In the latest instalment of the “Solving Sino” series, in which The Creative Accountant is getting to grips with the CCP and how things operate in China, he looks at how Big Tech firms in China are having to contribute towards the social priorities that have been identified by the government. “We cannot let an unbridgeable gulf appear between the …
View PostThis conversation, from Ernest Hemingway’s novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’, is the perfect analogy for how the pace of Chinese regulation has increased in the past year: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly.” At first, Ant Group’s halted IPO and restructuring raised eyebrows. Alibaba’s $2.8bn fine definitely had many sitting up in …
View PostLong-time readers of The Finance Ghost will know that I’m a fan of the gaming and esports theme. Our lives are going one way and one way only: more digital. The severe lockdowns last year only accelerated this theme. People were forced to stay home and stay safe. They also needed to stay entertained. It’s perhaps an arbitrary data point, …
View PostLong-time readers of The Finance Ghost will know that I’m a fan of the gaming and esports theme. Our lives are going one way and one way only: more digital. The severe lockdowns last year only accelerated this theme. People were forced to stay home and stay safe. They also needed to stay entertained. It’s perhaps an arbitrary data point, …
View PostAlibaba founder Jack Ma has had an awful November. The listing of Ant Group, a payments company incubated within Alibaba, was pulled by Chinese regulators (read more here) in response to ongoing criticism by Ma of the state of regulation in China. In the fallout over the Ant Group listing, Alibaba itself took a knock to the share price as …
View PostI love a good investment megatrend. Your chance of success is so much higher when you invest in a growing industry rather than trying to find the last surviving fish in a shrinking pool. Back in July, I wrote here that gaming was doing incredibly well over lockdown and that the trend may continue. Whenever a large group of people …
View PostI love a good investment megatrend. Your chance of success is so much higher when you invest in a growing industry rather than trying to find the last surviving fish in a shrinking pool. Back in July, I wrote here that gaming was doing incredibly well over lockdown and that the trend may continue. Whenever a large group of people …
View PostDo you have a pension? Do you have South African unit trusts? It’s more likely than not that you are a Naspers shareholder, albeit indirectly. Naspers made the news this week again, this time for an investment in Food Supply Network for an undisclosed sum. The company operates an independent business-to-business marketplace that improves the process of food delivery and …
View PostGaming has become an incredibly lucrative industry. I’m not talking about slot machines; this is the world of mobile, PC and console games. Fortnite has more than 350 million registered players. To put that in context, there are around 330 million people in the United States. Epic Games is the publisher of Fortnite and is worth $17.3bn after its latest …
View PostOne of my key investment themes is gaming. I strongly believe that gaming over the next decade will be what smartphones were over the previous decade. People are more connected than ever before. Every day, more and more people get fast internet access. In a world of social distancing, gaming becomes a welcome escape and a source of entertainment. In …
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