Sequoia is divided into three regions according to the region, and each region is completely independent; more details of Vision Pro

Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1692

Sequoia is divided into three regions according to the region, and each region is completely independent

On June 6, Sequoia Capital announced its second major reorganization in the past year and a half. It decided to split itself into three regions. Each region is completely independent and operates under a different brand. The entire restructuring plan will be completed by the end of March 2024. Finish. The three regions that will operate independently at that time are:

  • Sequoia America and Europe, following the brand name of Sequoia Capital;
  • Sequoia China, with “Sequoia” and “HongShan” as its Chinese and English names;
  • Sequoia India and Southeast Asia launched the new brand name “Peak XV Partners”. Peak XV is Mount Everest, and “XV” is 15 in Roman numerals.

Two other independent companies, Sequoia Heritage, an endowment family office, and Sequoia Capital Global Equity, which invests in the secondary market, will still exist.

According to “Wandian Finance”, Sequoia has adopted a relatively unique operating model for many years. While each regional entity has independent ownership and investment decision-making power, it also selectively manages some back-office functions globally to ensure that all regions Consistency in the operation of these functions.

Regional entities have both linkage and competition. For example, Sequoia China and the US Fund are both ByteDance shareholders, and Shen Nanpeng, head of Sequoia China, is also a member of ByteDance’s board of directors. According to the Forbes article, the profit-sharing and sharing of back-office functions among Sequoia regional funds will be terminated by the end of this year. Sequoia declined to comment for this article.

In November 2021, Sequoia announced the largest business adjustment since its establishment. It restructured its business in the United States and Europe into a Sequoia fund with a single structure and no redemption restrictions. It no longer established specific funds like traditional venture capital funds. Investing in companies in a specific development period does not need to return funds to investors within 10-12 years of the establishment of the fund. You can invest in small companies, or you can “new”, stocks or even invest in cryptocurrencies.

If the adjustment at that time was to be more in line with the characteristics of the times-the industries or eras that generated the best returns for VCs no longer exist, so VCs conduct so-called full-cycle investments-then this adjustment may be even more so.

The global economic and political situation has further fluctuated, and investors are more cautious about spending money. It is not so easy for unicorns with a valuation of more than US$1 billion to escape, and investors have become more cautious. According to “Forbes” statistics, in 2022 the United States will add 182 new companies with a valuation of 1 billion US dollars, which is nearly 28% less than the previous year. China added 74 new companies, the same as the previous year, but these companies have become less attractive to European and American investors.

This is not only the case in the primary market, but also in the secondary market. Several investors, analysts, and even insiders of domestic platform companies have complained to us that foreign capital ignores the current fundamentals of Chinese concept stocks. According to the capital flow data of KWEB, a Chinese concept stock fund, we have obtained, since the middle and late February of this year, the fund began to record net outflows of funds, and by the end of May, the accumulated outflows had exceeded 100 billion US dollars. (Gong Fangyi)

More details on Vision Pro

Regarding the Vision Pro, a head-mounted computing device released by Apple in the early morning, “LatePost” has reported in detail.

After the product was released, the software developers who participated in WWDC got the details of the software; some media reporters and technology bloggers also had the opportunity to experience it for 30 minutes. Below are more details of our summary.

  • The visual experience can indeed “see through the screen”:

Vision Pro implements AR (Augmented Reality) in the way of VR (Virtual Reality): Wearing Vision Pro, users see two screens in front of them. 12 cameras, lidar and infrared sensors capture external images, stitch them together in real time into a complete image and present it on the screen, giving people the illusion of seeing through the screen.

All experiencers agree that after wearing Vision Pro, they can clearly see the surrounding environment. The effect is so clear, Neil Cybart, a well-known Apple analyst, said that “you will forget that you are looking out through the screen”. Vision Pro uses an ultra-high-resolution micro-OLED display, which is 4 times clearer than competitors. Many experiencers said that the web pages and text content in the virtual world are displayed clearly, and they can use their mobile phones normally.

