Markets are SO different in China. Eg advertising.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/18/tencent-looks-to-short-video-ads-to-boost-revenue-amid-gaming-slump.html Markets are SO different in China. Eg advertising. So, Tencent (owner of many things, chief of which is WeChat), due to slumping revenues in this bear market, is finally turning to video ads. It's crazy they weren't already running down that lucrative road, but it likely shows the success of all their other sources of revenue (that western social media giants dream of). For example, WeChat has a (co)stranglehold on digital payments - imagine Square, Visa, Mastercard, Clover, Venmo, Cashapp, PayPal, and everything else under the sun, but agreegated within a 2 player (government sponsored!) duopoly. Yeah, that company probably doesn't even need to bother about the small potatos of ad reveue. But! Apparently the global slowdown hits everyone's profits (even companies in a "communist" society). With this flip of a switch -- HELLO AD REVENUE FROM 1.24 BILLION USERS! (yeah, 1.24 billion with a B). "Revenue from short form video accounts for around 39% of China’s total digital ad revenue, according to data from QuestMobile. It is the biggest single ad revenue category ahead of categories like social networking and news." It's insane to think how the largest tech company in China wasn't even a player in that 39% piece of pie. But now that they have decided to join in that fun, how will the competition react? My guess - as a platform, the cost to the advertiser would remain the same (or even decrease), but everyone else will supper - competitor platforms, content creators, advertising firms, etc -- none of them are going to ever pass Go and collect $200 again.