Amazon Vs Alibaba M&A Activity Comparison Between Two E-Commerce Giants
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Amazon Inc. Stock Rating BUY
EQUITY RESEARCH 30th October 2018 Amazon Inc. Stock Rating BUY Post Q3 2018 results, we maintain our BUY recommendation and Price Target of $2200. Overall, Amazon reported good results for Q3 2018. Sales came in at $56.6bln, Country United States Industry Consumer Cyclical at the high end of management’s guidance $54bln-$57.5bln. Ticker AMZN ISIN US0231351067 Having said this, shares were down heavily post results. Reason being that although sales came in towards the high end of management’s guidance, they came in slightly Price $1538.88 Price Target $2200.00 lower than market consensus. However, what trigger the sell-off in the shares was that Amazon’s Q4 2018 revenue guidance of 10-20% ($66.5B-$72.5B) was lower than Market Cap $752.46m expected. Shares in issue 487.7m Dividend Yield -- P/E 94.72x Although the lower guidance was the result of a $300mln headwind in Q4 2018 from an accounting change, with Prime subscription revenue now recognized on a straight 52-week 1086.87 – 2050.50 line basis over 12 months instead of with heavier allocation in Q4 2018 as was Range previously done. We recognize that Amazon shares are still up 30% YTD and there will be increased concerns around deceleration and future growth. We believe shares could remain under pressure near term as a result, but we think there is 4Q profit upside and potential for re-acceleration in 1Q19. We believe any pullback will prove to be a good buying opportunity. We continue to like Amazon because we strongly believe that its e-commerce and web services business (AWS) have further room to grow eCommerce – Amazon is the largest Internet retailer in the world as measured by revenue and market capitalization. -
China's Current Capabilities, Policies, and Industrial Ecosystem in AI
June 7, 2019 “China’s Current Capabilities, Policies, and Industrial Ecosystem in AI” Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on Technology, Trade, and Military-Civil Fusion: China’s Pursuit of Artificial Intelligence, New Materials, and New Energy Jeffrey Ding D.Phil Researcher, Center for the Governance of AI Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford Introduction1 This testimony assesses the current capabilities of China and the U.S. in AI, highlights key elements of China’s AI policies, describes China’s industrial ecosystem in AI, and concludes with a few policy recommendations. China’s AI Capabilities China has been hyped as an AI superpower poised to overtake the U.S. in the strategic technology domain of AI.2 Much of the research supporting this claim suffers from the “AI abstraction problem”: the concept of AI, which encompasses anything from fuzzy mathematics to drone swarms, becomes so slippery that it is no longer analytically coherent or useful. Thus, comprehensively assessing a nation’s capabilities in AI requires clear distinctions regarding the object of assessment. This section compares the current AI capabilities of China and the U.S. by slicing up the fuzzy concept of “national AI capabilities” into three cross-sections: 1) scientific and technological (S&T) inputs and outputs, 2) different layers of the AI value chain (foundation, technology, and application), and 3) different subdomains of AI (e.g. computer vision, predictive intelligence, and natural language processing). This approach reveals that China is not poised to overtake the U.S. in the technology domain of AI; rather, the U.S. -
Hkai Lab Accelerator Program
HKAI LAB ACCELERATOR PROGRAM APPLICATION INFORMATION KIT WHAT we offer Empowering 1. Financial Investment Startups • Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AHKEF) will invest US$100,000 in a HKAI LAB offers a form of a zero-interest convertible note of 18-month maturity to companies 12-month who are admitted to the HKAI LAB Accelerator Program. Accelerator • The convertible note shall give the holder an option to convert into equity at Program that the next equity round of financing at a conversion price which depends on takes your startup the actual scenario and stage of the company. After conversion, AHKEF will to the next level. own, at most, 6% of the company on a fully-diluted basis. The shares received upon conversion shall be pari passu with the same class of shares issued at We focus on the next round of equity financing. empowering startups to 2. Access to Proprietary AI Technologies develop and • GPU-equipped high-performance computer resources commercialize • PAI, a machine-learning platform powered by Alibaba Cloud their AI inventions • and technologies. Parrot, a deep-learning platform powered by SenseTime We run two 3. Strong Advisory, Network & Opportunities accelerator • HKAI LAB facilitates knowledge sharing by a wide spectrum of our advisors, cohorts every coaches, and experts, including AI scientists, eminent professors, and year. technical experts. You will also have the chance to meet venture capitalists and potential strategic partners through various events held at or outside of the lab. There may also be opportunities to work with Alibaba Group and SenseTime on different business ventures. 4. Dedicated Support & Resources • To support your growth, you will have access to US$10,000 worth of Alibaba Cloud services credit, technical consultation and support from Alibaba Cloud, SenseTime and Alibaba DAMO Academy teams. -
