Portfolio breakdown as of Q2/2020:

Business model: Amazon has set itself the goal of becoming the most customer-oriented company in the world. To this end, the Group operates one of the world’s most successful platform economies, which is monetised via multidimensional business models. Amazon’s businesses focus on the retail of consumer products and an array of subscription models. The Group uses its online platforms and physical stores to sell its own merchandise, merchandise from retailers and digital content from third-party producers. This also includes its own electronic devices, such as the Kindle Reader, the Fire Tablet, Fire TVs or Echo devices (Alexa). In addition, there are programmes that enable partners to distribute their content via Amazon’s platforms. Finally, Amazon Web Services (AWS) makes the company the largest cloud computing provider in the world at the present time.

Product mix: Amazon divides its activities into three segments: North America, International and AWS. The Group continues to generate the lion’s share of its sales in North America (60.7%), with International responsible for about 28.3% of revenues. Although Amazon Web Services only contributed 11.0% to sales, it is considered the company’s most important growth market with its latest growth rate being 46.9% (North America 33.2%; International 21.3%). At the same time, a significant portion of the Group’s EBIT (AWS: USD 7,296 million vs. Group: USD 12,421 million) is generated by AWS.

Selected key facts:

• AWS is the market leader in the global cloud business (with a market share of around 17.5%)
• A tenfold increase in TAM is expected in the cloud business; CAGR for AWS 13’18’: 50.1%
• World’s number 1 in e-commerce, global market share: 13.7%
• TAM in e-commerce: USD 2,928 billion; expected CAGR through 19’23’: 17.4%
• More than 2.5 million retailers on Amazon Marketplace
• 2.1 billion visits per month
• 2019 performance: +20.1%

Business model: Tencent Holding has various equity investments in digital platforms and operates its products on a global basis. The Group is primarily active in the areas of online gaming, social media, messaging services, mobile payment, online advertising, music and video streaming and information technology. One of the core assets is Tencent’s “super app” WeChat, which has more than 1 billion users and combines the functions of an array of well-known apps (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, news feeds, payment) into a single app.

Product mix: Tencent divides its operations into the segments of Value Added Services (VAS), Online Advertising and Others (as of Q1/20, this is further subdivided into Fintech and Others). The VAS segment, where Tencent bundles together its operations related to online gaming and social network services, is responsible for the lion’s share of the Group’s sales and gross profits (56.5% and 72.3%, respectively). However, the Group’s online advertising business (ads and online marketing), as well as its fintech business (especially mobile payments), are considered the drivers of the company’s growth (CAGR ’14’18: 62.6% and 80.7%, respectively). Tencent is currently using these segments to monetise its platform and its near-monopoly on access to customers.

Selected key facts:

• World’s number 1 in online gaming
• 10% of worldwide gaming revenues can be attributed to Tencent products
• WeChat is a prime example of a successful platform economy (with the platform leveraged in various ways, including via browser, online advertising, payment, messaging and social media functions)
• Near-monopoly on access to around 1.2 billion MAUs (83% of the Chinese population)
• China’s number 1 for mobile payments
• The transaction volume of mobile payments in China is USD 790 billion (11 times higher than in the USA)
• 2019 performance: +22.5%

Business model: Alphabet primarily offers online advertising services via its search engine Google and the YouTube platform. Its product portfolio includes both performance-based and brand-oriented advertising services, with the company also having numerous growth options in technology markets. Alongside research into autonomous driving, Alphabet is also engaged in the cloud business and the provision of internet and television solutions, for example.

Product mix: The corporation’s business is divided into the sectors of “Google” and “Other Bets”, with Google contributing 99.6% of its sales revenues. Google’s business segments encompass Ads (advertising system), Android (smartphone operating system), Chrome (browser), Google Maps (map and navigation services), Google Play (video game solutions), YouTube (video portal) and Search (search engine). Other Bets includes Alphabet’s equity investments in Calico (biotechnology), CapitalG (venture capital company), Waymo (autonomous driving), Verily (biotechnology) and X (research company). Google operates on a global footing, with the majority of its sales revenues generated in the USA (46.2%) and EMEA (32.6%), while Asia-Pacific (15.6%), Canada (15.6%) and Latin America (5.6%) are of secondary importance.

Selected key facts:

• 2 trillion search queries and over 1 billion hours of YouTube watch-time per day
• YouTube is the number 2 social network, based on MAUs
• Market share among search engines: 93.3% for mobile and 76.1% for desktop applications
• Average search queries per user: 3.4x per day
• CAGR for advertising revenues ’12’18: 17.7%
• 2019 performance: +27.0%