Unexpected, unexpected, unexpected news
3-in-1: 3 digital news in 1 minute. On Monday. Episode 189
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News 1: Champion in counterfeit protection? Alibaba. The paradox.
Alibaba just published its annual report on counterfeit protection showing 96% of suspected objects removed before sales. Most removal requests done within 24 hours (source IPR report Alibaba, 22.01.2020). Alibaba has historically put in place an efficient system against counterfeit — an alliance with the right holder, an IP platform for removal requests and an AI-based software that scrolls and detects fraud automatically. Criminal charges in 1.000s in 2019. Opinion: Well, who would have thought! Chinese as a champion of fraud detection. Very early Alibaba joined forces with large international brands to reinforce its e-commerce “mall” T-Mall. Luxury brands joined the group first, with largest luxury brand of the world itself, Louis Vuitton. Amazon is not doing good on that front and most of the counterfeited refused to do business with them. B2B Takeout: The 2020 decade for sure will see the extension of well-protected T-Mall to Europe with the support of major international brands. Would be an e-commerce revolution. Waiting for it.
News 2: Tencent in France, twice
Twice in one week: Tencent behind two FinTech invests in France. In Lydia, a peer-to-peer payment app, very popular within French Millennials (25% adoption). In Qonto, a challenger bank specialised in SME and freelancers (65.000 clients). Tencent helps both Fintechs to enter complete new growth momentum. Opinion: Tencent has been investing in Fintech for a while, notably in challenger banks German N26 and Brazilian Nubank, both with very large invests and ambition. B2B Takeout: Tencent, the owner of WeChat, is a very discreet investor but makes 5 to 10 investments per month. For example, an undisclosed amount in Universal Music on January, 7th.
News 3: Front, the “Asterix” of mail software
Front is a mail software similar to Gmail and its professional equivalent G Suite. A so-called collaborative mail stack. Just received a new financing of $53m (total 138m) by very high profile investors: Atlassian (Jira), Okta (ID specialist), Qualtris (SAP) and Sequoia Capital. Founded 7 years ago by a French team based in San Francisco. Opinion: A very difficult task for Front to compete with Gmail, Outlook, Teams, Slack. Asterix against the Roman empires! They have gathered a good product with integration of Whatsapp and Zoom, and an open API to integrate other third parties. Front claims 5.500 clients, the financing round will help for growth — 5.500 is not enough to compete and be an “Asterix”. B2B Takeout: Amazed to see how many professionals still drawn under mail flood. Easy to change in adopting a Teams, Slack or Front mail solution. The most decisive change in “digital transformation”. Maybe they all loved the many emails?
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.