Walmart Inc. Takes on Amazon.Com
For the exclusive use of Q. Mays, 2020. 9-718-481 REV: JANUARY 21, 2020 DAVID COLLIS ANDY WU REMBRAND KONING HUAIYI CICI SUN Walmart Inc. Takes on Amazon.com At the start of 2018, Walmart faced critical decisions about its future as e-commerce continued to explode. Walmart just lost its long-held crown as the most valuable retailer in the world to online leader Amazon. With Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods for $13 billion, Amazon moved aggressively into the offline world to challenge Walmart in its biggest business, grocery. Walmart was not standing still, making moves like buying Jet.com for $3 billion in 2016. While Walmart’s U.S. e- commerce revenues grew to $11.5 billion in 2017, there was no debate in Bentonville, AR: Walmart remained far behind. The question for Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and Walmart.com head Marc Lore was how to respond to its most aggressive competitor ever (Exhibits 1a and 1b).1 Amazon The Early Years (1994–2001) Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 to exploit the Internet, still a relatively nascent technology. He determined that selling books online was most promising, because the number of titles available was greater than even the largest brick-and-mortar store could stock. Bezos and his wife drove west to start “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore” in Seattle, WA. Amazon offered 1 million titles for sale on its opening day in July 1995. Next year, the company had over 2.5 million book titles for sale, with revenue doubling every quarter (Exhibit 2). -
Targeting Plan for Attracting the Top Tech Companies to GM
Targeting Plan for Attracting the Top Tech Companies to GM Andrew Toolan, Head of Creative Digital and Tech, MIDAS September 2018 Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….p1 Which Companies to Target ……………………………………………………………………………………………….p2 Top 21 Companies……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….p3 Type of Information Researched………………………………………………………………………………………….p4 Other Tech Targeting Campaigns……………………………………………………………………………………….p7 Planning Stages and Deadlines…..……………………………………………………………………………………….p9 Appendix: Company Profiles: GAFAM……………………………….………………………………………………………………….p10 Company Profiles: NATU…………………………….……………………………………………………………………….p31 Company Profiles: BAT…………………………….…………………………………………………………………………..p48 Company Profiles: Forbes 2018 List………………………………..…………………………………………………..p61 Executive Summary This paper sets out a plan for building more strategic relationships between Greater The new opportunities could come from innovation driven projects that address a company’s Manchester (GM) and the worlds largest tech companies. The aim is that closer collaboration focus, areas of interest and their challenges. It could also come via market opportunities by will ultimately lead to increased levels of partnerships, investment and job creation. partnering with GM and its various institutions on areas such as ‘digitisation and delivery of public services’. These opportunities will be positioned with the inward investment pitch but MIDAS have selected 21 companies that in 2018, were either the largest tech firms by market help GM stand out from our competitor locations by being more tailored to company needs. capitalisation, major brands or the key employers/job creators within their sector. In order to This Top 21 campaign will run in parallel (and compliment) other tech targeting campaigns develop a more strategic approach we need to get a better understanding of these such as the CDT Sub-Sector Campaign; NexGen Campaign and Emerging Tech/Data City companies in terms of their goals, challenges and areas of focus. -
The 2Nd International Artificial Intelligence Fair (IAIF) I
Official Call for Participation The 2nd International Artificial Intelligence Fair (IAIF) I. Introduction to Sponsor and Organizer: The second International Artificial Intelligence Fair is sponsored by the Global AI Academic Alliance (GAIAA), which was founded at the 2018 World AI Conference in Shanghai, China. The founding members include MIT, University of Sydney, Nanyang Technological University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, University of Science and Technology of China, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fudan University, Harbin Engineering Industrial University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai University, Shanghai University of Science and Technology, Tongji University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, SenseTime Group, and other world renown universities and scientific research institutions. The Alliance aims to build and continue to promote the world's top AI academic exchange and collaboration platform. In addition, the Academic Alliance will engage public policy makers and the public in important issues, accelerate the industrialization of artificial intelligence technology, and strive to improve the public awareness and understanding of artificial intelligence. It brings together universities, research institutions, enterprises, experts and scholars in the field of global artificial intelligence to gather the world's "strongest brains" to jointly advance the rapid and sustainable development of artificial intelligence technology. As a key founding member of the Alliance, SenseTime Group created a global leading artificial intelligence education platform, and is committed to contributing to the global development of AI, to help build an AI academic exchange platform, to assist in industry research cooperation, to provide industry benchmarks, and to identify and develop AI talents. The development of college AI education is inseparable from the AI education at primary and secondary school levels to build the foundation and nurture creative thinking at an early stage. -
