There is nothing ant-like in these numbers. Yes, Alibaba’s affiliate fintech company, Ant Group (of Alipay), does generate more payment volume than Visa & Mastercard combined! Ant does $18 trillion while the American giants bring in $16 trillion. Ant operates primarily in China while Visa and Mastercard run around the world!

China is China. Alipay processed $18T worth of transactions in 2019; Visa and Mastercard combined for $16T. Visa and Mastercard served the whole world, yet China beat them. In the last 10 centuries, China has dominated at least 6 times. Sentiment or not, hate or like, develop a Chinese Strategy, even in your home country.

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#1 – Comment 1

Different things for different people, so a certain ‘Chinese Strategy’ may not work elsewhere. America created wealth in ways China can only dream of, and most parts of the world benefited from America’s idea of capitalism.

We need options, neither Chinese nor American can work in our case. We need to create our own template and framework, taking some things from each of the successful economies. Chinese strategy requires Chinese mentality, which neither Nigeria nor continental Africa possesses; so it’s a waste of time modelling after them.

Again, that Alibaba processed more payments than Visa and MasterCard doesn’t mean that American entities created less wealth; a certain Apple and Amazon are busy hovering around two trillion dollars each; none adopted Chinese strategy!

Let me figure out ‘Nigerian Strategy’ first, then we can return to advance the conversations.

#2 – Comment 2

Very interesting to see how China can even be overlooked interms of all round growth of an economy. China in 2017 was producing 2 billionaires per week, and a number of millionaires that would shock even the most industrialised economies.

They clearly have found a way to harness technology to improve the lives of their citizens at exponential scales. Its very similar to the rise of Japan decades ago. I see intelligent collaboration as a tool for any nation trying to emulate the example of the growth of the chinese economy, rather than focusing on their weak points. China like Japan is largely becoming a self sustainable economy, and mandarin may become a basic requirement sooner than later.

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will begin to regulate digital currencies and crypto-based companies, the Commission noted in a statement this week. I want to wish the Commission good luck. My understanding is that Nigeria is still struggling on how to collect VAT on digital companies which do business exclusively online; this new playbook may be harder. But it has to be done because Nigeria is a country.  Good luck.

Similarly, all Digital Assets Token Offering (DATOs), Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), Security Token ICOs and other Blockchain-based offers of digital assets within Nigeria or by Nigerian issuers or sponsors or foreign issuers targeting Nigerian investors, shall be subject to the regulation of the Commission. Existing digital assets offerings prior to the implementation of the Regulatory Guidelines will have three (3) months to either submit the initial assessment filing or documents for registration proper, as the case may be.

The SEC hereby categorizes the following virtual assets/instruments as follows:

Signed

Google clones TikTok in India, unveiling Shorts: “Google-owned YouTube, which was working on a TikTok alternative, has now joined the party and announced its version called ‘Shorts’. … Shorts is a “new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones”. Nothing is new – you cannot expect to invent everything to be called an inventor! Yes, an Igbo axiom says, it takes the killing of one tiger to be called the killer of tigers. People, Google copies – and that is a lesson for us, as I explained in this Harvard Business Review article: “copy legally”.

Today we announced the launch of an early beta of YouTube Shorts – a new video experience that lets you create short videos right from the YouTube mobile app! With a handful of new camera tools for you to try out, you can create 15 second videos that are easily discoverable on the YouTube homepage (in the new Shorts shelf), as well as across other parts of the app.

We’re starting off by launching an early beta of YouTube Shorts in India, this includes a new camera and a handful of editing tools that will be rolling out over the course of the next few weeks.

Amazon is investing $20 billion in the retail business of India’s Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. The Mumbai-based Reliance Industries is willing to sell as much as a 40% stake in the subsidiary to Amazon, Business Standard reports. People, there is a big party happening in India, and America is attending with tons of cash.

This party extends the one of a few weeks ago, “Qualcomm invests $97m in Reliance Jio, hours Google announced it would ship $10 billion. Facebook had dropped some $5.7 billion already. Amazon continues to ship cash to India. And Walmart’s pen has not dried up. Vista Equity Partners is not left out. People, #India is having a great party of a generation. America goes India!”

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. is offering to sell a roughly $20 billion stake in its retail business to Amazon.com Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Amazon has held discussions about investing in the conglomerate’s Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. unit and has expressed interest in negotiating a potential transaction, the person said. Mumbai-based Reliance Industries is willing to sell as much as a 40% stake in the subsidiary to Amazon, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

A deal, if successful, would not only create a retail behemoth in India but will also turn Jeff Bezos and Asia’s richest man from rivals into allies in one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world. At $20 billion, the deal would be the biggest ever in India as well as for Amazon, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.