China Tech Giants' Acquisitions & Its Impact to Asia with Jon Russell

China Tech Giants' Acquisitions & Its Impact to Asia with Jon Russell
Jon Russell from TechCrunch discussed the major acquisitions in China from Meituan-Dianping's purchase of Mobike to Alibaba's buying of Ele.me and their impact to the technology landscape in Southeast Asia and India.

Jon Russell, from TechCrunch joined us in a two episode arc to discuss the major acquisitions that are shaking the Asia landscape from Southeast Asia to China. In the second part of our conversation, we discussed the recent major acquisitions by China technology giants in China. From the acquisition of Mobike by Meituan-Dianping to Ele.me by Alibaba Group, we evaluate their impact to Southeast Asia and India and examine why Amazon is not likely to buy Flipkart in India.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Jon Russell (@jonrussell, LinkedIn, Newsletter, Personal Site), Reporter at TechCrunch [0:38]
  • China’s major merger and acquisitions [0:46]
    • References Meituan Dianping acquiring Mobike for US$2.7B and Alibaba acquiring Ele.me for US$9.5B (Technode)
    • What are your thoughts on these major acquisitions happening in China and why Meituan-Dianping entering into the ride-hailing market? [2:00]
    • Does that mean that there will be consolidation for the ridesharing space, given that Didi and Alibaba are both investors and have fought for control in Ofo? [3:11]
    • What does that mean for the bike sharing space in general and even those in the US as we heard Uber is considering in acquiring Jump Bikes in the US? [5:40]
    • Is Uber copying what the Chinese are doing with acquisitions of bike-sharing services in China? [7:00]
    • Comments on whether bike sharing is a fad and feature and not a proper business. [7:34]
    • Alibaba is flexing their muscles on Ele.me and Grab, does that mean that there will be more acquisitions happening in China & outside in Southeast Asia and India as well? [8:12]
    • How Alibaba and Tencent’s investments in Southeast Asia and India have locked out the US companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon) which has not bothered to look at investing in the region. [12:05]
    • Why the Amazon-Flipkart deal can’t happen in India? [13:40]
  • Closing [16:25]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.

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