Amazon's Initiative Transforming a Non-Contact Society
Technology in Society 65 (2021) 101596 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Technology in Society journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/techsoc Amazon’s initiative transforming a non-contact society - Digital disruptionleads the way to stakeholder capitalization Chihiro Watanabe a,b,*, Waleed Akhtar a, Yuji Tou c, Pekka Neittaanmaki¨ a a Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyvaskyl¨ a,¨ Finland b International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria c Dept. of Ind. Engineering & Magm., Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Contrary to the decisive role of R&D centered on information and communication technology (ICT) in the digital Advanced digital fashion economy, its excessive expansion has resulted in declining productivity due to the two-faced nature of ICT. Amazon Consequently, the novel concept emerges of innovation that maintains sustainable growth by harnessing the Learning orchestration externality vigor of soft innovation resources (SIRs). Stakeholder capitalism Pioneering endeavors can be observed at the forefront of the global ICT leaders. World R&D leader Amazon Non-contact society has been harnessing the power of users that seek SIRs. This functions as a virtuous cycle, leading to the trans formation of R&D by fusing a unique R&D system with a sophisticated financingsystem. With this orchestration, Amazon leverages the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders, and takes the initiative of stakeholder capitalism in which stakeholders bet on Amazon’s prospecting future. This paper attempts to elucidate the driving force of this notable accomplishment, taking Amazon’s recent challenge in developing advanced digital fashions (ADFs) successively as prospecting SIRs. -
Global Artificial Intelligence Industry Whitepaper
Global artificial intelligence industry whitepaper Global artificial intelligence industry whitepaper | 4. AI reshapes every industry 1. New trends of AI innovation and integration 5 1.1 AI is growing fully commercialized 5 1.2 AI has entered an era of machine learning 6 1.3 Market investment returns to reason 9 1.4 Cities become the main battleground for AI innovation, integration and application 14 1.5 AI supporting technologies are advancing 24 1.6 Growing support from top-level policies 26 1.7 Over USD 6 trillion global AI market 33 1.8 Large number of AI companies located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta 35 2. Development of AI technologies 45 2.1 Increasingly sophisticated AI technologies 45 2.2 Steady progress of open AI platform establishment 47 2.3 Human vs. machine 51 3. China’s position in global AI sector 60 3.1 China has larger volumes of data and more diversified environment for using data 61 3.2 China is in the highest demand on chip in the world yet relying heavily on imported high-end chips 62 3.3 Chinese robot companies are growing fast with greater efforts in developing key parts and technologies domestically 63 3.4 The U.S. has solid strengths in AI’s underlying technology while China is better in speech recognition technology 63 3.5 China is catching up in application 64 02 Global artificial intelligence industry whitepaper | 4. AI reshapes every industry 4. AI reshapes every industry 68 4.1 Financial industry: AI enhances the business efficiency of financial businesses -
The Ethical Questions That Haunt Facial- Recognition
Feature BASED ON THE YAHOO FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS COMMONS FLICKR CREATIVE THE YAHOO BASED ON ET AL. IMAGE VISUALIZATION BY ADAM HARVEY (HTTPS://MEGAPIXELS.CC) BASED ON THE MEGAFACE DATA DATA THE MEGAFACE BASED ON (HTTPS://MEGAPIXELS.CC) HARVEY ADAM BY VISUALIZATION IMAGE IRA KEMELMACHER-SHLIZERMAN SET BY LICENCES BY) (CC ATTRIBUTION COMMONS CREATIVE UNDER LICENSED SET AND DATA MILLION 100 A collage of images from the MegaFace data set, which scraped online photos. Images are obscured to protect people’s privacy. n September 2019, four researchers wrote to the publisher Wiley to “respect- fully ask” that it immediately retract a scientific paper. The study, published in THE ETHICAL 2018, had trained algorithms to distin- guish faces of Uyghur people, a predom- inantly Muslim minority ethnic group in China, from those of Korean and Tibetan Iethnicity1. QUESTIONS THAT China had already been internationally con- demned for its heavy surveillance and mass detentions of Uyghurs in camps in the north- western province of Xinjiang — which the gov- HAUNT FACIAL- ernment says are re-education centres aimed at quelling a terrorist movement. According to media reports, authorities in Xinjiang have used surveillance cameras equipped with soft- ware attuned to Uyghur faces. RECOGNITION As a result, many researchers found it dis- turbing that academics had tried to build such algorithms — and that a US journal had published a research paper on the topic. And the 2018 study wasn’t the only one: journals RESEARCH from publishers including Springer Nature, Elsevier and the Institute of Electrical and Elec- Journals and researchers are under fire for tronics Engineers (IEEE) had also published controversial studies using this technology. -
