2019年6月24日
Alibaba isn't looking to dominate in the Australian market – but it's here for other reasons
Alibaba has been in Australia since 2016, but you may not have noticed as it’s not at all interested in attracting Australian consumers. Instead, its focus is on providing a platform for Australian businesses to reach Chinese consumers. The retail giant is in Australia to “help local businesses access the China market” and to “help Chinese visitors who come here”.
There are currently 1996 Australian brands on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms, Tmall and Tmall Global, with another 700 brands from New Zealand. Australia also ranked as the third most-purchased-from country on Tmall Global in 2017, up from fourth place in 2016. Alibaba was being smart in its approach to Australia and aligning itself closely with the Daigou personal shopper market and the wider China-Australia import-export market.
Nielsen estimated that there are 100,000 to 200,000 Daigou in Australia. Australia and China are different in a few key areas — such as its high adoption of credit cards and the wide use of US platforms — that made introducing their products to an Australian customer difficult.
Alibaba’s payment system, Alipay — which can be used for anything from ordering goods, paying for things, sending friends money, or reviewing products — has also not been widely adopted by Australian consumers. They’re pushing for Alipay and WeChat pay in China but I don’t see that taking off in Australia.
one of the company’s big achievements in the last few years was quick response delivery systems being rolled out in China, which means customers can get their orders in half an hour. 60 per cent of [new retail consumers in China] shop online using the ‘Freshippo’ app that enables those products be delivered within 30 minutes to their door.
The crypto community are losing their minds over Facebook's proposed new currency Libra and they fall into two very distinctive camps
Facebook’s announcement that it will launch its own digital currency Libra was always going to create a stir. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies, built and maintained independently by a community, that are entirely separate from fiat currency (traditional money).
Facebook made this very clear in its white paper, explaining that Libra will be backed by a basket of foreign currencies and government bonds for example. This caused quite a reaction amongst traders of cryptocurrency, where the community mainly falls into two very different camps.
Some like venture capitalist Gary Tan, who was an early investor in cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, heralded it as a great step forward for the cryptocurrency movement. Cryptocurrency information database Messari’s CEO Ryan Selkis told Bloomberg News that Facebook would lend its size and lobbying efforts to the digital currency cause.
“This project, in particular, is going to have so much regulatory scrutiny that it does open up so many opportunities for other smaller and developing digital assets, including Bitcoin,” CEO Ryan Selkis said.
Others, like CEO of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift Erik Voorhees, however, remained far more sceptical. While believers in cryptocurrencies, like financial commentator Peter Schiff, prophesied that Libra would have a negative impact on the space.
The thing they do all agree on is that digital currencies, in one form or another, are here to stay.
Bill Gates says startup founders should not take weekends or vacations in the early days of building a company
Bill Gates worked weekends and never took vacations in the early days of Microsoft, but this is all part of the sacrifice of setting up a company, he said. Billionaire businessman Gates chatted to Eventbrite cofounder and CEO Julia Hartz about founding a company. As part of this, he spoke about his work ethic in his 20s.
“It really is true that I didn’t believe in weekends; I didn’t believe in vacations,” he said, as TechCrunch reported. Gates went on to say that while he relaxed somewhat in his 30s, he stands by his earlier sacrifices. “I have a fairly hardcore view that there should be a very large sacrifice made during those, those early years, particularly if you’re trying to do some engineering things that you have to get the feasibility,” he said.
Gates is the second richest person in the world and is currently worth around $US107 billion. He cofounded Microsoft in 1975 and owns 1% of the business today.
In the same interview with Eventbrite’s Hartz, Gates also revealed his greatest ever mistake: Not setting up Android. He said the failure to launch a competitor to Apple’s iOS operating system was a $US400 billion error.