  • Interactive experience, “enough intuitive”:

Vision Pro can be used with an external keyboard. But its default control method is to lock the target according to the user’s sight, and tap with two fingers to complete the click. More than a dozen cameras and sensors on the surface of the fuselage, as well as a circle of sensors inside the fuselage that track the line of sight to track user movements.

All experiencers said that the control is very intuitive, and the eye tracking is flexible and accurate. Engadget editor Devindra Hardawar said, “You can gesture comfortably on your lap, you don’t need to raise your hands like an amateur symphony conductor”-Meta Quest needs to raise your hands up to the field of vision to operate. Marques Brownlee, a well-known technology blogger on YouTube, called eye tracking accurate “scary”, looking at the search box, and then saying what you want to search, you can enter text to start searching.

  • Wearing experience, “not light”, “breathable”, “wired” is a trouble:

The Vision Pro body is made of large pieces of glass and metal, which is full of texture, but it is also heavier. After comparison, an experiencer found that this device is significantly heavier than the iPhone 14 Pro Max-more than 240g. The official version on sale will provide a variety of sizes to fit the head shape, with adjustable straps to adjust the center of gravity. Although the current weight is lower than competitors (Byte Pico 586g, Meta Quest Pro 722g), it is significantly higher than Apple’s ideal 150g.

Many experiencers said that wearing it for 30 minutes would feel heavy, and they also found that the external wired battery would affect usage scenarios such as sports and somatosensory games. The battery life is only 2 hours, but if you sit in one place for a long time, you can plug the Vision Pro charging cable into the USB-C port (including the charging port of the Mac computer) for continuous use.

They also think that Vision Pro has a good enough ventilation design, and the face will not be stuffy when worn for a long time.

  • 3D film, video, “too real to be true”:

Experiencers watched content clips such as Avatar: Way of Water, NBA games, 3D dinosaurs, and more. “It smelled my hand and its scales looked unbelievably real” when Engadget editor Devindra Hardawar reached up to the virtual dinosaur. Vision Pro can also record 3D video from the wearer’s perspective. Devindra said the footage was so clear and lifelike it was “almost like replaying a perfectly captured memory”. (Intern Meng Xiaohan)

Li Guo, the former CEO of Yonghui Superstores, is the head of the NB business department of Hema

“Wandian Finance” exclusively learned that Hema’s NB business department ushered in the third person in charge after its establishment, Li Guo, the former CEO of Yonghui Supermarket, joined Hema in April this year, and served as the assistant of Hema CEO Hou Yi. Began to get familiar with Hema Outlets and Hema Neighborhood. Li Guo had worked in Yonghui for more than 20 years before, from a grassroots employee who managed super consumption to the CEO of Yonghui, and was very good at supply chain management.

In 2021, Hema NB Business Unit (Hema Neighborhood, Hema Outlets) will be regarded by Hou Yi as the third growth curve after Hema Fresh and Hema Member Stores. In the past two years, Hema Neighborhood has spent hundreds of millions of yuan and opened more than 400 stores in ten cities at one time, but the losses continued to be difficult to reduce. Last year, all stores except Shanghai were closed.

After Ali split into the “1 + 6 + N” structure this year, Hema, one of the “N” companies, will be listed in the next six months to one year. It needs a larger scale and a higher level of profitability to invest in capital The market proves its own imagination.

At this point in time, professional managers who have led the digital reform at Yonghui and brought Yonghui’s revenue to the highest level in history also show that Hou Yi still has high expectations for the NB business unit. These two business formats will be Hema in the future. The key weapon to expand the sinking market. (Chen Jing)

TSMC responds to doubts about building factories overseas

When the chip industry is increasingly being coerced by forces outside the market, TSMC, the world’s largest chip manufacturing company, is ushering in the most aggressive period of overseas expansion. In addition to the Kumamoto factory in Japan and the Arizona factory in the United States that are already under construction, TSMC also plans to build a second factory in Kumamoto, and negotiations to build a factory in Germany are nearing completion.

Shareholders don’t care about how TSMC is close to governments and customers of various countries. They only care about whether the high cost of overseas manufacturing will damage TSMC’s profitability and whether technology and talents will flow out as a result. At today’s TSMC annual shareholder meeting, there were constant doubts about this topic. Liu Deyin, the company’s chairman, responded that building factories overseas is in the long-term interests of TSMC as a commercial company.