The Chinese Social Credit System
Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Creative Components Dissertations Spring 2021 The Chinese Social Credit System Seerat Marwaha IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/creativecomponents Part of the Management Information Systems Commons Recommended Citation Marwaha, Seerat, "The Chinese Social Credit System" (2021). Creative Components. 767. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/creativecomponents/767 This Creative Component is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Creative Components by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Chinese Social Credit System Seerat Marwaha Iowa State University Masters of Science in Information Systems Gerdin- Ivy College of Business Ames, Iowa- 50014 (515) 357 9460 Office Internet: [email protected] Chinese Social Credit System ` 1 The Chinese Social Credit System ABSTRACT Financial consumer rating is a great way to track an individual consumer’s financial health, their financial decisions, and their financial management. Many countries use financial consumer ratings to gauge how responsible their citizens are when it comes to money. This allows them to know how good one is with their money, and how risky it is for them to lend any type of loan to someone. (Avery et al, 2003) Similarly, many countries now also use rating systems in relation to online platforms and in the ‘sharing economy’, such as eBay, Uber and Airbnb. This rating system helps consumers evaluate their experience and rate in order to help new consumers to make better decisions. -
Mergers in the Digital Economy
2020/01 DP Axel Gautier and Joe Lamesch Mergers in the digital economy CORE Voie du Roman Pays 34, L1.03.01 B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Tel (32 10) 47 43 04 Email: [email protected] https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/ lidam/core/discussion-papers.html Mergers in the Digital Economy∗ Axel Gautier y& Joe Lamesch z January 13, 2020 Abstract Over the period 2015-2017, the five giant technologically leading firms, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM) acquired 175 companies, from small start-ups to billion dollar deals. By investigating this intense M&A, this paper ambitions a better understanding of the Big Five's strategies. To do so, we identify 6 different user groups gravitating around these multi-sided companies along with each company's most important market segments. We then track their mergers and acquisitions and match them with the segments. This exercise shows that these five firms use M&A activity mostly to strengthen their core market segments but rarely to expand their activities into new ones. Furthermore, most of the acquired products are shut down post acquisition, which suggests that GAFAM mainly acquire firm’s assets (functionality, technology, talent or IP) to integrate them in their ecosystem rather than the products and users themselves. For these tech giants, therefore, acquisition appears to be a substitute for in-house R&D. Finally, from our check for possible "killer acquisitions", it appears that just a single one in our sample could potentially be qualified as such. Keywords: Mergers, GAFAM, platform, digital markets, competition policy, killer acquisition JEL Codes: D43, K21, L40, L86, G34 ∗The authors would like to thank M. -
Junjie Yan, Ph.D. Q [email protected]
Junjie Yan, Ph.D. Q [email protected] http://yan-junjie.github.io/ Working Experience SenseTime CTO of Smart City Group & Vice Head of Research [Since 2019.01] Lead the R&D Team within Smart City Group (SenseTime’s largest business group) to build system architectures and algorithms that make cities safer and more efficient. Lead the SenseTime Deep Learning Toolchain Team to develop the toolchain from algorithm components to distributed training and inference platform enables deep learning solutions scale up to more than 700 customers. Vice Head of Research [Since 2017.01] Founded and led the Video Intelligence Department (SenseTime’s largest research team) to build intelligent solutions about face, pedestrian, vehicle and text. Founded and led the Fundamental Research Department, which explores techniques such as AutoML, making deep learning techniques scale up to more than 400 custom- ers. Research Director [2014.11 – 2017.01] Founded the Object Perception Group and Face Recognition Group, which had led the exponential growth in both accuracy and applicable usage of face recognition. The first SenseTime Prize, and the only one Best Team Award. Baidu Research Intern [2014.04 – 2014.11]. Institute of Deep Learning, Baidu. Initialized the Reserarch of Object Detection in Baidu. Baidu Fellowship (one of the eight Chinese PhD students around the world), 2014 Excellent Research Intern (one of the two interns at Baidu IDL), 2014 Education 2016.04 – 2018.03 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Computer Science, Tsinghua Uni- versity in Computer Vision. Thesis title: Ecient Object Detection. Supervisor: Prof. Bo Zhang (Fellow of Chinese Academy of Sciences). 2010.09 – 2015.06 Ph.D., (Hons) National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Computer Vision.