26 Aug 2015

Analyse Asia Podcast: From Alphabet to Uber




On the first anniversary of Bernard Leong's Analyse Asia podcast, we discussed the implications of Google's (or Alphabet's) recent corporate restructuring announcement, Apple Watch sales, upcoming Apple product announcements, the eventual fate of Samsung and, finally, Uber’s financials and ballooning valuation.

Interesting notes and links (with timestamps included):

  • Reflecting on Analyse Asia's first year and looking ahead to the next [0:37]
  • Google to be restructured as a subsidiary under a new holding company, Alphabet [11:27]
    1. How does this affect Google as an organization? [11:37]
    2. What was the reason for this move? Was it just about transparency or were there other motivations at plat as well? Use disruption theory as a frame of reference. [15:34]
    3. Debunking the Google A/B analogy. [17:52]
    4. No, Alphabet is not the Berkshire Hathaway of technology. [24:26]
  • Apple Watch sales and September event predictions [27:00]
    1. What are the difficulties in predicting Apple Watch sales? How did you come up with your estimates? [27:15]
    2. Is it too early to call the Apple Watch a flop? [33:17]
    3. Should Apple open Apple Watch to Android users? [35:11]
    4. What products do you expect Apple to announce this fall? [37:26]
    5. Will the looming collapse of Chinese equity markets affect Apple's growth in the country? [39:40]
  • Samsung's eventual fate
    1. A year later, their smartphone sales are still tanking. Can they turn it around? (Ref: Samsung's Challenging Turnaround by Jan Dawson) [41:47]
  • Scrutinizing Uber's financials and valuation
    1. Uber's valuation has raced past its fundamentals (as of 2014). [43:03]
    2. Can Uber disrupt logistics? [46:00]