It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve written a post exclusively about leading e-commerce company Alibaba, so I thought I’d end the week with a round-up of a few company news bits including its selection of the New York Stock Exchange for its highly-anticipated IPO. In related news, the company’s major shareholder Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) is reportedly in talks to reduce its planned sale of Alibaba shares in the offering. Last but not least, Alibaba has formally added its name to one of its latest acquisitions, a stake in one of China’s leading soccer clubs. Read Full Post…
An exciting showdown that could become a landmark case in copyright protection is shaping up in Shenzhen, where a company accused of rampant piracy is refusing to pay a record fine formally levied this week by the city government. I first wrote about the massive 260 million yuan ($42 million) fine against video sharing site QVOD, whose Chinese name is kuaibo, about a month ago when the record-breaking sum was first announced. (previous post) Now Shenzhen has formally levied the fine, and QVOD has refused to pay and is threatening to take its own legal action. Read Full Post…
Several news bits from the electronics retailing space are in the headlines today, reflecting the volatile state of a highly competitive sector where margins are razor thin. US retailing giant Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) leads the headlines, with word that it’s mulling a sale of its China business 3 years after closing most of its own-brand stores in the market. Leading e-commerce firm Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is also reportedly eying a retreat in the China home appliance market, while homegrown player Aisidi (Shenzhen: 002416) is moving in the other direction with its purchase of one of the nation’s top online cellphone retailers. Read Full Post…
Recently listed e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) was making plenty of noise in the microblogging realm this week, as it hyped a June 18 promotion that it’s trying to build as an alternative to Alibaba’s wildly popular November 11 Single’s Day event. Meantime, Xiaomi’s talkative CEO Lei Jun was in a rare defensive posture on his microblog, discussing a recent major price cut as his company tries to meet the huge expectations it has set for itself. Last but not least, officials from Alibaba and its recently acquired UCWeb web browser unit took advantage of a recent controversy involving a massive fine against a Shenzhen company to criticize rival Tencent (HKEx: 700) for wielding too much power on the Chinese Internet. Read Full Post…
Today’s Headlines assaulted for copyright violations
It’s not easy being a high-flying start-up, and the burden becomes even heavier when a company builds up huge expectations for itself through excessive hype. Smartphone sensation Xiaomi was in the headlines last week when it launched a big price cut, leading some to speculate the company was struggling to meet its aggressive sales targets. Now in the latest setbacks for other start-ups, media are reporting that a fast-rising news app called Today’s Headlines is being assaulted on several fronts for copyright infringement. Separately, a newly launched group of mobile service providers called virtual network operators (VNOs) has also received a setback after experiencing widespread technical glitches. Read Full Post…
After a 2 week pause with no new listings, the market for overseas tech IPOs has come chugging back to life with a strong trading debut for video sharing site Xunlei (Nasdaq: XNET). That solid performance could bode well for online karaoke company Tiange, which has just filed for its own new listing in Hong Kong, continuing a recent trend towards more Chinese Internet listings in the former British colony. Both news bits provide the latest evidence that the overseas market for Chinese IPOs is finding a second wind after a losing momentum in April and May. That new momentum is likely to last through August when e-commerce leader Alibaba is expected to make what could be the largest IPO ever by an Internet company. Read Full Post…
Online travel is quickly taking on a new cult-like status among investors, with word of a major new funding for vacation rental site Tujia. This latest fund-raising frenzy in online travel looks very similar to what happened in group buying about 4 years ago, when investors pumped billions of dollars into a wide range of money-losing start-ups. Internet watchers will know that many of those companies later went bust, raising the prospect that a similar fate could be waiting for the online travel sector. Read Full Post…
