and startup adviser Eric Ries, who has been working on the idea for years. He raised $19 million from venture capitalists including Marc Andreessen, to get the project off the ground, but regulatory approval was required to launch and give high-growth technology companies more options to list their shares outside of the traditional New York stock exchanges.
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The Story of Yelp $YELP - Innovation, Competition, Next Move? (video)

The Rise And Fall Of Yelp?

The story of Yelp and why the company lost its 5-star rating. When Yelp went public in 2012, the popularity of the review site was quickly growing and its stock soared. But it’s been a rocky road since then as advertisers fled the platform and as competition has increased from Google, Facebook and others. CNBC.com video above published Mar 28, 2019.

• Yelp Inc.
• Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
• Domain: yelp.com
• Founded: July 2004, San Francisco, CA
• CEO: Jeremy Stoppelman
• Revenue: 943 million USD (2018)
• Number of employees: 4,350
• CFO: Lanny Baker
• Founders: Russel Simmons, Jeremy Stoppelman
• NYSE: YELP (IPO 2012) MarketCap: ~$2.83B (March 29, 2019)

$YELP

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Pinterest IPO: Pinterest Going Public as $PINS (video)

IPO: Pinterest Going Public

Fortune Magazine video above published Mar 22, 2019.

NYSE: PINS

Pinterest, Inc. SEC Form S-1

Pinterest, Inc., a social media web and mobile application company, operates a software system designed to discover information online using mainly images, including GIFs and videos. The website was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp.

• Domain: pinterest.com
• Date launched: January 2010
• Employees: 800+ employees
• Key people: Evan Sharp (chief product officer); Ben Silbermann (CEO)
• Owner: Cold Brew Labs, Inc.

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Rivian Electric Pickups & SUVs Coming for Tesla $TSLA (video)

Rivian Makes Electric Pickups, and Is Coming for Tesla

Startup Rivian also plans a SUV. Fortune.com video above published Feb 11, 2019. See also:

• Feb 15, 2019: Rivian announces a $700 million round of funding led by Amazon. Rivian, a Michigan-based electric vehicle startup, plans to launch an electric pickup and electric SUV in the U.S. in 2020--cnbc.com.
• Upstart Rivian Could Be a Tesla Disrupter in SUVs and Pickups--bloomberg.com.
• Tesla Faces 'Serious Competition' From a Detroit Startup, According to Morgan Stanley--fortune.com.

This Is Rivian

"To build the world’s first Electric Adventure Vehicles, we had to build a new kind of car company. This is our story." Rivian video above first published Nov 30, 2018

Domain: rivian.com

Rivian is a US-based startup automaker and automotive technology company founded in 2009. The company develops vehicles, products and services related to sustainable transportation, and has facilities in Plymouth, Michigan; San Jose, California; Irvine, California, Normal, Illinois, and the United Kingdom. #ElectricAdventure

The Clean Escape

"Let the #ElectricAdventure begin! Introducing the world’s first Electric Adventure Vehicle, the Rivian R1T truck. Visit our website for all the juicy details: products.rivian.com."  See also Ford F150 vs Rivian R1T: How do they stack up? (video).
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Black Swan Data CEO: We Use AI To Predict How Movies Will Do

Black Swan Data CEO: We use AI to predict how movies will do

Steve King discusses how his firm uses data to map out trends in multiple industries. CNBC Life video first published Jun 20, 2018.

Black Swan Data is a London-based technology and data science company with an online data analytics platform that uses predictive data science to analyze a wide variety of data to help businesses identify potential trends and customer behaviors.

• Founded: 2011
• Founders: Steve King, Hugo Amos
• Headquarters: London, England, United Kingdom 
• Type of business: Privately held company
• Domain: blackswan.com

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Fintech Startup BABB Peer-to-Peer Banking Services (video)

Tech Talk interview with Leonard Seelig, BABB

Leonard Seelig, managing director of BABB, which provides peer-to-peer banking services, talks about how a decentralised banking system can be built and the benefits of being a part of the Level 39 community in London. TheBanker.com video above first published Sep 10, 2018.

