This week’s Street View took me to a leafy, residential area of Huashan Road where I went to check out a private museum dedicated to propaganda poster art after reading about it in the news. Housed in the basement of an ordinary apartment building, the collection of striking and boldly colored posters provided a fascinating look at China’s modern history dating all the way back to the 1950s.
Many foreigners like myself have a particular fascination with this kind of propaganda poster, which may partly explain why the popular TripAdvisor travel website ranks the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre as one of the top attractions for foreigners visiting the city. The museum gets little or no mention in most Chinese tourism literature, and even most mainstream foreign travel books don’t mention it, partly because it’s small and relatively new after opening in 2012. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 12. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Momo (Nasdaq: MOMO) Shares Shrug Off Allegations Against CEO In Debut (English article)
NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ) Announces Resignation Of Chairman, Co-CEO Lin (PRNewswire)
Xiaomi Accused Of Copying Air Purifier Design From Japanese Firm (Chinese article)
Sony’s (Tokyo: 6753) PlayStation To Make China Debut Next Month (English article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Invests In Uber – Source (English article)
Bottom line: Xiaomi is likely to quickly settle a patent dispute against it by Ericsson in India, which could slightly raise its costs but won’t affect its longer term development in the market.
India judge crimps Xiaomi’s global expansion
The global expansion plans of fast-rising Xiaomi may have hit a major roadblock, with word that a court has ordered the company to stop importing and selling its popular low-cost smartphones in India. Xiaomi had been targeting India as one of the main drivers in its campaign to become a major global smartphone brand, and has made a number of major moves in the market this year. But now it will have to deal with this new litigation, which is coming from global telecoms equipment giant Ericsson (Stockholm: ERICb) over patent infringement claims. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: CGN Power’s shares could have some upside over the next 6 months, while Momo is likely to delay its IPO until next week as it responds to allegations of illegal actions by its CEO.
Nuclear prospects power CGN IPO
News continues to come thick and fast in the year-end IPO rush, with a number of colorful stories making this year’s listing frenzy a bit feistier than usual. Leading the headlines was a sizzling trading debut for nuclear power company CGN Power (HKEx: 1816), as investors clamored for a play in China’s drive to clean up its polluted air. Meantime, mobile social networking (SNS) app maker and listing candidate Momo issued an updated filing for its New York IPO, explaining wrongdoing claims against its CEO by his former employer NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES). Lastly, seafood company China Tuna has formally yanked its Hong Kong IPO plan, ending a messy affair that was spoiled by revelations by environmental advocacy group Greenpeace. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Xiaomi’s new smart air purifier looks like a good move to build up its ecosystem of interconnected smart devices, while LeTV’s new EV initiative is more likely a publicity ploy.
China’s entrepreneurial tech firms never miss a good business opportunity, and environmental plays are suddenly the flavor of the day with word of major new pollution-related plays by smartphone sensation Xiaomi and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Xiaomi has announced it will enter the smart devices space with a new line of air purifiers aimed at consumers tired of breathing polluted Chinese air. Meantime, LeTV has announced its intent to get into the electric vehicle (EV) business, as China opens up that sector to encourage development of more clean technology. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Nuclear Generator CGN Power (HKEx: 1816) Surges On HK Debut (English article)
Momo Responds To Attack On CEO Tang Yan By NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) (Chinese article)
Chinese Taxi-Hailing App Didi Raises More Than $700 Mln (English article)
India Court Issues Order Banning Import, Sale Of Xiaomi Smartphones (Chinese article)
China Tuna Industry Group Withdraws HK IPO Application (Businesswire)
Bottom line: The visit by a top Chinese Internet official to Facebook’s US campus shows Mark Zuckerberg’s charm offensive toward China is producing results, which could see his company finally get permission to enter the market next year.
China Internet official Lu visits Facebook campus
I have to commend Mark Zuckerberg for his tenacity, after the Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) founder once again made headlines for receiving a visit from a top Chinese Internet official visiting the US. There are several interesting things about this latest development involving Zuckerberg’s endless quest to bring Facebook to China, beginning with the source of this latest news.
It turns out the news didn’t come from Facebook or even ordinary people who caught a glimpse of the meeting, but rather it came from the web page China.com.cn, an official government site under the State Council. (Chinese article) What’s more, the account was rather detailed and upbeat, and featured several photos of Zuckerberg chatting happily on the Facebook campus with Lu Wei, minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Momo’s IPO will go ahead but could debut weakly due to wrongdoing allegations against its CEO, while SouFun and Xunlei shares will be weak through 2015 due to a bad real estate market and stiff competition.
NetEase accuses Momo CEO of wrongdoing
The China Internet world is being rocked with scandals as we head into the end of the year, led by new allegations of wrongdoing against the founder and CEO of mobile social networking service Momo on the eve of its New York IPO. Meantime, recently listed online video site Xunlei (Nasdaq: XNET) is being rocked by accusations of putting pornography in some of its pop-up ads. Finally there’s leading real estate website SouFun (NYSE: SFUN), which is taking a hit after a highly-trumpeted agreement with a major real estate agency has fallen apart as China’s property market deteriorates. Read Full Post…
China’s anti-corruption campaign has accelerated into the private sector over the last few weeks, with shares of sportswear retailer Anta (HKEx: 2020) and online video provider LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) both tumbling after reports emerged that their top executives might be under investigation for illegal activities. In both cases the worries later appeared to be unfounded, but other signals have indicated the movement is indeed creeping into the private sector. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) Says Momo CEO Was Corrupt While At Company (Chinese article)
Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) Forecasts Profit By End Of 2016 (Chinese article)
SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) Terminates Strategic Cooperation With Century 21 China (PRNewswire)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) Doubles 2015 Budget For Literature Subsidiary (English article)
LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) Seeks License to Make Electric Car (English article)
Bottom line: LeTV stock will rally briefly on relief after the reappearance of its CEO, but will come under pressure again after that on concerns about an ongoing crackdown on private video operators.
LeTV CEO Jia resurfaces in Beijing hospital
After a debilitating few weeks as rumors swirled about the disappearance of its charismatic young CEO Jia Yueting, video platform operator LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) has come roaring back after Jia gave a series of company updates during an unusual investor meeting from his Beijing hospital room. The relief over Jia’s reappearance helped to turbocharge LeTV’s shares, which jumped by their daily 10 percent limit when they resumed trading on Monday after a suspension of more than a month. The rally continued on Tuesday, helping the stock to gain back all the losses it incurred after reports about Jia’s disappearance first emerged in October. Read Full Post…
China’s entrepreneurial tech firms never miss a good business opportunity, and environmental plays are suddenly the flavor of the day with word of major new pollution-related plays by smartphone sensation Xiaomi and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Xiaomi has announced it will enter the smart devices space with a new line of air purifiers aimed at consumers tired of breathing polluted Chinese air. Meantime, LeTV has announced its intent to get into the electric vehicle (EV) business, as China opens up that sector to encourage development of more clean technology. 
