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    James LeeMizuho Securities

    James Lee's questions to Maplebear Inc (CART) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Maplebear Inc (CART) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    James Lee asked for an update on shopper supply and demand dynamics and whether tighter immigration controls have had any impact.

    Answer

    CEO Fidji Simo reported that shopper supply remains very healthy, with waitlists in most cities and strong retention of tenured shoppers. She highlighted that Instacart's shopper demographic, being two-thirds female and over 50% parents, differs from other gig economy platforms, contributing to stable supply dynamics.

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    James Lee's questions to Trip.com Group Ltd (TCOM) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Trip.com Group Ltd (TCOM) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    James Lee from Mizuho Securities inquired about the current business contribution from inbound travel, its expected growth rate, and the long-term potential for this segment.

    Answer

    CEO Jane Sun described inbound travel as having great potential, noting it can contribute 2-10% of GDP in other countries. She highlighted China's favorable visa policies and positive feedback from international partners. She believes it can become a trillion-dollar industry for China, and Trip.com is well-positioned with its comprehensive inventory and service, making it a key investment area for the next 5-10 years.

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    James Lee's questions to Trip.com Group Ltd (TCOM) leadership • Q1 2024

    Question

    James Lee from Mizuho followed up on outbound travel, asking about the key factors that could accelerate or impede the recovery to 80% of 2019 levels by year-end, and which destinations, especially in the West, are seeing the strongest recovery.

    Answer

    CEO Jane Sun identified visa policies and flight capacity as the two primary factors. She noted that countries offering visa-free entry, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and GCC nations, have seen very strong pickups. While APAC is leading, she mentioned that during Chinese New Year, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were top long-haul destinations. She stressed the importance of timely visa processing and added flight capacity to Western countries ahead of the summer.

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    James Lee's questions to Sabre Corp (SABR) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Sabre Corp (SABR) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    On behalf of James Lee, an analyst asked if the new Hyatt business, which accounts for half of the incremental CRS transactions, carries a different margin profile than the rest of the transactions.

    Answer

    CEO Kurt Ekert stated that Sabre does not disclose individual customer contract details but confirmed the Hyatt business is accretive to the Hospitality Solutions segment. CFO Michael Randolfi added that they expect continued year-over-year EBITDA margin expansion for the Hospitality Solutions segment as a whole.

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    James Lee's questions to Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    James Lee asked for the long-term outlook on the Hotel Meta search business and inquired about plans to expand Viator's B2B strategy beyond OTAs to new verticals like credit card companies.

    Answer

    CEO Matt Goldberg affirmed that Hotel Meta remains a relevant product as long as it delivers high-quality leads, but it is not the company's future growth driver. The focus is on stabilizing this revenue while accelerating growth in experiences and engagement-led initiatives. Regarding Viator's B2B business, he confirmed it is a key advantage growing at twice the segment rate and that they are actively pursuing new partner categories, leveraging their unique supply advantage to reach incremental customers.

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    James Lee's questions to Tripadvisor Inc (TRIP) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    James Lee inquired about broader travel trends, asking about geographic differences and signs of consumer trade-downs, and requested an elaboration on the company's strategic shift from 'arbitrage economics to engagement economics.'

    Answer

    CEO Matt Goldberg described the macro travel environment as stable and healthy, with flat booking windows and no clear signs of consumer trade-downs, though he noted a possible bifurcation in intent between income levels. Regarding the strategic shift, Goldberg explained that the company is in the midst of a multiyear journey to drive direct engagement, highlighting progress in growing monthly active users and members, which is expected to translate to financial impact at scale over time.

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    James Lee's questions to Airbnb Inc (ABNB) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Airbnb Inc (ABNB) leadership • Q4 2024

    Question

    James Lee asked about the specific frictions Airbnb aims to resolve with the upcoming Experiences relaunch and for clarification on what 'beyond the core' services, such as concierge-like offerings, might entail.

    Answer

    CEO Brian Chesky identified past challenges with Experiences, including poor product integration, uncompelling merchandising, and a lack of marketing, all of which the relaunch will address. Regarding adjacencies, he confirmed the company is exploring numerous services for both travel and long-term stays, starting with those closest to the core travel journey before expanding further.

