IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN: Another AI+Blockchain Mega Crypto Play (Pre-Runner Edition)

When I saw LFIN’s description, I’d knew it’d be a runner. Naturally, I didn’t think it’d run 10x in 1 day, from $11 to $129; but alas we learn new things every single day. Don’t we now?

I’ve had some outrageous success playing these crypto proxies because this is up my wheelhouse. I am a researcher, avid fan of equities, and I love finding new ideas; plus I have balls of steel. When markets trend, I get bored and sometimes do poorly because I hate conforming. But if you place me in the midst of a mega-trend that’s happening in real time, I will out-trade all of you fuckers combined.

Enough about me. Let’s move onto my next pick, which eerily has all of the trimmings that made LFIN so interesting.

I bought GSUM today, a Chinese company with their filthy hands deep in AI bullshit and now MUH Blockchain.

Gridsum Holding Inc. (“Gridsum” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: GSUM), a leading provider of cloud-based big-data analytics and enterprise focused artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions in China, today announced that it has launched its AI-driven, Software as a Service (“SaaS”), Intelligent CRM Solution for the China market. The Intelligent CRM Solution is a cloud-based, marketing-centric CRM solution tailor-made for both multinational and local companies operating in China. The solution leverages Gridsum’s expertise in big data analytics and AI, combining Gridsum’s “best of breed” marketing technology with leading sales intelligence technologies spanning multiple customer devices and integrating with key social networking platforms. The solution will also leverage Blockchain technologies in a number of specific areas going forward. It sets Gridsum apart from its competitors in a China SaaS CRM market expected to grow from an estimated RMB5.59 billion (US$0.85 billion) in 2017 to an estimated RMB15.1 billion (US$2.28 billion) by 2020[1], representing a CAGR of 39.3%. Mr. Guosheng Qi, Chief Executive Officer of Gridsum, commented, “We are excited to launch our Intelligent CRM Solution after substantial research, development and real world operation. As the number of online and offline points of contact with consumers multiply, it has become infinitely more difficult for companies to identify and win potential customers in the most efficient manner.

As Chinese consumers increasingly embrace ‘new retail’, our solution will help our clients to automate and, through machine learning, efficiently acquire, develop and manage both potential and existing customers through a variety of activities. By converging a client’s business intelligence data with Gridsum Prophet and our marketing automation suite, we will be able to substantially drive sales efficiency with significant, immediate and quantifiable KPI enhancement for our clients. The market opportunity in China for marketing-centric CRM solutions is huge given the proliferation of mobile devices, the deep penetration that social media networks have, and the emergence of a new era of retail. The development of this product is another step in our strategy to leverage our core platform and capabilities into other areas of our clients’ organizations, and to cross-sell and upsell our existing products and services to create greater value for clients.” Leveraging Gridsum’s core competency and competitive advantages in big data analytics and AI, the Company combined cutting edge marketing and sales intelligence technology to create a CRM solution that specifically caters to enterprises operating in China. Both multinational companies and leading local companies in China have tended to use process-centric, system-heavy, legacy on-premises CRM systems that focus on tracking historical client contacts rather than leveraging advanced cloud-based solutions that are marketing-centric and focus on driving sales. This creates a substantial market opportunity for Gridsum which has already begun to cross-market and upsell the solution to its impressive existing portfolio of marketing automation and other clients.

Gridsum’s Intelligent CRM Solution allows its clients to leverage both online and offline data derived from their digital marketing and sales divisions and customers’ digital footprints, to drive sales and close orders in a more efficient and KPI-enhancing manner. The solution leverages Gridsum’s AI Engine, the “Gridsum Prophet”, and its marketing automation suite, as well as Gridsum’s deep experience in seamlessly interfacing its marketing automation suite with its clients’ sales infrastructure and systems, to create a ground breaking and tailor-made marketing-centric CRM solution for the China market. Gridsum’s Intelligent CRM solution will allow clients to automate and increase sales efficiency across their entire businesses by marketing to individual customers rather than broader demographics. The solution is designed and optimized as a powerful and complete standalone CRM solution. It also has advanced “plug and play” dynamics allowing it to seamlessly integrate with a client’s legacy systems where necessary. With machine learning, Gridsum’s clients will be able to automate the identification, prioritization and “valuation” of promising leads and relationships and sort through massive amounts of data related to multiple areas of their business – from marketing and sales, to loyalty programs, e-commerce, promotions, and more – to easily track customers throughout the different stages of the customer lifecycle.

By seamlessly integrating multiple social platforms, Gridsum clients will also be able to create a “social map” of their customers’ professional and social networks, matching this to their own organizations, to further drive the sales process. Additionally, Gridsum’s Intelligent CRM Solution will increasingly leverage key Blockchain technology features going forward to: accelerate and automate the often cumbersome contractual processes associated with sales and customer support; facilitate customer loyalty program modules built into the solution; support our clients’ ecommerce; and integrate over the longer term into corporate ERP systems to effectively turn the supply chain into a “demand chain” profit center. This distinguishes Gridsum as an early mover and pioneer in this area in the China market. The company expects these features to grow in importance as the use of blockchain technology becomes more widespread in the China market and globally.

In other words, this is a software company using social trends to help retailers navigate. Now they added a new buzzword to the pastiche: Blockchain.

How can we go wrong?

The stock is barely up on this news. I expect a small move up to $18 on more crypto related developments.