China’s
burgeoning O2O (online-to-offline) market has shown us quantifiably robust
growth vectors, undergirded by the most attractive baseline metrics of any such
market on the planet. Chinese vice minister of Industry and IT, Chen Zhaoxiong,
told crowds at the Internet Society of China’s 2016 China Internet Conference
in June that the number of 4G users in China is more than 530 million as of Q1,
more than the U.S. and Europe put together. China’s Internet economy was valued
at roughly $171 billion last year, while the O2O services segment was estimated
by iResearch Consulting Group at approximately $68.71 billion, up 27.7 percent
compared to 2015 (http://nnw.fm/95lTR).
While
there are some big players currently dominating the market, there is plenty of
room left at the margins for thriving localized networks, a phenomena which
echoes the internal dynamics of the O2O space itself. Before taking a look at
some of the major players, it is worth noting an up and comer like
Shenzhen-based Moxian, Inc. (OTCQB: MOXC), which has a market cap under $400
million and yet has put together an extremely compelling, integrated O2O platform
known as Moxian+.
Half
of the company’s 170 or so employees are R&D people and its CTO is the same
Dr. Ng Kek Wee whose Oracle and IBM award-winning consulting startup was
acquired by Pactera (formerly NASDAQ: PACT), which was itself taken private after
acquisition by Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX).
Needless
to say, the Moxian+ User and Moxian+ Business architectures/apps are
brilliantly designed given their origins in a tech hotbed like Moxian. The
architectures come complete with big data-driven social CRM (customer
relationship management), engagement gamification/actual games, and even a
proprietary/platform-specific digital currency (MO-Points and MO-Coins) for
merchant driven reward redemptions. Moxian+ Business is where the real meat is
though, offering comprehensive business intelligence analytics, demographic
profiling insights, easy to setup customer engagement/loyalty programs, and
ubiquitous advertising capabilities.
A
projected 20 percent CAGR is easily understandable for the O2O space in China,
with restaurants and food delivery being the narrow end of the transformational
wedge. And with online retail currently around 13 percent of the overall retail
space as of early this year, in what is the world’s largest ecommerce market
($589 billion), it is little wonder that one of the biggest internet companies
on earth, Chinese operator Tencent (OTC: TCEHY; TCTZF), continues to hammer out
its own O2O footprint with gusto.
A
strategic investment in indoor mapping company Sensewhere, to license its indoor
positioning software for Tencent Maps, was a clear move by Tencent to jockey
for position with Baidu’s (NASDAQ: BIDU) Baidu Maps (shows group-buying deals
from its Nuomi platform), and taxi/restaurant finding marvel AutoNavi, which is
majority-owned by the Chinese version of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alibaba (NYSE:
BABA).
Alibaba’s
$483 million investment last year in its Koubei JV, aimed at unifying its
footprint in fast local delivery with its growing O2O presence, is a very clear
signal to investors from China’s ecommerce king about the future of the
country’s O2O market. There is a big opportunity here for investors to lay down
some territory of their own, especially when you consider events like the $18
billion Meituan-Dianping valuation in January for China’s biggest group deals
site, which laid claim to the title of the largest ever single funding round
($3.3 billion) for any VC internet startup in the country’s history.
Tying
together the increasingly dominant mobile user with local brick and mortar
businesses is a recipe for success in China for a savvy developer like Moxian,
whose Moxian+ platform not only allows merchants to more easily/readily engage
potential/returning customers, but which was born of the same robust cloud
service technology that proved good enough for financial institutions and major
corporations.
Delivering
enterprise-class capabilities to the broadest possible merchant market should
keep MOXC well in the running, even as sector majors gobble up the largest
pieces of the pie. It is worth noting that this level of capability made it
easy for MOXC to recently secure an exclusive reseller agreement with Xinhua
New Media for gaming industry ad space, a deal that puts Moxian’s platform and
digital currency front and center, before a growing Xinhua New Media App user
base of over 110 million users (over 10 million active per day).
For
more information, visit the company’s website at www.Moxian.com
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MissionIR is committed to connecting the investment community with companies that have great potential and a strong dedication to building shareholder value. We know our reputation is based on the integrity of our clients and go to great lengths to ensure the companies represented adhere to sound business practices.
Sign up for “The Mission Report” at www.MissionIR.com
Please see disclaimer on the MissionIR website http://www.missionir.com/disclaimer.html