Blue Lotus China New Economy Research, Blue Lotus Research Institute

Eric Wen

Blue Lotus China New Economy Research

China growth and global non-US Internet equities

Blue Lotus Research Institute

Blue Lotus Research is a Hong Kong Type 4 Licensed investment advisory firm focusing on Chinese growth equities and global non-US Internet equities

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>LKNCY: Cotti Coffee pans to expand into tea drinks business(+)</li>
<li>BIDU/DIDI/XPEV: MIIT and 4 other departments to carry out intelligent car access network(+)</li>
<li>LI/NIO/XPEV/300274 CH/300750 CH/601012 CH/JKS: China Export Data in October shows PV and wind power decline accelerating(+/+/+/-/-/-/-)</li>
</ul>


LKNCY: Cotti Coffee pans to expand into tea drinks business(+)
BIDU/DIDI/XPEV: MIIT and 4 other departments to carry out intelligent car access network(+)
LI/NIO/XPEV/300274 CH/300750 CH/601012 CH/JKS: China Export Data in October shows PV and wind power decline accelerating(+/+/+/-/-/-/-)


[Blue Lotus Daily]: LKNCY/Cotti Coffe/XPEV/BIDU/NIO/LI/JKS/DIDI/300274 CH/300750 CH/601012 CH

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist, Ingenuity

William Keating

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist

Ingenuity

Our focus is exclusively on in-depth research & consulting in the broader semiconductor industry. We focus on the key players, namely Intel, Micron, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC & Global Foundries - as well as some of the lesser known, but nonetheless critical, companies such as ASML (for EUV), Mellanox, Cavium, Xilinx etc. We specialise in their products, roadmaps, process technologies, competitive advantages & threats etc. We also help our clients understand the implications of new and emerging technologies, e.g. 3D X-Point, 3D NAND, Carbon Nanotubes, Autonomous Driving, Graphene, Silicon Photonics, Wafer-Level Optics, Artificial Intelligence, FPGA, GPU, ASIC etc. 

Semiconductor Analysis & Research

Since its emergence as the technology underpinning Bitcoin over a decade ago, blockchain has captured the imagination of technologists, investors and charlatans in roughly equal measure. Blockchain has been portrayed by its advocates as the solution to some of the most fundamental challenges facing modern-day society including free and fair elections, the protection of identity records and title deeds, supply chain integrity and, of course, enabling all manner of exotic cryptocurrencies. Little wonder then that we experienced a wave of blockchain mania which coincided with a similar level of cryptocurrency mania in late 2017. During that time, companies were adding "Blockchain" to their names and seeing their share prices soar by many multiples within weeks. Just as the crypto bubble burst in early 2018, so too did the blockchain bubble. Share prices of so-called blockchain companies collapsed just as quickly as they had risen. Testifying before a US senate committee in October 2018, professor of economics Nouriel Roubini was scathing in his criticism of blockchain <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Roubini%20Testimony%2010-11-18.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">referring</a> to it as  “The most over-hyped technology ever, no better than a spreadsheet/database”.
 Now, as the dust settles and the mania fades, we witness the emergence of a new class of enterprise-grade blockchain implementations led by the likes Hyperledger, Corda and various customisations of Ethereum. While the blockchain technologies supporting the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum are public in so far as the data they contain is accessible by anybody who wishes to view it, these enterprise blockchain implementations are private, a necessary prerequisite for their potential deployment at major corporations and financial institutions. This distinction, along with a number of other important differences, means that enterprise blockchain represents a significant departure from the original public blockchain concept.
Today, enterprise blockchain is being deployed to tackle challenges across a swathe of verticals thanks to the likes of the Big Four consulting firms striving to position it at the heart of their business process reengineering practices. From Maersk to Walmart, they are convincing some of the world's biggest conglomerates to tackle age-old issues relating to outdated, inefficient, labor intensive business practices, all in the name of  blockchain.
It's not just the Big Four that are cashing in on enterprise blockchain. Professional services firm Accenture is investing heavily in its blockchain consulting practice. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) solutions are available from enterprise software giants <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intl-business-machines-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1064:1" rel="noopener">Intl Business Machines</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/oracle-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1065:1" rel="noopener">Oracle</a>,  <a href="https://www.sap.com/hk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SAP</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/microsoft-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:15273:1" rel="noopener">Microsoft </a>and more recently from China’s <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/alibaba-group-holding-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:787:1" rel="noopener">Alibaba </a>and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/baidu-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:179:1" rel="noopener">Baidu</a>. <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intel-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16764:1" rel="noopener">Intel </a>wants to ensure that enterprise blockchains runs best on its servers while Microsoft and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/amazon-com-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1" rel="noopener">Amazon </a>want to host them on their clouds. It's little surprise then that enterprise and government spending on blockchain is expected to reach $2.9 billion in 2019, an increase of 89% over the previous year according to <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44898819" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IDC</a>. Furthermore, they predict that spending on enterprise blockchain will reach $$ja12.4 billion by 2022.
In common with Roubini, our belief has long been that blockchain as a technology offers little that was not already available elsewhere and before. Enterprise blockchains bear little resemblance to the technical ingenuity that gave us Bitcoin, but which is otherwise largely useless. The populist mantra that enterprise blockchain has the ability to transform the business processes of major corporations, key industry verticals and governments is a largely a delusion in our opinion. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/blockchains-occam-problem" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This</a> recent report from McKinsey further supports our perspective, noting that blockchain has yet to become the game-changer some expected and recommending that it should only be considered when it is the simplest solution available.
Paradoxically, if the allure of blockchain can be leveraged as the motivating factor to undertake the much-needed digital transformation and business process re-engineering required to modernize outdated, legacy practices and procedures, then it may indeed have some inherent, albeit unintended, value. Furthermore, our interviews with the CEOs of two small, privately held startups clearly indicated that they are actually finding important, albeit niche, use cases for blockchain technologies in their solution stacks.  In this context, it makes sense to view blockchain as an emerging technology actively seeking real-world use cases and likely to be strongly promoted by its proponents in the coming years.
Against this backdrop, how should investors think about the investment opportunities for blockchain? For starters, venture capital interest grew significantly in 2018 with some $5.4 billion invested in blockchain related startups, up from $1.5 billion the previous year according to <a href="https://next.autonomous.com/thoughts/crypto-blockchain-lands-at-24b-in-2018-funding-1b-in-stos-coming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Autonomous Research</a>. Nonetheless, our analysis of multiple categories of companies with blockchain exposure reveals a harsh reality. Neither their blockchain related revenues nor any cost savings directly attributable to the technology are significant enough to have any meaningful impact on their valuations from a fundamentals perspective, a situation we do not expect to change any time soon. The same holds true for the blockchain-related ETFs and hedge funds we examined.
On a more positive note, there are some excellent companies doing exciting things with blockchain and related technologies. Privately held GuardTime and Digital Assets should be on investors watch lists for funding rounds and IPOs. We expect publicly listed <a href="https://www.garage.co.jp/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Garage</a> and <a href="https://www.broadridge.com/intl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Broadridge Financial Solutions</a> to continue to perform well and feel that they should be considered as part of a broader fintech portfolio. By the same token, we are positive on the growth opportunities of blockchain-associated multinationals such as <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-hk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microsoft</a>, <a href="https://www.ibm.com/hk-en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IBM</a>, <a href="https://www.visa.com.hk/en_HK" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visa</a>, <a href="https://www.mastercard.us/en-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mastercard</a> etc, albeit for reasons that have little to do with blockchain.

