For SaaS companies, rule of 40 is a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, to measure the healthiness of the business.
Score = top-line growth + bottom-line margin
Score of 40 or above is good – e.g. a business grows at 40% with 0% adj. ebitda margin.
The valuation for those businesses, which usually starts at 10x revenue, is assuming a maturity stage of 0% growth and 40% profitability.
10x revenue @40% profit margin = 25x P/E
8x revenue @40% profit margin = 20x P/E
EV is booming, in market cap and in sales.
1/ Three big markets, EU, China and US, account for more than 90% of global xEV volume; while xEV is just a bit more than 5% of global unit volume.
Global BEV+PHEV unit volume is expected to be 3.24 million in 2020, or a bit more than 5% of the overall ~60 million vehicle market globally.
Nearly 1.4 million BEVs and PHEVs were registered in Europe during 2020, 137 % more than in 2019
China alone contributed more than 1.3 million in unit volume.
US grew slow (~4%), with a bit more than 0.3 million units sold.
2/ Globally, industry valued at 8x 2022 revenue
Currently, EV companies globally have a market cap of ~$958 billion; Tesla accounts for ~2/3 of that.
Expected 2022 revenues of those EV companies sum up to $122 billion (Tesla accounts for half), while TTM revenues are ~$57 billion.
Overall EV/ ’22 Sales = 7.9x
If normalized margin is 20%, then the valuation indicates ~40x P/E.. where E is normalized 2022 level.
Source: this google sheet compiled by FT.
Back in January, I wrote about how DoorDash could be valued at $60bn, with solid earnings (in the future).
While I question the near-term growth beyond $60bn, today’s earnings obviously doesn’t help.
Its stock drops more than 10% after-market.
Two things that the market seems to be too optimistic about:
1/ GOV and revenue growth – won’t be amazing
While it’s amazing that DoorDash GOV grew more than 200% in 2020, its forecast for 2021 is conservative: $30bn to $33bn, or 28% growth at the middle point.
Given Q4 GOV is ~$8.2bn, it’s basically forecasting minimal sequential growth. (lower in Q3/Q3 and higher in Q1/Q4, considering seasonality)
Our outlook anticipates the successful rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, among other things. Though we cannot predict the short or long-term effects this will have on consumer behavior, our guidance assumes it creates headwinds to growth in total orders and average order values. We caution investors that the outlook for 2021 remains highly uncertain, and consumer behavior could deviate from the expectations included in our guidance. Our guidance also assumes that the timing of scaled vaccinations will coincide with our seasonally softer Q2 and Q3 periods. Consequently, our forecast assumes increasing consumer churn, reduced order frequency at the cohort level, and slightly smaller average order values beginning in Q2. Because of this, our full year 2021 guidance assumes Marketplace GOV in Q2 and Q3 will be below the levels we expect in Q1.
2/ Profits – won’t be amazing
While DoorDash posted ~10% adj. EBITDA margin for the past three quarters, it may not be able to do so in 2021.
Considering $86 million adj. EBITDA in 2020 Q3, the forecast of $0-200 million for FY2021 seems lower than what investors were expecting.
That being said, to maintain a healthy ecosystem and to withstand the normalization of life, DoorDash needs to put extra efforts in retaining users and Dashers, and business partners. And it can and will invest more in acquiring talents.
Even 2021 GOV is $30-33bn, it will diversify (more heathy/stable demand), growing outside of the food delivery business. In 2023, this number can still go to $50 billion (say 2 billion orders x $25 per order), growing at over 25%.
And on the subscription front,
While DashPass orders carry a below-average Take Rate, the average DashPass subscriber orders more frequently and stays on the platform longer than the average non-subscriber.
DoorDash is playing the long game and the business is here to stay.
Be patient.
US stock market is in a tough week as 10-year yield rises.
It’s interesting to review the CAPM formula and its relation with multiple.
Assumptions:
| Risk-free rate | Discount | Multiple |
|---|---|---|
| 2% | 8% | 20.0x |
| 0.5% | 6.5% | 28.6x |
| 1% | 7% | 25.0x |
| 1.5% | 7.5% | 22.2x |
When market was performing like it’s 1% but realized that it’s actually 1.5%, the correction is ~9%.
When market was performing like it’s 0.5% but realized that it’s actually 1.5%, the correction is ~22.5%.
Found this proposed law in Japan very interesting – for Financial Services Intermediary Business operator (FSIBO).
It’s basically a single registration system that allows 4 types of major fintech services: Banking / Lending / Securities / Insurance, as long as it’s an intermediary business.
It’s like a law for Ant Group…
Or for PayPay (backed by SoftBank).
To list a few details here:
FSIBO is not required to be sponsored by a principal institution
A FSIBO is required to make a security deposit at a public deposit office before commencing its services to secure the payment of potential damages to its clients.
FSIBO can offer only those conventional products or services that do not need a sophisticated explanation to the clients
The FSIBO must disclose fees or remuneration to be received from financial institutions or other matters upon clients’ request. The FSIBO is generally prohibited from receiving deposit from clients in relation to its intermediation service with financial institutions.
FSIBO is subject to further requirements depending on the financial sector where the FSIBO provides its services
So Bitcoin price traded at over $50k today, surpassing $1 trillion market cap.
People are seeing the future where Bitcoin are welcomed or adopted in certain ways by major institutions.
– Tesla bought $1.5 billion Bitcoin recently.
– Twitter considers “how we might pay employees should they ask to be paid in bitcoin, how we might pay a vendor if they asked to be paid in bitcoin and whether we need to have bitcoin on our balance sheet”
– Banks like BNY Mellon are going to offer Bitcoin-based service.