He said that TSMC needs to use globalization to maintain and expand its leading edge in technology and manufacturing capabilities. “We can’t take it for granted that the current success will continue in the future,” so we need to acquire more talents and R&D capabilities from outside. TSMC’s current overseas investment is less than 10% of its total capital investment. The company’s CEO Wei Zhejia assured shareholders that most of the most advanced process 3nm that has been mass-produced, and most of the production capacity of the next two generations of 2nm and 1.4nm will remain in the country. .

Liu Deyin also tried to reassure investors of other concerns. They briefly received Buffett’s investment, but the stock god emptied TSMC’s stock a few months later because of the “tense geopolitical situation.” Liu Deyin said that the importance of TSMC and the chip industry can make major countries think carefully before taking any action. “Of course we cannot resolve the tension, but hopefully our key role in the supply chain can calm both sides.” (Qiu Hao)

CHART OF THE DAY | Prices of second-hand Rolex watches go back to two years ago

The export value of Swiss watches and clocks to China in April was 200 million Swiss francs, a year-on-year increase of 108%, returning to 87% of the level in the same period in 2021. During the same period, the export value to the United States was 310 million Swiss francs, a year-on-year decrease of 5%.

The data reflected concerns in the luxury goods industry that while U.S. consumption slowed, Chinese demand recovered less than expected. During the epidemic, rich Americans bought more luxury goods, driving the market value of 13 luxury goods companies to nearly double. And with the U.S. economy slowing, the industry is banking on China to rekindle growth.

However, Johann Rupert, chairman of Cartier parent company Richemont, said last month that Chinese consumers may become rational and the market is “growing cautiously”. At the end of last month, European luxury stocks fell for two consecutive days, and LVMH fell more than 9%. According to the latest data from WatchCharts, the price of second-hand Rolex watches has fallen by 1.8% in the past month and 17.5% in the past year, but it is still 60% higher than five years ago. (Lin Guangying)

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OTHER NEWS

Official media said that first-tier cities should optimize and adjust real estate purchase restriction policies in due course.

“China Economic Times” issued an article on June 6 that the current era of overall shortage of commercial housing in China has basically ended, the total housing demand space is gradually shrinking, and restrictive policies such as purchase restrictions are debatable; Gradually establish, the administrative means of real estate adjustment such as purchase restrictions should be optimized and adjusted in a timely manner until they are withdrawn. “China Economic Times” is sponsored by the Development Research Center of the State Council, a public institution directly under the State Council.

Stimulated by market optimism, the A-share and Hong Kong real estate sectors collectively rose today. As of the close, Hong Kong stocks Sunac rose 10.53%, Longfor rose 7.76%, Country Garden rose 5.48%, and China Resources Land rose 4.92%.

Financial regulatory authorities in many places have recently investigated credit demand and the real estate market.

According to the 21st Century Business Herald, financial regulatory authorities in many places have recently conducted research on the current economic credit demand, real estate market, and changes in financial risks. The regulatory authorities inquired on the spot about the financial institutions’ current demand for credit, their issuance, and the risk status of non-performing loans. In addition, the supervision also investigated the current sales, inventory and financing situation of real estate companies.

The sales of many real estate companies in May fell month-on-month.

The sales of many real estate companies in May fell month-on-month. Yuexiu Real Estate’s May contracted sales were 12.355 billion yuan, down 7.3% month-on-month, Sunac China fell 3.3% month-on-month, Vanke fell 1.6% month-on-month, and Country Garden’s equity sales fell by nearly 20% month-on-month. According to CRIC data, the top 100 real estate companies achieved sales of 549.2 billion yuan in May, a year-on-year increase of 5.8% and a month-on-month decrease of 14%, which was the first month-on-month decline in May since 2017.

The head of China, the first purely foreign-funded public offering fund, resigned.