Since its emergence as the technology underpinning Bitcoin over a decade ago, blockchain has captured the imagination of technologists, investors and charlatans in roughly equal measure. Blockchain has been portrayed by its advocates as the solution to some of the most fundamental challenges facing modern-day society including free and fair elections, the protection of identity records and title deeds, supply chain integrity and, of course, enabling all manner of exotic cryptocurrencies. Little wonder then that we experienced a wave of blockchain mania which coincided with a similar level of cryptocurrency mania in late 2017. During that time, companies were adding "Blockchain" to their names and seeing their share prices soar by many multiples within weeks. Just as the crypto bubble burst in early 2018, so too did the blockchain bubble. Share prices of so-called blockchain companies collapsed just as quickly as they had risen. Testifying before a US senate committee in October 2018, professor of economics Nouriel Roubini was scathing in his criticism of blockchain referring to it as  “The most over-hyped technology ever, no better than a spreadsheet/database”.
 Now, as the dust settles and the mania fades, we witness the emergence of a new class of enterprise-grade blockchain implementations led by the likes Hyperledger, Corda and various customisations of Ethereum. While the blockchain technologies supporting the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum are public in so far as the data they contain is accessible by anybody who wishes to view it, these enterprise blockchain implementations are private, a necessary prerequisite for their potential deployment at major corporations and financial institutions. This distinction, along with a number of other important differences, means that enterprise blockchain represents a significant departure from the original public blockchain concept.
Today, enterprise blockchain is being deployed to tackle challenges across a swathe of verticals thanks to the likes of the Big Four consulting firms striving to position it at the heart of their business process reengineering practices. From Maersk to Walmart, they are convincing some of the world's biggest conglomerates to tackle age-old issues relating to outdated, inefficient, labor intensive business practices, all in the name of  blockchain.
It's not just the Big Four that are cashing in on enterprise blockchain. Professional services firm Accenture is investing heavily in its blockchain consulting practice. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) solutions are available from enterprise software giants Intl Business Machines, Oracle,  SAP and Microsoft and more recently from China’s Alibaba and Baidu. Intel wants to ensure that enterprise blockchains runs best on its servers while Microsoft and Amazon want to host them on their clouds. It's little surprise then that enterprise and government spending on blockchain is expected to reach $2.9 billion in 2019, an increase of 89% over the previous year according to IDC. Furthermore, they predict that spending on enterprise blockchain will reach $$ja12.4 billion by 2022.
In common with Roubini, our belief has long been that blockchain as a technology offers little that was not already available elsewhere and before. Enterprise blockchains bear little resemblance to the technical ingenuity that gave us Bitcoin, but which is otherwise largely useless. The populist mantra that enterprise blockchain has the ability to transform the business processes of major corporations, key industry verticals and governments is a largely a delusion in our opinion. This recent report from McKinsey further supports our perspective, noting that blockchain has yet to become the game-changer some expected and recommending that it should only be considered when it is the simplest solution available.
Paradoxically, if the allure of blockchain can be leveraged as the motivating factor to undertake the much-needed digital transformation and business process re-engineering required to modernize outdated, legacy practices and procedures, then it may indeed have some inherent, albeit unintended, value. Furthermore, our interviews with the CEOs of two small, privately held startups clearly indicated that they are actually finding important, albeit niche, use cases for blockchain technologies in their solution stacks.  In this context, it makes sense to view blockchain as an emerging technology actively seeking real-world use cases and likely to be strongly promoted by its proponents in the coming years.
Against this backdrop, how should investors think about the investment opportunities for blockchain? For starters, venture capital interest grew significantly in 2018 with some $5.4 billion invested in blockchain related startups, up from $1.5 billion the previous year according to Autonomous Research. Nonetheless, our analysis of multiple categories of companies with blockchain exposure reveals a harsh reality. Neither their blockchain related revenues nor any cost savings directly attributable to the technology are significant enough to have any meaningful impact on their valuations from a fundamentals perspective, a situation we do not expect to change any time soon. The same holds true for the blockchain-related ETFs and hedge funds we examined.
On a more positive note, there are some excellent companies doing exciting things with blockchain and related technologies. Privately held GuardTime and Digital Assets should be on investors watch lists for funding rounds and IPOs. We expect publicly listed Digital Garage and Broadridge Financial Solutions to continue to perform well and feel that they should be considered as part of a broader fintech portfolio. By the same token, we are positive on the growth opportunities of blockchain-associated multinationals such as Microsoft, IBM, Visa, Mastercard etc, albeit for reasons that have little to do with blockchain.
  