While I share a similar view that it is becoming more mainstream, I think it also faces risks – people should remember that it’s not rare that governments “hated” gold occasionally in the past.
“One of his first moves as President was to declare a four-day bank holiday and suspend gold exports. Within days, the Emergency Banking Act was enforced that prohibited banks to pay out gold coins or bullion or gold certificates except under a government-issued license.
Just two weeks prior to abandoning the gold standard, he issued an executive order prohibiting hoarding of gold coins, bullion or gold certificates.” – Investopidia “When FDR Abandoned the Gold Standard”
As people talk about how Bitcoin can replace gold, the risk transfers to Bitcoin as well.
Fed’ or others’ ability to effectively print money will be reduced if goods and services are priced in Bitcoin and wages are paid in Bitcoin.
Facebook blocked all news content in a Australia on Thursday – users cannot share news links and Facebook Pages of media account are taken down.
This is in response to Australian government’s proposed law, which requires payment deals between media outlets and tech companies over content.
This is also one day after Google stroke a deal with News Corp, the media giant. Under the proposed law, Google will need to pay for news content if they appear in search results.
1/ Why Google and Facebook chose different routes (at least for now)?
I think their ad business are fundamentally different.
Facebook ads is seen on Facebook platforms, but Google ads is seen on both Google products and third-party websites.
Google is enabling third-party advertisers (think about the ads on newspaper’ website) to make money, e.g. AdSense. They are partners, and this network of advertisers is valuable to Google.
Facebook’s ads is sold by getting to know users better and letting users stay on its platforms longer. Traffic is important to Facebook, so news is important as a form of content that users want to see. However, Facebook also thinks it is giving media outlets traffic in return. More important, ads sold by Facebook is not relying on those media outlet.
2/ What content should be on social media?
Instagram is in a purer form of social media, so does Twitter. They are usually gravitating towards certain types of contents. On the other hand, products such as Facebook’ main app are aggregating all kinds of “feeds” as long as they can drive traffic.
I think the two types are both here to stay.
Another related issue is how to regulate contents, which has been an increasingly important issue in the US and globally.
“Regulate more” or “regulate less”?
I think either way more regulatory interventions (government) is most likely inevitable.
If platforms regulate less, regulators may think Section 230 is providing to much protection and platforms are not doing enough for their social responsibility.
If platforms regulate more, regulators might think they have too much power, which is also risky. And as they moderate more, it costs more and they may be challenged more often on their decisions.
“Public square” is not easy. “Digital living room” is where Facebook may find more flexibility in contents.
Paying for news might be one of the solutions to navigate some content risk, e.g. fake news, misinformation. However, fake news or misinformation might be the traffic driver that Facebook values.
As of Feb 2021,
For independent individuals – 40% of gross value of virtual gifts, when tax withheld is 20%
Streamers = 40%
Streamer’s tax withheld by Kuaishou = 10%
Kuaishou = 50%
For streamers under a “family/union” – varies.
Unions can set the sharing ratio to between 35% and 50%.
For example, if the ratio is set at 40%, and tax withheld is 0 (to simplify)
Streamers = 40% (certain tax should be withheld)
Union = 10%
Kuaishou = 50%
In addition, Kuaishou gives back additional revenue-sharing (“bonus”) as incentive if certain growth/active targets are achieved, up to 12% of gross value (after-tax I assume).
The larger the union, the higher basic bonus (up to 2%) it can get. Active bonus (1%) requirement is a bit higher for larger union. Growth target is lower for large unions. Growth bonus is tiered and every union can potentially get the full 9% growth bonus.
Therefore, if a union get say 5% bonus, following the previous example, then
Streamers = 40%
Union = 15%
Kuaishou = 45%
Unions can set certain bonus internally for streamers, and often provide a base pay + % commission model for streamers.
We could see from Kuaishou’s reported financials that after deducting “revenue sharing to streamers and related taxes”, Kuaishou retains a bit over 40% of its live-streaming revenue.
There are two strategic offerings that drive the organic growth of Kuaishou, Douyin and Bilibili, which also differentiate them from the others:
1/ an easy-to-use video editing tool that is actually empowering users
2/ a marketplace (e.g. ads, e-commerce) for users/MCNs to monetize. One key difference is that: it is not for platforms to sell ads. Platforms are just operating the marketplace.
Video editing tools
– Kuaishou introduced Kuaiying (Kmovie) in 2017
– ByteDance/Douyin introduced Jianying (CapCut) in Jun 2019
– Bilibili introduced Bijian (bcut) in July 2020
Marketplaces
– Kuaishou upgraded the exchange as 磁力聚星 Magnetic Star, part of the 磁力引擎 Magnetic Engine
– ByteDance upgraded the website to 巨量星图2.0 in 2020
– Bilibili launched 花火 Huahuo in July 2020
Those are all similar – marketplaces for brands/agencies + influencers/MCNs
On Monday, Feb 8, Tesla announced it bough $1.5 billion bitcoin and would accept it as a payment method soon.
A few takeaways:
1/ There will be more companies using bitcoin to manage their cash, adding to the demand for it.
2/ Bitcoin as a payment method will be more mainstream. Now people not only can rely on selling it to the market, but maybe can buy a Model Y. The future question would be – what will the “economy” look like on Mars? I bet Bitcoin will be important.
Questions remain –
How Tesla is gonna price its cars? in fixed Bitcoin? that will cause a collision with USD, etc. as Bitcoin is volatile on a daily basis.