A year after it shook up China’s stodgy banking sector with the launch of its Yu’ebao savings product, e-commerce leader Alibaba looks set to give the market another shot of needed innovation in a new tie-up with 7 major banks. This time the aim is to promote lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on manufacturers and especially exporters. Such companies often have difficulty getting loans from traditional banks for reasons I’ll explain shortly. Thus this new partnership aims to use Alibaba’s mountains of financial data on these smaller companies to help the banks better understand underserved SMEs that are a critical player in China’s economy. Read Full Post…
Update: Since originally writing this post, Tencent has issued a statement in response to the original Chinese media reports saying it has no plans to close its microblogging service. It adds the service will be combined with its news service, as part of a broader restructuring of its online media group.
New reports are saying that leading Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700) is quietly halting development for its largely ignored microblogging service, in what would amount to a rare admission of defeat in its core social networking services (SNS) business. The move would be long overdue, as Tencent’s microblogging service, a variant of US leader Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) service, was never really a major player in China. So in that sense I have to at least congratulate Tencent for finally conceding defeat in the space to Weibo (Nasdaq: WB), the Twitter imitator founded by leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA). Read Full Post…
Two more US-traded Chinese firms are on the cusp of de-listing, with online game operator Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) and chipmaker RDA Microelectronics (NYSE: RDA) just announcing they have wrapped up buy-out deals that will pave the way for their imminent privatization. These 2 de-listing stories were announced months ago and are completely expected. But the bigger underlying story is the lack of major new privatization announcements in the last half year. In a similar development, major new IPOs by Chinese firms in New York have slowed considerably since a boom of offerings in April and May, indicating the broader deal-making market may be entering a new, more stable phase. Read Full Post…
Regulators in new role as judges for industry clashes
China’s regulators have become involved in mediating a growing number of business disputes, reflecting the recent rise of a new generation of multibillion-dollar private sector companies that are rapidly growing beyond their traditional roots. In most cases, companies that began as Internet firms and high-tech manufacturers have encroached into a wide range of new areas like banking, TV and telecoms services, raising the hackles of big state-owned firms that previously dominated those sectors. Read Full Post…
Nearly 2 months after its listing in New York, e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) is trying to keep up its positive momentum with announcement of a relaunch for Paipai.com, the C2C service it acquired as part of its Tencent (HKEx: 700) tie-up earlier this year. While the announcement contains a bit of detail about JD’s plans, it makes no mention of the main target of this new campaign, which is Alibaba’s industry-dominating Taobao service. That said, I’m hopeful we could see Paiapi shake up the stagnant C2C space, much the way that Alibaba did nearly a decade ago when Taobao challenged and eventually defeated then-leader eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). Read Full Post…
The date of August 8 is a lucky one for many Chinese, but it’s increasingly looking like it won’t be the day for the highly anticipated IPO of e-commerce leader Alibaba. Previous reports had indicated Alibaba founder Jack Ma wanted to list his company on the eighth day of the eighth month of the western calendar, since 8 is a lucky number that sounds like the Chinese word for wealth and prosperity. What’s more, the Chinese pronunciation for 8-8 is “baba“, which is the same as the last part of Alibaba’s name and also happens to be the BABA ticker symbol the company will use when its shares start trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Read Full Post…
I wrote earlier this week about a looming crackdown on private Internet-based video providers, and now that campaign appears to be building momentum with word of turbulence in the booming set-top box sector. The latest reports say industry veteran LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) has withdrawn its set-top box product from the market, while e-commerce giant Alibaba is reportedly delaying the roll-out of its own similar product. The reports certainly don’t bode well for the fledgling sector of set-top boxes, which allow people to watch Internet-based video content on their TVs the same way they watch programs using traditional TV channels. Read Full Post…
Two major regulatory moves could have opposite effects for different areas of the Internet, providing relief for e-commerce firms while posing yet another new challenge for online video operators. In the former category, media are reporting the regulator that oversees e-commerce is talking with major players about modifying a controversial policy that gives consumers the right to unconditionally return most merchandise within a week of buying it. In the latter category, other media reports say the broadcasting regulator is continuing an ongoing campaign to rein in online video sites by limiting their ability to operate dedicated program channels similar to traditional TV. Read Full Post…
E-commerce leader Alibaba is disclosing yet more information on itself and what investors can expect to get in its upcoming IPO, including a revised estimate of its valuation that puts it roughly on par with archrival Tencent (HKEx: 700). The company is also giving more details revealing just how little control investors will have over the company under a corporate structure that will put all management decisions in the hands of a small group of partners. Neither of these revelations is hugely surprising, and instead reflects just how closely everyone is watching an IPO that could be the largest technology offering of all time. Read Full Post…
The old saying “One man’s trash can be another man’s treasure” certainly seems pertinent for drug firm Luye Pharma (HKEx: 2186), which has found a receptive audience in Hong Kong for its newly listed shares. The company’s high valuation and strong trading debut contrast sharply with its performance during a previous life as a listed company in Singapore, where it was ignored by investors before privatizing in 2012.
Some analysts are saying Luye’s move could mark the start of a wave of similar re-listings for “China orphans” — Chinese firms that listed in New York or Singapore, only to see their shares languish due to lack of investor interest. But I would caution that Hong Kong investors are quite sophisticated and will still be looking for firms with strong growth potential — a quality that was lacking in many of the New York and Singapore-listed firms that privatized over the last 2 years. Read Full Post…
Investors in China real estate service stocks have a short memory these days, reflecting the broader uncertainty in the country’s real estate market that could be on the edge of a major downturn. After a sharp sell-off earlier this week on concerns about a property bubble, shares of SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) have come bouncing back on news about equity tie-ups with 2 leading home agency companies. Shares of its 2 major listed peers, E-House (NYSE: EJ) and Leju (NYSE: LEJU), have also quickly bounced back from the brief sell-off as investors decided it might be premature to worry about a downturn. Read Full Post…