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    James Lee's questions to Airbnb Inc (ABNB) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    James Lee asked for an update on progress made in affordability and quality initiatives and how they are driving bookings. He also requested an update on the company's customer service transformation, particularly the role of AI.

    Answer

    CEO Brian Chesky detailed several initiatives. On affordability, he cited the success of total price display, which led 300,000 hosts to lower or remove cleaning fees. On reliability, he highlighted Guest Favorites, which now account for 200 million nights booked, and the removal of 300,000 low-quality listings. For customer service, he outlined a three-phase AI strategy to handle chat inquiries, moving from answering general questions to personalization and ultimately taking action on behalf of users.

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    James Lee's questions to Baidu Inc (BIDU) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Baidu Inc (BIDU) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    James Lee from Mizuho asked for an analysis of the moderated revenue growth in the Cloud segment, a performance breakdown between personal and enterprise cloud, an update on the competitive landscape, and the outlook for Gen AI contribution and long-term margins.

    Answer

    Dou Shen, EVP of Baidu AI Cloud Group, clarified that the slight moderation in total AI Cloud revenue was due to a temporary adjustment in the personal cloud business. He emphasized that the enterprise and public sector cloud segment continued to show strong momentum, outpacing the overall business. Shen highlighted that Gen AI-related revenue has grown to 11% of total AI cloud revenue, up from 5% in Q4 of the previous year, and that the segment's non-GAAP operating profit margin expanded year-over-year.

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    James Lee's questions to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) leadership • Q2 2025

    Question

    James Lee asked for more detail on AI adoption within the cloud segment, questioning whether revenue is driven more by model training or inferencing, and how the development of AI agents in China compares to the U.S.

    Answer

    Executive Yongming Wu explained that while initial AI cloud demand is for training, he expects inferencing to be the larger and faster-growing driver of demand over the long term. He sees a similar positive development trajectory for AI agents and workflow automation in China as in the U.S., noting the foundational trend is the shift from CPU to GPU-based architecture to support massive AI adoption across industries.

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    James Lee's questions to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) leadership • Q1 2025

    Question

    James Lee inquired about the implications of open-source large language models (LLMs) for AI adoption in China and how the evolution from LLMs to 'agents' could alter use cases for Alibaba's merchants and customers.

    Answer

    CEO Eddie Wu explained that Alibaba's open-source LLM strategy is designed to empower developers, who are then more likely to deploy their scaled applications on Alibaba Cloud. He views 'agents' as a natural evolution for handling complex inference tasks by leveraging multiple models, and expects the development of such agents to become increasingly automated.

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    James Lee's questions to Coupang Inc (CPNG) leadership

    James Lee's questions to Coupang Inc (CPNG) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    James Lee asked for details on the improved losses in Coupang Eats, including efficiency drivers and market share, and requested an update on progress in Taiwan, including market positioning and service quality efforts.

    Answer

    Founder and CEO Bom Kim clarified that the significant loss improvement in Developing Offerings was driven by Farfetch, not Eats. For Eats, he noted a strong customer response to its value proposition but emphasized it is still in its early stages. Regarding Taiwan, he stated that leveraging technology from Korea is aiding scaling and efficiency, and the company remains disciplined with investments, promising future updates at appropriate times.

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    James Lee's questions to DoorDash Inc (DASH) leadership

    James Lee's questions to DoorDash Inc (DASH) leadership • Q3 2024

    Question

    James Lee asked for an update on DashMarts, seeking clarity on which business models are proving successful, what growth constraints exist, and why quick commerce profitability might differ between North America and Europe.

    Answer

    CEO Tony Xu stated that DashMarts have successfully proven their operational model over the past 3.5 years, excelling at inventory management, pricing, and reliable, fast delivery. He highlighted that beyond its standalone success, DashMart is evolving into an infrastructure service for retailers to forward-deploy inventory, with partnerships already active in Canada and beginning in the U.S. and other countries.

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