Domains: babbapp.com and getbabb.com
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Tech Review | Analysts Giving Up On Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency

Tech Review (TR 2019-02-02)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Giving Up On Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency, 2) Amazon Alexa And Google Assistant Becoming Omnipresent, 3) Investing: The Week & Notes: WEF, EU, Brexit, US, 4)ICYMI Tech News: Facebook, Nvidia, Twitter, Google, Oracle, Huawei, China VC, Microsoft, Amazon, Startup Starbreeze Implodes, Personal Tech: Chromebooks vs Windows?

1) Giving Up On Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin in US$

Bitcoin Volatility Problematic For Analysts: Crypto enthusiasts such as Mike Novogratz made wild predictions on Bitcoin's price in 2018, most of which proved wrong. Tom Lee of Fundstrat said Bitcoin would hit $25,000 by end of 2018. It didn't happen. Now, Lee, and others, are not making timing calls at all. 2019 is off to a rough start for cryptocurrencies, with most coins continuing their downturn in January.

However, Ripple CEO says decentralized payment systems are likely to win:

Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse discusses blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies at a CNBC-hosted panel in Paris. CNBC International TV video above published Jan 31, 2019.

Ripple supports tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency, commodities, or other units of value such as frequent flier miles or mobile minutes. Ripple purports to enable "secure, instantly and nearly free global financial transactions of any size with no chargebacks." The ledger employs the decentralized native cryptocurrency known as XRP, which as of September 2018 was the second largest coin by market capitalization. Ripple has been adopted by banks and payment networks as settlement infrastructure technology (sources via Wikipedia.org).

Building Crypto, from Vision to Reality

a16z.com video (podcast) above with Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong), Chris Dixon (@cdixon), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) Where are we, really, right now -- in terms of what we can/ can't do with crypto today? And what will it take to get from vision to mainstream reality? This episode of the a16z Podcast covers all this and more. It's based on a conversation that took place between Coinbase CEO and cofounder Brian Armstrong and a16z crypto general partner Chris Dixon, interviewed by a16z editor in chief Sonal Chokshi, at our at our annual Summit in November 2018 -- following a series of presentations that covered everything from early adoption, myths, and the global need for crypto; to crypto as seen through the lens of trust; to key terms and concepts that enable entirely new use cases on top of crypto. But what are the missing pieces needed to get us there? Is crypto is too much like a religion... and if so, how does one build a company, culture, community in such an intense environment? Where does the history of open source come in? And finally, what are some of the most interesting applications and trends in the space? Video above published Jan 1, 2019. Disclosures.

See also:

• "Participation by financial institutions in bitcoin trading appears to be fading," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a research note to clients--forbes.com
• Bitcoin Is Worth Less Than the Cost to Mine It, JPMorgan Says--
bloomberg.com.
• JP Morgan: Blockchain Needs To Be Separated From Bitcoin & Crypto--ethereumworldnews.com.
• Bitcoin Failed as a Safe Haven to the U.S. Stock Market: JP Morgan--newsbtc.com.
•  Bloomberg Technology video published Jan 30, 2019.
• Three reasons why you should stay away from bitcoin!--Bitcoin has bit the dust--zerohedge.com.

2) Amazon Alexa And Google Assistant Becoming Omnipresent

Until recently, Amazon $AMZN and Google $GOOG $GOOGL competed for presence in our homes through their own hardware: smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, TV add-ons like Chromecast and Fire TV and even home security systems like Nest and Ring. At CES 2019, partners from both companies launched dozens of new products that will bring Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant into nearly every aspect of our lives. Both firms also revealed how widespread their ecosystems are.

Google said that by the end of January, more than 1 billion devices will have Google Assistant built-in. That's up from 500 million in May, but a lot of that growth is because Assistant now ships as a standard feature on Android phones. Google Assistant is also built into 10,000 different smart home devices from more than 1,600 brands, the company said.

