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Master Innovation And Development Plan By Sidewalk Toronto

Earlier this year, I shared 「Video of the Week」Future Cities by Sidewalk Labs.

Now we have many more documents from Sidewalk Toronto. Google is trying to build cities.

The plan will begin with Quayside in Phase I.

Map shows the proposed IDEA District and the Eastern Waterfront. The Quayside neighbourhood, on the northwest perimeter of the district, is blue, representing phase 1 of development. — Source: sidewalktoronto

There will be several focuses

Mobility. A transportation system that reduces the need to own a car by providing safe, convenient, connected, and affordable options for every trip.
Common & social areas. A system of streets, parks, plazas, and open spaces that encourages people to spend more time outdoors, together; health, civic life, learning, and workforce initiatives and facilities that enable people to thrive.
Buildings & Housing. Sustainable and adaptable buildings with mixed uses; affordable residences.
Environmental friendly as a climate-positive community.
Digitalize every possible part of the city.

「Shoe Dog」Nike’s CRM Started In 1966..

Sharing an except from Nike founder Phil Knight’s book Shoe Dog:

“…when he [Johnson] wasn’t selling, he was beaverishly building up his customer data files.

Each new customer got his or her own index card, and each index card contained that customer’s personal information, shoe size, and shoe preferences. This database enabled Johnson to keep in touch with all his customers, at all times, and to keep them all feeling special. He sent them Christmas cards. He sent them birthday cards. He sent them notes of congratulation after they completed a big race or marathon. Whenever I got a letter from Johnson I knew it was one of dozens he’d carried down to the mailbox that day. He had hundreds and hundreds of customer-correspondents, all along the spectrum of humanity, from high school track stars to octogenarian weekend joggers. “

This where Nike’s superior customer relationship management came from… two years after Nike was founded.

More recently, Nike’s SNKRS app launched in 2015 was a hit. The app is where many head for a chance to get Nike limited releases and special products.

It’s become Nike’s latest way to game supply and demand of hyped products. SNKRS keeps shoppers hungry by sending out regular push notifications about drops every week. When consumers inevitably flood the app for the release, many take an L, walking away empty handed. A share of those who do get the shoes never wear them. Instead, they immediately resell them for multiples of what they paid, fueling the burgeoning resale market. [Quartz]

And Nike just launched Chinese version of its Nike App in November, with Nike Fit and Nike App Retail expected to launch next year in China.

「What’s News In China」

Gree Electric Appliances (格力电器) finalized the 15% stake sale for RMB41.7 billionIt is one of the most watched private equity deal in China. The deal, part of China’s efforts to reduce government ownership, will reduce the state-owned Zhuhai Gree Group’s stake to 3.2 percent. Hillhouse’s Zhuhai Mingjun with the newly acquired 15% stake becomes the largest single shareholder. Hillhouse through Zhuhai Mingjun can nominate 3 seats in the 9-member board (in addition to two board seats from Hillhouse’ Zhuhai Gaoling and alliance Pearl Brilliance) and agreed to an equity incentive plan of no more than 4 percent. // 36Kr

Baidu’s smart speaker leads in China in 2019 Q3. According to Strategy Analytics, Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) shipped 4.3 million smart speakers in 2019 Q3, growing 130% yoy, surpassing Alibaba and Xiaomi, whose product shipments follow closely. Before Baidu launched its smart speaker with proprietary DuerOS voice AI, Alibaba and Xiaomi were dividing up the market share in China. // StrategyAnalytics

Tencent is officially launching Nintendo Switch in China. Tencent held a press conference on Dec 4 in Shanghai, announcing that the official Chinese version of the Nintendo Switch will launch in mainland China next week (Dec 10). Tencent and Nintendo first announced the partnership in April this year. The Switch will include a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, selling for 2,099 yuan (~$297). // Tencent

Happy Thanksgiving! [no content]

SoftBank Has An Easy Strategy – Mobile Payment In Every Emerging Economy

SoftBank might be the investment firm outside of China that understands mobile payments the best.

Tapping Ant Financial and Tencent’s interests in overseas markets, SoftBank has investments in every major emerging economy.

Southeast Asia: Grab

SoftBank inject another $2 billion earlier this year into Grab. It first invested in GrabTaxi back in 2014 with $250 million Series D, making itself the largest shareholder. GrabTaxi then rebranded into Grab in 2016, entering into payment service with GrabPay and other businesses. It also acquired Kudo based in Indonesia in 2017 to beef up its payment platform.

[Also, in July, Softbank’s Vision Fund and GIC invested $300 million in e-wallet VNPAY’s parent company for Vietnam]

India: Paytm

This week, SoftBank and Ant Financial injected $1 billion into Paytm. The competition intensifies with Google Pay, payments from e-commerce and Facebook’s payment especially on WhatsApp.

Argentina: Ualá

On November 25, Ualá raised a $150 million Series C led by Tencent and SoftBank. Ualá is a mobile banking tech platform and allows users to transfer money, invest in mutual funds, request loans, pay bills and top-up prepaid services.

Mexico: Clip

SoftBank invested $20 million in Clip, leading a $100 million round in May. Clip offers Square-like products for merchant payments, as the country is more relying on cards.

Updates – Mexico: Konfio

On December 3, SoftBank invested $100 million into Konfio, which provides credit underwriting, or SMB loans.

Combining Konfio and Clip will create the Square or Clover in Mexico.

An easy model and bet on those economies.

How Card Networks May Fail: Top Merchants With Gift Cards + Mobile Wallet

In the US, as top merchants getting bigger, they are able to drive the adoption of cash-like mobile wallets, internalizing more transaction infrastructure, cutting payment networks’ growth & profitability.

We have already seen the success of Starbucks’s mobile order & pay, launched at the end of 2014. The combination of its mobile app, (gift) cards and cash-like value in the app reduces the overall transactions costs of Starbucks purchases. Other benefits like managing the loyalty program and mobile orders/pick-ups makes it the role model that big merchants (like Walmart) wants to follow.

Currently, some merchants are offering co-branded credit cards at the same time. But I think the long-term goal is to promote the usage of their own mobile app and cash (e.g. Starbucks credit card comes with an annual fee that I think is discouraging people from using the card in the long-term but can be used as a market tool for now). They can reduce (most of) the transaction costs and own the data (e.g. payment networks can only touch the reloading part of Uber Cash, but not the transactions made via Uber Cash – no fees, no data).

「What’s News In China」

Alibaba raised ~$11.2 billion in Hong Kong Stock Exchange, offering stocks at HKD$176 per share. With Hong Kong exchange relaxed its rules around “one share, one vote”, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is able to list its shares on HKEX again. It is the world’s largest listing so far this year. The overall sum raised could rise to nearly US$13 billion if the underwriting banks exercise an option to sell 15% more shares. // WSJ

Walmart announced on Nov 21 that it plans to add 500 new stores in China over the next five to seven years. It will also remodel more than 200 stores in China over the next few years, adding features such as self-service cash registers where customers can pay using facial recognition. The company’s China sales grew 6.3% last quarter, higher than its 2.5% growth worldwide. // CNN

Kuaishou (快手), the main competitor for Douyin (Tik Tok) in China, to become the exclusive partner for 2020 Chinese New Year Gala. The Chinese New Year Gala (春晚), or Spring Festival Gala, is the most watched annual television broadcast and Kuaishou will be the exclusive partner for 2020 to send red pockets (红包) to audience. Last year, Baidu was the exclusive partner to promote the use of its digital wallet. spending over ¥1 billion in red pockets. Kuaishou has achieved 200 million DAU in 2019 and the target is 300 million. // Jiemian