The Blockchain Delusion. A (Mostly) Bearish Investment Thesis.

External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Baidu announced its 3Q23 results on 21 Nov: revenue was RMB34.4bn, up 6% YoY, 1% higher than Bloomberg consensus estimates.</li><li>Non-GAAP net income was RMB7.3bn, ahead of consensus estimates of RMB6.3bn, thanks to a beat in Baidu Core non-GAAP OP, aided by better-than-expected cost control in noncore business.</li><li>Management noted that generative AI related cloud revenue has contributed low single digit percentage of total cloud revenue in 3Q23, and expects generative AI empowered new initiatives to bring hundreds of millions of incremental ads revenue in 4Q23. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Baidu announced its 3Q23 results on 21 Nov: revenue was RMB34.4bn, up 6% YoY, 1% higher than Bloomberg consensus estimates.Non-GAAP net income was RMB7.3bn, ahead of consensus estimates of RMB6.3bn, thanks to a beat in Baidu Core non-GAAP OP, aided by better-than-expected cost control in noncore business.Management noted that generative AI related cloud revenue has contributed low single digit percentage of total cloud revenue in 3Q23, and expects generative AI empowered new initiatives to bring hundreds of millions of incremental ads revenue in 4Q23. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Baidu (BIDU US) – Generative AI Related Revenue Generation Ramping Up

Blue Lotus Non US Internet research, Blue Lotus Research Institute

Ying Pan

Blue Lotus Non US Internet research

<ul>
<li>BABA/ JD/ PDD/ 1024.HK/ ZTO/ 1519.HK: Double 11 eCommerce update (+)</li>
<li>BABA/BIDU/700HK: Alibaba Cloud crashed for several hours during the weekend (-/+/+)</li>
<li>On November 12, 2023 Alibaba Cloud reportedly crashed for several hours, and in the process resulted in outages for Alibaba services and customer websites that stopped functioning properly.</li>
</ul>


BABA/ JD/ PDD/ 1024.HK/ ZTO/ 1519.HK: Double 11 eCommerce update (+)
BABA/BIDU/700HK: Alibaba Cloud crashed for several hours during the weekend (-/+/+)
On November 12, 2023 Alibaba Cloud reportedly crashed for several hours, and in the process resulted in outages for Alibaba services and customer websites that stopped functioning properly.