According to China Business News, Tang Xiaodong, head of BlackRock China, chairman of BlackRock Fund Management Co., Ltd., and member of BlackRock Asia Pacific Executive Committee, resigned due to personal reasons. In September 2021, BlackRock China launched the first RMB product of a purely foreign-funded public offering fund company, raising a total of 6.68 billion yuan. According to Wind, BlackRock Fund Management Co., Ltd. currently manages 12 products (A and C shares of a product are counted separately). The net value of the best performing product has increased by 0.27% since its establishment, and the worst performance has fallen by 31.47%.

Cainiao acquired a 25% stake in STO from an Alibaba company.

STO Express announced a few days ago that the company’s shareholder, De’e Industrial, plans to transfer 25% of STO’s shares to Cainiao by agreement, at a price of 3.9 billion yuan. Among them, De’e Industry is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ali, and the controlling shareholder and actual controller of Shentong will remain unchanged after the transfer. In addition to STO, Cainiao and Ali Networks together hold a 20.65% stake in YTO, and Ali also holds shares in express delivery companies such as ZTO, YTO, Yunda, and Best. In the middle of last month, Ali announced that it had approved the listing of Cainiao Group.

TSMC confirmed that Nvidia’s urgent order, advanced packaging production capacity is seriously insufficient.

At today’s shareholders meeting, Liu Deyin, chairman of TSMC, said that last week Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun met with him, mainly to ask for production capacity. At this stage, customers’ demand for TSMC’s advanced packaging has far exceeded the production capacity supply, and some orders have been delegated to other packaging and testing factories. TSMC itself will increase production as soon as possible.

IATA expects airline industry revenues this year to be close to 2019 levels.

Industry revenue is expected to rise 9.7 percent this year to $803 billion, close to 2019 levels, the president of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said at its annual summit this week. Industry profit expectations more than doubled to $9.8 billion, largely due to strong travel demand this year and slower growth in oil prices, but profit margins were just 1.2%. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency said at the summit that the likelihood of future oil price increases has “significantly increased” as OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has agreed to curb oil supplies.

Ferrari’s new factory will be completed next year, and its first purely electric sports car will be launched in 2025.

In an interview with the media on Monday, Ferrari CEO said that the new electric sports car factory will be “ready” in June next year. The factory in Maranello, northern Italy, has been under construction for two years. At the same time, the company plans to launch its first pure electric sports car in the fourth quarter of 2025. It is expected that within 5 years after that, pure electric and plug-in hybrid sports cars will become the main products without affecting profit margins. In the first quarter of this year, hybrid sports cars accounted for 35% of the company’s shipments.

Spotify’s podcasting business has laid off 200 people and is undergoing a strategic adjustment.

This week, Spotify’s vice president and head of podcasting said the podcasting business would cut 200 jobs because of “a strategic shift in progress.” At the same time, he said that in the future, he will increase his focus on creators and “will remain committed to original programming.” Shares closed up 3% on the day. Last fall, the company also streamlined its lineup of podcast original programming, weeding out underperforming shows. Spotify has been vigorously building its podcast business since 2019 and is currently the largest podcast platform in the United States, with double-digit growth in podcast advertising revenue last year.

In January of this year, Spotify also announced layoffs of 600 people, accounting for 6% of the company’s workforce. The company’s overall revenue growth in the first quarter was slightly lower than expected, with a net loss of 225 million euros, compared with a net profit of 131 million euros in the same period last year.

Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink’s valuation rose to $5 billion.

Neuralink was valued at about US$2 billion in financing two years ago. According to media reports, in the recent share transactions of employees and early investors, its valuation has risen to about US$5 billion, and some sellers even offered a price of US$7 billion. Some in the industry believe the valuation is too high because the technology is still in the early stages of clinical development and was only approved for human trials late last month. Some experts estimate that it will take at least 10 years to commercialize.

The US SEC sued Binance and Coinbase one after another.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on the 5th that it would indict Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao on 13 charges, including failing to register in accordance with regulations, helping U.S. users evade supervision, manipulating transactions, exaggerating transaction volume, allowing transfer of customer assets, and more. On the 6th, it announced that it would sue Coinbase for operating as an exchange without registering in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. In March, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed a lawsuit against Binance.

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