I have not been able to be convinced about the competitive durability of Spotify, will it have more than 50% market share after 10 years? It’s valuations assumes that it will be the leading music platform over a long time period, I have not seen so many product based applications with a really long runway. Maybe my understanding is lacking, but this is not an obvious kind of bet for me, that’s why I don’t have any position in Spotify.
I have been playing the digital advertising story through alphabet, plus alphabet has a lot of other bets which can potentially be a large revenue driver in the future. I perceive alphabet to have a longer growth runway than Facebook, and more resilient cashflows.
These are narratives, international investing doesn’t mean US investing. I have a much larger bet on emerging markets (China, India). I haven’t had much time to learn more about other emerging markets like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and it’s also hard to get access to these markets.
Another point is that the country of listing has nothing to do with the business profile. An Indian IT company derives most of its revenues from US and Europe, similar thing happens with a generic pharma company or an auto ancillary. It doesn’t matter where a company is listed, what matters is how much cash can a business generate. And India doesn’t have a sole authority or a right on future cashflows.