Happy Belated Valentine’s Day! 👋💓 We’re still processing all the Superbowl Commercials, though our favorite so far is from Meta. Besides the millennial awakening moment during the Super Bowel 56 halftime show (and realizing that we are indeed the new boomers), this week we have brewing tensions from India’s App Store ban as well as simmering short video and streaming commerce wars.
Don’t forget that nominations are open for our Expert Circle!
Analytics, Digital, Design In Action
App Store Art of War
India has banned 54 apps it says are of Chinese origin, including Sea Ltd.’s flagship Free Fire, citing security concerns. This follows the ongoing geopolitical tensions between India and China. In the past one and a half years, the Indian government has banned over 300 Chinese-linked apps, citing security concerns.
Beyond the geopolitics, this has large ramifications for Sea’s India ambitions. Sea sees more than half of its users from India. Meanwhile, Sea’s e-commerce-arm, Shopee, is also looking to India as a growth engine.
Free Fire is one of the top-ranked mobile games in Southeast Asia with 150 million daily active users. Free Fire India might account for less than 10% of Sea’s gaming revenues, JPMorgan analyst Ranjan Sharma said in a report, slashing his share price target by about 40% to $250. The potential ban of Free Fire could further increase nervousness around Sea’s gaming franchise, he said.
In the time when every company tries to be multinational, we are curious how much this will be blocked by geopolitical tensions, and whether technology really has its limits.
Youtube’s 3Cs and TikTok’s HSN
Youtube has laid out its plans for the next phase of its life, and it centers around 3Cs: Community, Collaboration, Commerce. The community would center around Youtube’s Creators, with YouTube expanding its content creation tools and its growing short video platform, Shorts. Shorts has also helped Creators monetize: over 40 percent of creators who got a check from the Fund last year weren’t previously monetizing their content on YouTube.
Livestreaming would also get a boost: Youtube is creating Live Shopping across its app while also allowing Creators to collaborate with each other. This overall helps them build Communities around them. Live Shopping is a growing battleground, with Short video-pioneer TikTok recently launching its Live Shopping efforts in the US.
And no surprise, YouTube is exploring new technologies like NFTs and web3. YouTube notes that it has allowed Creators to monetize through NFTs and other crypto products.
What else do you think would YouTube put out to support its efforts? We’re excited to test some collaborative live streams ourselves. Do you see yourself buying from the Live Stream Commerce channels? Connect with us on Twitter and let us know.
Connect the Greatest Minds Today for Tomorrow
We appreciate your continuous support in the Expert Circle by sending community nominations and self-nominations. 🙏 Thank you and please keep sending nominations! Let us know who we should connect with.
We’re looking for people who can help us build the knowledge network and make a greater impact. If you’re interested in contributing or know someone who’s a good fit, check this out!
Please spread the word!
We are sending a weekly digest every Tuesday. If you like what we write, please consider sharing it with your network, that would help us tremendously!