For once, I agree with Facebook. Facebook has been hit with a fine from a UK regulator over the Cambridge Analytical issue which I think is both unjustified and demonstrates how poorly regulators and governments understand how the Internet works. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Facebook $640,000, not because UK users’ data was used by Cambridge Analytica,...
Google is still not a hardware company. Unnecessary problems with the latest Pixel device are a repeat of the issues that hampered the appeal of the Pixel 2 in 2017 which further reinforces my opinion that Google has no business selling hardware. The latest issues involve the supposedly best in class camera which is now having problems when being activated...
Internet Services can’t carry the can. Xiaomi reported good results but remains so dependent upon hardware from which it intends to limit its profitability, that it has very little hope of ever justifying its valuation. Internet Services looks like it will always be too small to carry the can of the $39.5 enterprise value (EV). Q3 18 revenues / EBIT...
Looks like its curtains for Cortana. Microsoft has received without a whimper a series of moves by Amazon that promotes its digital assistant Alexa over Cortana but now it has openly done the same which I think will seal Cortana’s fate. I think that this is really about Google. Microsoft seems to have been quite happy to let Amazon marginalise...
HelloFresh looks certain to crush Blue Apron. Blue Apron is in real trouble and, when compared to HelloFresh, it serves as a classic example of how important scale is in a network-based business. Blue Apron reported Q3 18 revenues / customers of $150.6m / 646,000. Q3 18 revenues are down 28% YoY and customers have fallen by 10% since Q2...
Both Tencent and Uber have some thinking to do. Uber Q3 18 Uber’s Q3 18 results show that it is not really capitalising on its dominance which increases my fear that the company has lost its aggression and will to dominate the market it created. Q3 18 bookings were up 6% QoQ and 41% YoY to $12.7bn and revenue was...
A resurrection best not practised The Palm brand (now owned by TCL) has launched a new device which is arguably more useless than cellular in the Apple Watch as it adds cost for the user and solves no problem that the user is ever likely to have. Palm used to rule the personal digital assistant (PDA) space 16 years ago...
Devices to hasten the demise Never one to miss a trick, both Amazon (see here) and TiVo (see here) are now offering set-top boxes that make combining streaming and OTA TV as easy and as fun as possible. This combined with a further loss of 1.1m cable TV subscribers in Q3 18 (MoffatNathanson) and rapid consolidation is a further sign...
Tencent battens down the hatches for the quarters ahead With the Chinese government showing no signs of letting the video game industry out of its current bind, Tencent is slashing costs and focusing on other areas to lessen the impact of the what is now an inevitable fall in gaming revenue. The video games industry relies on a constant stream...
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.
E-commerce – Chinese kingdom.
There is only one king of e-commerce. Amazon may have a higher market capitalisation than Alibaba but when it comes to the amount of business transacted, it is dwarfed into insignificance by its Chinese rival. This is important because it means that Alibaba is gathering more data which could eventually make it capable of offering a better shopping experience than...