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Journalist China
Business news from China By Doug Young.
Doug Young, journalist, has lived and worked in China for 20 years, much of that as a journalist, writing about publicly listed Chinese companies.
He is based in Shanghai where, in addition to his role as editor of Young’s China Business Blog, he teaches financial journalism at Fudan University, one of China’s top journalism programs.
He contributes regularly to a wide range of publications in both China and the west, including Forbes, CNN, Seeking Alpha and Reuters, as well as Asia-based publications including the South China Morning Post, Global Times, Shanghai Daily and Shanghai Observer
A series of moves surrounding leading e-commerce firms Alibaba and Jingdong are raising speculation that the pair could be accelerating towards highly anticipated IPOs that have become stalled for different reasons. Alibaba wants desperately to list in Hong Kong, but was thwarted after a disagreement with local regulators. Now media are speculating that a recent personnel move involving one of those regulators could breathe new life into the Hong Kong listing plan. Jingdong, meantime, tried to launch an IPO last year but failed due to lack of investor interest. Now media are reporting the company is on the cusp of a major acquisition, indicating it may be trying to raise its profile as it prepares for another IPO attempt.Read Full Post…
Charismatic Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun has had huge success getting China’s gossipy media to promote his company, and now he’s succeeding in getting many of the country’s other high-tech leaders to talk about his firm and its trendy smartphones. In the last week alone, Xiaomi’s name has cropped up several times in connection with other Internet and tech executives on Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, often called the Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) of China.
Lei himself and several of his lieutenants were tweeting nonstop during his company’s high profile promotion on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms during the Nov 11 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, though that’s nothing unusual. But others who joined in with their own comments included executives from leading Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700), and also from stodgier smartphone rival Huawei, which looks just slightly envious of Xiaomi’s trendy image. Read Full Post…
First it was smartphones, then it was Internet TV, and now wireless routers have become the latest flavor of the day for Chinese web firms as everyone looks to drive traffic to their sites and services in the fast-evolving market. I previously wrote when security software specialist Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) entered the router space in June, and now a new report says smartphone maker Xiaomi, search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and game specialist Shanda are preparing to enter the sector as well. Meantime in a separate but related telecoms move, leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) is making a feeble move into the international market with a relaunch of its Jego service that it suspended shortly after an original roll-out earlier this year. Read Full Post…
China’s restless car market is showing signs of new stress, with automakers revving up spending at the nation’s top advertising auction this year as competition heats up and growth slows. Meantime, German car maker Daimler-Benz (Frankfrut: DAIGn) has already moved into the slow lane in recent years due to poor execution, but hopes to turn things around with a new ground-breaking tie-up with its main China partner, Beijing-based BAIC Motor. Read Full Post…
Note: After originally publishing this article, a Qunar spokesman pointed out that the company’s report that it had $80 million in cash was as of September 30, which would not have included the $194 million that it raised in its IPO, which occurred at the beginning of November.
Newly listed Internet companies Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) and LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) are trying hard to kill a recent window of positive sentiment towards Chinese IPOs in New York, with each announcing quarterly results that can only be described as disappointing. Not surprisingly shares of both companies tumbled after the results came out, with LightInTheBox falling well below its IPO price. More broadly speaking, this outcome reflects the pressure that Chinese Internet companies feel to put on their prettiest faces before their IPOs, which creates disappointment when a clearer picture inevitably emerges in the following months. Read Full Post…
The end of life as a public company is fast approaching for telecoms software maker AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA), marking the end of a long chapter for one of China’s first technology firms to list overseas. A newly announced special meeting will see AsiaInfo shareholders vote on a plan to privatize the company, whose shares have been ignored for years now by western investors. More broadly speaking, AsiaInfo’s looming buyout represents the challenges that smaller China tech firms face as they struggle to be noticed by western investors.Read Full Post…
It may sound like a small and unimportant detail, but taxi cabs form one of the first and strongest impressions that people get when they travel to other cities. Cabs are equally significant for local residents, constituting part of the fabric of everyday life for many urban dwellers in their hometowns.
That’s why I was excited to read that after years of using the boxy and flimsy looking Volkswagen Santana for its taxi fleet, Shanghai was preparing to choose a replacement for the thousands of cabs that ply the city’s streets. According to the latest reports, Volkswagen’s small but much sportier Lavida is the prime candidate to replace Santanas, which have recently ceased production. Read Full Post…
Chinese firms’ addiction to distressed global assets was back in the spotlight last week with word that car maker Dongfeng Motor (HKEx: 489) is nearing a deal to purchase struggling French automaker Peugeot (Paris: PEUP). This pursuit of a global brand is consistent with Beijing’s call for Chinese firms to go global, and would certainly allow Dongfeng to quickly expand onto the world stage. Read Full Post…
Two of China’s oldest listed Internet firms are in the headlines these last few days, led by word that leading portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) has become the late web giant to make a mega bond offering as it eyes potential acquisitions. In the other more amusing news, NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) is reportedly struggling to build up its pig-raising business that it hyped a couple of years ago, spotlighting its inability to expand beyond its core online game business. Read Full Post…
Former social networking (SNS) superstar Renren (NYSE: RENN) is reportedly downsizing its online game division, formerly its most promising unit, leading me to wonder if earlier rumors that the company’s days as an independent entity may be numbered. The story behind Renren’s rapid rise and now apparent fall is simple: The company was once considered China’s equivalent of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), and used that comparison to launch a successful IPO back in 2011. But since then it has been overtaken by other social networking services, most notably Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging service and Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat, putting the company’s future in jeopardy as it looks for a competitive advantage. Read Full Post…
ICBC (HKEx: 1398) has entered the realm of leading global banks, with word that China’s top lender has been officially declared “too big to fail” by a major world body, reflecting China’s increasingly important role in the world’s economy. ICBC’s growing importance to the global economy was also evident in its successful issue of the first yuan-denominated bond in London, part of China’s efforts to internationalize its currency with major state-owned banks like ICBC and Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601988) leading the campaign. Read Full Post…
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