Key insights from mooncake festival at house of Jerry and Liza
Technology trends
Companies are increasing shifting their service from one-off on premise licensing deployment monetization to cloud based SaaS recurring subscription models
revenue hit in the short run
increased customer LTV in the long run
affected publicly traded companies will experience short term discounts to their shares
Artificial intelligence versus Augmented intelligence
companies are increasingly shifting away from automatic insight generation to systems that help decision makers simulate and model potential outcomes when specific policies are executed
demand is shifting from insight generation to data cleaning services
Corporate adoption of artificial intelligence
CEOs are increasingly considering how to leverage AI as a tool for their trade
primary use case is figuring out how to increase their sales volume
experiencing challenge on how to apply AI on in-house data to achieve monetization goals
Rise of deep vertical data networks
EverString – provides sales lead refresh for all client companies ends up becoming a large database for decision-making executives information, approximately 6 million records
StreetSine.sg – cleans up real estate data to help agents better price houses for sale by utilizing in-house agency ends up becoming a large database of high quality real estate data
Crypto-currency
Bit coin is still the main poster child
general population still skeptical about libra
main argument is still to remove central bank controls
main adoption hurdles
writing throughput volume
a stable store of wealth
starting to be using as a means to facilitate transaction in China
Inability to increase or decrease currency supply in times of need is going to be hard as a means to provide much needed stimulation during economic recessions and inflations
US/China trade war
sources of conflict
technology theft
forced technology transfer
unfair trade practices like subsidized state owned Chinese companies operating in the export markets
economy
China is experiencing inflationary deleveraging
local farmers are not growing critical food sources
critical food supplies are imported
price of imported goods are denominated in US reserve currency
shifting of supply chain out of China to
Vietnam
India
Taiwan
capital flight
Li Ka Shing moved funds out from Hong Kong in 2013 to Europe
raising funds for US Venture capital from China was easy prior to Chinese and US government shut down
US is experiencing deflationary deleveraging
businesses are concerned about macro environment and are reducing fixed investments
manufacturing is slowing due to decreased demand both locally and overseas
consumer spending and confidence is still strong
Chinese domestic concerns
Potential US meddling in Chinese domestic affairs – Hong Kong’s demonstration and demands
Revoking of National Education
Revoking of extradition bill
Resignations of HK Chief executive
universal suffrage: freedom to elect their own leaders
destabilized situation presents a challenge for Xi JinPing’s party to retain control of power over former Jian Zemin’s faction
value system
US is a highly rule based system
China’s system of control is highly subjective to the individual in power. Direct government intervention in the distribution of wealth is a major source of concern
US/Mexico and world issues
NAFTA agreement was too one side and failed to take into account large imbalance between the two economies
US’s arrangement of allowing Mexican tax payers the right to claim dependents ultimately resulted into tax claims and refunds for entire extended families in Mexico. This has the effect of subsidizing Mexican’s at the expense of Americans living along the rust belts
Its observed income inequality is becoming prevalent across the entire world not just within US and China.
