Japan's cloud accounting software industry is 6-10 years behind the United States and Australia. That means there's plenty of catch-up growth ahead. In my write-up on software developer freee, I note that it expects its corporate client base to eventually triple.
"Explain in simple terms how Carabao makes money"
ChatGPT 5 Thinking vs Gemini 3 Pro Thinking. Which answer do you prefer?
Logizard's (4391 JP) 1QFY2026 result was poor with revevenue growth of only +2.7% YoY and net profit -40%. We knew margins would contract due to aggressive hiring, but new projects lagged. Cloud +8.0% YoY. However, FY2026 rev guidance still +12% YoY. Will prob buy on weakness.
If you want to read the full post, you can find it here (free):
www.asiancenturystocks.com/the-ultimate...
Conclusion?
Pay for ChatGPT if you want the best answers.
If speed is important to you, or if you're a heavy user who likes short replies, go with Gemini.
10. Q&A preparation
I asked each of the tools to provide 15 questions to ask management. Gemini's questions were specific and relevant. ChatGPT's questions were okay, too. Claude's and Grok's were almost unusable.
9. Finding red flags
Claude and Gemini provided depth in the answer, discussing impairment charges, goodwill, related party transactions and loans, a lack of geographic disclosures and more. Excellent. ChatGPT's answer was not impressive in the least.
8. Challenging prediction
ChatGPT's forward EPS estimates were clearly superior, correctly identifying the positive impact from the new Myanmar and Cambodia factories in the next six months. Grok's forecast was thoroughly unimpressive.
7. Comps table
Loved the comparables table provided by ChatGPT. The numbers were correct and included Osotspa. Claude and Grok's market cap numbers were wrong.
6. Summarize earnings results
I really like Gemini's short and sweet summary of Carabao's 1H2025 result. ChatGPT's answer was decent, too, though wordy. Claude's answer was all over the place with zero structure.
5. News update
Somehow, Gemini outperformed in terms of summarizing recent news. It noted that Carabao recently signed a partnership with Tsingtao Brewery, which could open up the Chinese market for it. Claude's answer included forward projections, for some strange reason.
4. Competitive advantages
Amazing answer from ChatGPT, helping you understand why young Thais like Carabao better than Osotspa's M-150.
Also talks about the rock music heritage, the Carabao Cup sponsorship and the strong distribution network.
3. Supply chain analysis
Strong answers across the board, with Grok shining, including details about JVs and related party deals. Gemini's answer was strong but a bit short.
2. Deep research report
Deep Research reports from ChatGPT take a long time to generate. But they are superior to the rest. Gemini's are okay, too. Grok's report was terrible.
Carabao is taking market share, but border issues, sugar tax and cost inflation hurting margins.
1. Business snapshot
ChatGPT does the best job at explaining what the company does in simple terms. Claude/Grok are both vague with a limited amount of information.
Carabao is an energy drinks company with 25% in Thailand, and also presence in Cambodia/Vietnam.
I used these ten questions to analyze Thai energy drinks company Carabao (CBG TB – US$1.2 billion).
The stock is down 50%, partly due to the Cambodia land-border issue and now trades at 11x EV/EBIT.
The founder and CEO has now started buying.
I then gave each of them ten prompts:
1. Business snapshot
2. Deep research report
3. Supply chain analysis
4. Competitive advantages
5. News update
6. Summarize earnings results
7. Comps table
8. Challenging prediction
9. Finding red flags
10. Q&A preparation
I set up paid subscriptions of:
- ChatGPT Plus
- Gemini Pro
- Claude Pro
- SuperGrok
... to understand which is better for equity research
Which generative AI tool should you pay for (if any)?
Let's figure it out.
This year's write-ups on Asian Century Stocks. If you're interested in any of them, join!
asiancenturystocks.com/library/
7. Data AI
App rankings, costly but you can get 90 day history
data.ai
6. StockX
Provides price data for second-hand goods eg sneakers and other collectibles
stockx.com
5. Camelcamelcamel for Amazon price trends
I use it to track either new or second-hand prices for the most popular versions of the product. You used to be able to access product rankings, but I think this feature has been discontinued.
camelcamelcamel.com
4. Social Blade for social media stats
I usually track monthly gained followers for Instagram/YouTube/TikTok accounts. Ideally for accounts with millions of followers.
socialblade.com
3. Toolforge for Wikipedia data
Find the Wikipedia page first and then search under Pages. Use en.wikipedia.org for English Wikipedia pages. I use it to track the popularity of individual products.
pageviews.wmcloud.org?project=en.w...
2. TickerTrends for website traffic:
Has gone up in price but still cheaper than Similarweb. Especially helpful for China stocks where Google isn't used (you need local phone numbers for Chinese equivalent services). TickerTrends also has TikTok views.
tickertrends.io
1. Google Trends, measuing the # of Google search queries.
I use seasonally adjusted numbers to get a sense of year-over-year trends. The numbers since July 2025 seem somewhat fishy. But still helpful for fashion/software.
trends.google.com/trends/explo...
Alt-data sources I use, ranked in order of importance and using Pop Mart as an example:
Dan Rupp at Parkway Capital:
- Time in the market > timing the market (stay long)
- Has reallocated from China/HK to Thailand/Indonesia
- Bull case for Asia is a weak USD
- Sells when 1) original thesis wrong 2) better oppty 3) full valuation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUr5...