[Blue Lotus Daily] BABA/JD/PDD/1024.HK/ZTO/1519.HK/BIDU/Tencent 700.HK

<ul><li>We attended 2023 Baidu World Conference on 17 Oct. Our key takeaways are: 1) Baidu unveiled the 4.0 version of Ernie large language model (LLM) and is integrating generative AI across all products to enhance user experience, which shall enhance Baidu’s monetization capability over the long-run, in our view; 2) Baidu Cloud has accumulated strong AI infrastructure, which enables more cost-efficient solutions to ease computing power cost pressure.</li><li>Although macro headwinds may weigh on short-term revenue growth of both ads and cloud businesses, and additional investment to support large-scale use of LLM may squeeze margins, we are more positive on the long-term development prospects of Baidu aided by the on-track development of LLM.</li><li>To account for short-term macro headwinds on its business, we fine-tune our SOTP-based TP to US$199.4 (was US$201.0). Maintain BUY.</li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

We attended 2023 Baidu World Conference on 17 Oct. Our key takeaways are: 1) Baidu unveiled the 4.0 version of Ernie large language model (LLM) and is integrating generative AI across all products to enhance user experience, which shall enhance Baidu’s monetization capability over the long-run, in our view; 2) Baidu Cloud has accumulated strong AI infrastructure, which enables more cost-efficient solutions to ease computing power cost pressure.Although macro headwinds may weigh on short-term revenue growth of both ads and cloud businesses, and additional investment to support large-scale use of LLM may squeeze margins, we are more positive on the long-term development prospects of Baidu aided by the on-track development of LLM.To account for short-term macro headwinds on its business, we fine-tune our SOTP-based TP to US$199.4 (was US$201.0). Maintain BUY.Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Baidu (BIDU US) – Takeaway from 2023 Baidu World Conference

China

Baidu, Inc. operates an Internet search engine. The Company offers algorithmic search, enterprise search, news, MP3, and image searches, voice assistance, online storage, and navigation services. Baidu serves clients globally.

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
Market Cap (USDm)	0.00
P/E	0.00
Dividend (Yield)	0.00

Baidu (BIDU US)

[Blue Lotus Daily]: LKNCY/Cotti Coffe/XPEV/BIDU/NIO/LI/JKS/DIDI/300274 CH/300750 CH/601012 CH

Cotti Coffee plans tea expansion, MIIT to launch intelligent car access network, China's PV and wind power decline worsens in October.

Blue Lotus Research Institute

The Blockchain Delusion. A (Mostly) Bearish Investment Thesis.

Back when I wrote this, Blockchain was all the rage, but I struggled to see the true value proposition, felt there was a huge amount of hype...

William Keating

[Blue Lotus Daily] BABA/JD/PDD/1024.HK/ZTO/1519.HK/BIDU/Tencent 700.HK

Double 11 eCommerce update;Alibaba Cloud reportedly crashed for several hours during last weekend, third-party Alibaba Cloud Customers were also...

Blue Lotus Research Institute

Baidu (BIDU US) – Takeaway from 2023 Baidu World Conference

To account for short-term macro headwinds on its business, we fine-tune our SOTP-based TP to US$199.4 (was US$201.0). Maintain BUY.

CMB International

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)

[Blue Lotus Daily]: LKNCY/Cotti Coffe/XPEV/BIDU/NIO/LI/JKS/DIDI/300274 CH/300750 CH/601012 CH

​Cotti Coffee plans tea expansion, MIIT to launch intelligent car access network, China's PV and wind power decline worsens in October.

Blue Lotus Research Institute

The Blockchain Delusion. A (Mostly) Bearish Investment Thesis.

Back when I wrote this, Blockchain was all the rage, but I struggled to see the true value proposition, felt there was a huge amount of hype...

William Keating

Baidu (BIDU US) – Generative AI Related Revenue Generation Ramping Up

Baidu announced its 3Q23 results on 21 Nov: revenue was RMB34.4bn, up 6% YoY, 1% higher than Bloomberg consensus estimates.

CMB International

[Blue Lotus Daily] BABA/JD/PDD/1024.HK/ZTO/1519.HK/BIDU/Tencent 700.HK

​Double 11 eCommerce update;Alibaba Cloud reportedly crashed for several hours during last weekend, third-party Alibaba Cloud Customers were also...

Blue Lotus Research Institute

Baidu (BIDU US) – Takeaway from 2023 Baidu World Conference

To account for short-term macro headwinds on its business, we fine-tune our SOTP-based TP to US$199.4 (was US$201.0). Maintain BUY.

CMB International

Cotti Coffee plans tea expansion, MIIT to launch intelligent car access network, China's PV and wind power decline worsens in October.

Double 11 eCommerce update;Alibaba Cloud reportedly crashed for several hours during last weekend, third-party Alibaba Cloud Customers were also...