Amazon said there are now more than 150 products with Alexa built directly in — which means you can talk right to it without also owning an Echo — and more than 28,000 products from 4,500 brands that support it. That means you need an Amazon Echo to control the gadget. Amazon also said it has now sold more than 100 million Alexa devices. CNBC.com video above published Jan 13, 2019.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +1.4% | S&P 500 Index +1.6% | DJIA +1.3%

Investing Notes: the benchmark S&P 500 Index is UP 8% so far in 2019.

WEF a dud and joke: "This year's now-concluded World Economic Forum conference in Davos was mostly a dud and increasingly a joke in financial circles, with Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid going so far as admitting that 'we had a DB drinks reception for our clients last night and one said to me that in 11 years of coming here the best advice would be to trade in the opposite direction to the main theme of the conference over the next 12 months'"--zerohedge.com. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz  was heckled after he said he might run for U.S. president:“Go back to Davos with the rest of the billionaire elite who think they know how to run the world.”

EU: France's ‘Yellow Vests Movement"--Mouvement des gilets jaunes--should be taken seriously says AXA CEO--in a CNBC International TV video published Jan 26, 2019, AXA CEO Thomas Buberl says Europe’s social contract isn’t working anymore.

• France: the November 2018 data shows unemployment at 8.9%, well above the 6.7% EU rate. Current levels are also above prior cycle lows of 7.2% in February 2008.
• Italy: unemployment currently sits at 10.5%, far above the EU’s 6.7%. The prior cycle low in Italy was 5.8% in April 2007.
• Spain: unemployment remains stubbornly high, 14.7% based on the November 2018 data. The lows from May 2007 were 8.0%. 

Above data via DataTrekResearch.com:

• The Eurozone problem: with German unemployment at just 3.3%, how does the European Central Bank consider normalizing both interest rates and its balance sheet when systematically important Eurozone economies like France, Italy and Spain remain at essentially recessionary levels of unemployment?
• What are the political ramifications of high unemployment across these large countries? See "Yellow Vests Movement" (above) for the answer.
• "Personally, I just don’t think Europe works – its imbalanced in favour of the few."--Bill Blain.

Brexit? Christian Ulbrich, global chief executive of JLL, the property agency, told Financial News  that his company leased more space in the City of London 'Square Mile' during the final three months of 2018 than in any other quarter on record. CBRE also reported 3.9 million sq ft of deals had closed across all of central London during the quarter, above the 10-year average.

US: Every year, roughly 14% of the US population moves from one state to another, according to US Census Bureau data--top inbound states (dark blue) and top outbound states (medium blue):

source: 2018 Migration Report | northamerican.com (pdf)

Apparently, Americans don't like high-tax states like Illinois, California, New Jersey and New York, but prefer living in Idaho, Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida. Also note U.S. jobless rates across the largest 5 US states (December 2018 data): California: 4.2%; New York: 3.9%; Pennsylvania: 4.2%; Texas: 3.7%; Florida: 3.3%. The national unemployment rate:  3.9%.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Facebook: "Even after losing roughly a third of its market cap, Facebook $FB may yet prove to be one of the great shorts of all time"--The Fall of Facebook Has Only Begun--medium.com. Also: Facebook knowingly duped game-playing kids and their parents out of money--revealnews.org.

Nvidia Jan 28 Financial Guidance: "deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, particularly in China, impacted consumer demand for NVIDIA gaming GPUs"--NVDA shares fall 14% and are now off 44% since Jan 29, 2018 (as of Jan 28, 2019):

Nvidia's Problems May Grow Worse--seekingalpha.com.

Twitter’s CEO keeps "substituting talking for doing"--Jack Dorsey has a lot to say, but he has more to do--theverge.com.  Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) will release financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2018 on February 7, 2019, before the market open at approximately 7:00 am EST. Twitter will host a conference call / LIVE webcast to discuss these financial results at 8:00 am EST, at investor.twitterinc.com. Tweet your question to @TwitterIR using #TWTR.

