The Chinese winners, discreet in the background
3-in-1: 3 digital news in 1 minute. On Monday. Episode 207
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News 1: Zynn app…remember the name!
Kuaishou Technology is the company behind Zynn, the app super star of the week-end in the US. Topping the download chart (iOS). Zynn is a pure copycat of TikTok, coming from Kuaishou very large video app in China. The app went viral since they pay 1 $ for log-in and dollars for watching and referring. Opinion: A very aggressive market entry by Kuaishou. They do have a lot of videos and creators from the Chinese market they can run in the US, like TikTok did at the beginning. Just wondering when Youtube will react and launch its rumoured Youtube Short? B2B Takeout: A very efficient viral concept (that Apple might stop): when log-in brings 1$ per user, small amount for viewing videos (and ads) and larger amount when referring a typical pyramidal sales concept.
News 2: Tencent all over the place
Tencent (company behind WeChat) is stretching its arms everywhere. Tencent and its venture arm invested in Snap, in Spotify, in Universal Studio and soon Warner Music. Also in FinTechs like Lydia and challenger bank Qonto. Always a minority. Also largest investor in Kuaishou! Opinion: Important to bring the width of investment of Tencent. A very interesting strategy of minority stakes in key companies for the Tencent expansion. B2B Takeout: Tencent is a very discreet company compared to Alibaba or ByteDance (with new Disney CEO) but is the super-power in messaging (WeChat), in payment (WeChat Pay), in gaming (#1 in CN) and now all over the world in music and entertainment.
News 3: SoftBank back on investment mode after huge losses
SoftBank Vision Fund is making its larger investment for a while, $500 million into the autonomous driving unit of Didi Chuxing (the Chinese Uber). Opinion: What an up and down with the SVF — the largest investor in the world with 200 billion in the fund and loses 17 billions USD. They continue to invest in smaller amounts! From 30 to 500 million and not the ridiculous amount for a non-promising usecase (dog-sitting app!) B2B Takeout: Invest in autonomous vehicle looks like an anti-cycle move when car company slow down on AV (Ford).
Authors are the 10 trend scouters at Space and Lemon, always on the hunt for the newest trends in tech and digital. Gathered here in original weekly news since 2016 — no re-write of TechCrunch, always with an opinion and B2B takeout. Come back next Monday and share your opinion.
