Luckin Coffe (Nasdaq: LK) released its Q3 quarterly earnings last week.
More than 700 new stores opened in Q3. This might be fastest growing coffee chain in history.
Luckin grew to 3,680 stores from 9 store at the end of 2017.
You can’t even see the number for 2017 Q4 in the chart below.
BeiGene (NASDAQ: BGNE; HKEX: 06160), announced on Nov 14 that BRUKINSA™ (zanubrutinib) has received accelerated approval from the US FDA as a treatment for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) in adult patients who have received at least one prior therapy. This is the first time that the FDA approved a drug based on efficacy data that is predominantly from China. // reuters | BeiGene
Trip.com (NASDAQ: TCOM), formerly Ctrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP) and TripAdvisor (Nasdaq: TRIP) announced a strategic partnership on Nov 6 to expand global cooperation, including a joint venture, global content agreements and a governance agreement. TripAdvisor will own 40% of the joint venture. Trip.com shall acquire up to 6.95 million TripAdvisor shares or TripAdvisor shares valued at USD317.6 million through open market transactions within one year following regulatory approvals. Trip.com will have a nomination right for one TripAdvisor board seat commencing upon the relevant regulatory bodies’ approvals of the transaction. // TripAdvisor
Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ: LK), a coffee chain founded in 2017 in China and operating only 9 stores that year, grew to 3,680 stores at the end of 2019 Q3, with quarterly revenue expanding more than 6-fold to RMB1,493.2 million from RMB227.1 million a year ago. Also mentioned in the earnings release, Luckin “strategically launched Luckin Tea as an independent brand and developed our new retail partnership model, .. engaged in ongoing discussions with potential strategic partners to set up joint ventures in markets outside of China.” // Luckin Coffee
If we need one figure this week to tell how the US economy is going – then the Walmart US store comparable sales is the one: 3.2% yoy.
WSJ – Walmart’s Sales Growth Streak Hits Five Years
Dots to connect: inflation, Walmart’s online sales growth, international sales growth, tariff impacts, etc.
Following up on the update for cannabis public companies, here is a video for the weed-adjacent dietary supplement known as cannabidiol, or CBD.
One year after the legalization of recreational use of cannabis in Canada, and following up on the previous discussion of those public companies gathering partners/supports, ramping up production and declines in ASP, here is an another snapshot as of 2019 Q3.
The number of kilograms sold is soaring.
But ASP keep falling.
And here is the graph for aggregated market cap of cannabis companies as of 11/15.
Paying to become a member of a video platform has gradually become mainstream in China, at least for the younger generations.
Consumer behaviors have been changing from searching for free sources (as there are fewer of them now than before) to paying for high quality and hassle-free subscriptions.
The leading platforms, iQiYi and Tencent Videos, have paying members exceeding 100 million in 2019 Q2 and 2019 Q3 respectively. The paying percentage is around 20% for a 500 million MAU (iQiYi 2018 Q4 MAU 454.5 million).
Alibaba’s Youku is only little behind (numbers are not disclosed).
Similar trends are found in Tencent Music and NetEase Music. While paying percentage is ~4-5%, it is picking up. Tencent Music’s online music paying users grew 42.2% yoy to 35.4 million (5.36% of 661 million MAU).
Emerging platforms like Bilibili are also seeing more paying users percentage.
As Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) businesses are booming and going public as companies, their earnings report gave us some insights into their gross margins and what those products cost the companies to produce (cost of goods sold is the flip side of gross margin).
Canada Goose, in their Second Quarter Fiscal 2019 results, said that DTC gross margin is 75.6%, a 40 bps increase from last year.
cost of goods sold: 24.4%
Moncler similarly has a gross margin of 76.6% for 2019 H1.
cost of goods sold: 23.4%
Tiffany in the most recent quarter has a gross margin of 62.7%, decreasing from 64% the year before. LVMH recent announced its attempt to acquire Tiffany.
cost of goods sold: 37.3%
Even the giant consumer staples company Procter & Gamble’s gross margin stays at 47.7%.
cost of goods sold: 52.3%
Beyond the transaction fees charged by AliPay and WeChatPay, CB Insights outlined five major growth opportunities.
See full report here.
Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceuticals (Green Valley, 绿谷制药) today announced on Nov 2 that China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved Oligomannate (GV-971) as new drug for the treatment of “mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and improving cognitive function.” It is the first novel drug approved for Alzheimer’s disease globally since 2003. The company is also planning a global phase 3 trial with sites in the U.S., Europe and other parts of Asia in early 2020 to support regulatory filings around the world. // prnewswire | fiercepharma
On Nov 5, Nio (NASDAQ: NIO), long being seen as the Tesla in China, announced its partnership with Intel’s Mobileye to build self-driving EVs. Under the planned collaboration, Mobileye will provide NIO with the design of the self-driving system building on the Mobileye AV Series, a L4 AV kit comprised of the Mobileye EyeQ® system-on-chip, hardware, driving policy, safety software and mapping solution. NIO will take on the automotive-grade engineering, integration and mass-production of Mobileye’s system for both consumer automotive markets and for Mobileye’s mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) applications. In addition to integrating the self-driving system into its vehicle lines, NIO will develop a specially configured variant of electric AVs that Mobileye will use as robotaxis, deployed for ride-hailing services in global markets. // TechCrunch| intel
36Kr (NASDAQ: KRKR), a Beijing-based news and data provider, known for tracking fundraising and tech related news in China, raised $20 million in its Friday debut on NASDAQ. The company is similar to TechCrunch or Crunchbase (its affiliated Crunchbase News). // Crunchbase News
On this annual shopping festival, we could see how Chinese consumers are growing their spending.
Alibaba’s Tmall reached 10 billion yuan in less than two minutes (00:01:36)
With updated info: Alibaba singles day sales GMV stood at 268.4 billion yuan (~$38 billion), growing 26% from last year.
Dots to connect: competitions from JD and Pinduoduo?, growth okay, houses being sold on platforms, live steaming as a new type of sales & marketing but costs?