Google LLC vs Oracle America, Inc., software copyright dispute, Petition for a Writ of Certiorari (pdf) in the US Supreme Court.

U.S. Indicts Huawei--accused of stealing trade secrets, defrauding banks--bloomberg.com. See also "Huawei will struggle to assuage western concerns - Suspicions are as much about China’s system as about the company itself"--ft.com.

China VC: "The number of China’s venture capital deals dropped to 713 in the fourth quarter of 2018, down 25% from a year earlier, with the amount of funding shrinking 12% to $18.3 billion ... Competition for job vacancies has intensified with an average applicants-to-jobs ratio of 32 to 1."--scmp.com.

Walmart, Amazon scrambling to comply with India's new e-commerce rules--reuters.com.

Startup Starbreeze implodes: "How did things go so badly wrong in such a short space of time? According to over a dozen current and former Starbreeze (starbreeze.com) staff members, who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect their careers, the writing had been on the wall for some time. But even as staff lost faith in the studio and its bosses, nobody, it seemed, thought Starbreeze's fall from grace would turn out to be quite so dramatic."--eurogamer.net. “How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.--Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises.

Personal Tech: after January 14, 2020, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or support for PCs running Windows 7 (unless you pay extra), so for many Windows 7 users, it will be decision time (Microsoft Windows 10, Apple Mac OS, Google Chrome OS, or Linux) during the next 12 months. Editor's note: personally, I am transitioning to Google Chrome OS (Chromebooks) and recommend the two chromebooks I am familiar with: Google Pixelbook and Acer Chromebook 15.  There are plenty of other nice chromebooks available, but no matter your budget, be sure to get at least 4GB of RAM, and do your own due diligence, e.g., https://www.reddit.com/r/Pixelbook.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Startup What3Words Global Geocoding System of 3 Square Metres

An Address for Every Place on Earth

Freethink.com video above published Dec 28, 2018: "We take addresses for granted - but billions of people and places don’t have them, and it’s a big problem. Whether it’s voting, disaster relief, or pinpointing a spot on festival grounds, not having an address makes things that should be simple difficult. Enter Chris Sheldrick, who coordinated events in the music industry where he was frustrated by address-related problems. He created What3Words, a method of dividing the entire world into 3 meter-by-3 meter squares using a set of three common words as addresses. It’s being used everywhere from Mongolia to South Africa for everything from emergency services to pizza delivery. In this interview, Chris Sheldrick describes the problem, how he came up with the idea, and how you can find ways to change the world on your own."

what3words is the simplest way to talk about location. It has divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares, each with a unique address made from 3 words. Now people can refer to any precise location – a delivery entrance, a picnic spot or a drone landing point – using three simple words. what3words is helping improve businesses around the world, and paving the way for social and economic progress in developing nations. It can be used via the free mobile app or online map. what3words can also be built into any other app, platform or website, with just a few lines of code.--what3words.com

Many places lack a system for addresses. What3Words’ solution is to give every spot a three-word designation. Featured in the Sept. 3, 2018 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Domain: what3words.com
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How Fintech Startup Robinhood Makes Money (video)

How Robinhood Makes Money

Robinhood is an investing app valued at over $5 billion, that says it's trying to "democratize America's financial system" by making investing accessible to the little guy with free trades--Invest for Free--"Invest in stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptocurrencies, all commission-free, right from your phone or desktop." It's an eye-popping valuation for a financial company with opaque metrics and plenty of competition. The young company had its share of missteps as well, prompting questions of whether or not it can handle primetime. Robinhood has faced criticism for business practices that allow it to offer free trading. It also botched the rollout of a checking and savings account feature in late 2018, garnering concern from regulators. But the company's incredible growth and popularity with younger investors – more than 6 million users by the end of 2018 – means it could be a major player in banking moving forward. CNBC video above published Jan 16, 2019.

Domain: robinhood.com

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