Leading restaurant ratings site Dianping has been making steady headlines these last 3 months, including the latest reports that it’s investing in an app that lets users order and pay for take-away food over their smartphones. The tie-up looks relatively modest and has Dianping investing about 50 million yuan ($8 million) in Dazuiba, whose name means “big mouth” in Chinese. More broadly speaking the deal seems to reflect a few recent trends for Chinese Internet M&A, including the rapid disappearance of attractive targets and a growing preference for strategic investments instead of outright acquisitions. Read Full Post…
After a low-key awarding of licenses last last year, the first batch of new virtual network operator (VNO) mobile carriers are quietly coming into the market this month in a move aimed at shaking up the industry dominated by 3 big state-run telcos. In one of the most anticipated launches, e-commerce giant JD.com has just announced its first mobile packages that show how it plans to compete with the trio of China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA). Read Full Post…
We’ll finish out this peak earnings week for US-listed Chinese stocks with a look at fading e-commerce firm Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and online travel site Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR), which have both just posted profit trends that look quite gloomy. But while investors forgave the young Qunar for posting a large net loss, they were less generous towards the older Dangdang, whose profits nearly evaporated after recently emerging from 2 years in the red. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Eyes Strategic Stake In China Chipmaker Rockchip (Chinese article)
JD.com Launches VNO Service, Includes Free E-commerce Data (Chinese article)
Leading online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) is generally regarded as one of China’s best run and most focused Internet companies, which is why new reports that it’s chasing a tie-up with 2 of the nation’s top group buying sites look a bit worrisome. The company is sitting on top of a huge cash pile, worth nearly $2 billion at the last check in March, and is looking increasingly desperate for places to spend the money. It has already been spurned by some of the travel sector’s most likely acquisition targets, which is probably why it’s now looking elsewhere for places to invest its treasure chest. Read Full Post…
China’s online video sites, still reeling from a recent government crackdown on 4 of their most popular TV series, are gearing up for a second round of pain, with word that some of the nation’s top TV stations are launching a new assault on the group of media newcomers. The latest battle in this budding war between traditional and new media has big-name TV stalwarts like CCTV and Hunan Satellite Television reportedly preparing to stop allowing some of their most popular shows to be viewed over sites operated by major online operators like Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) iQiyi. Read Full Post…
China’s crowded field of smartphone makers is quickly splitting into 2 camps as companies step out of their overheated home market in search of new growth opportunities. One group of larger, better-funded players like Huawei, ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) are choosing bigger, trickier markets like Western Europe and India, where campaigns can be costly but potential rewards are bigger. The second group consists of younger more entrepreneurial firms that are eying smaller emerging markets. The latest member of that group is Oppo Electronics, which is hinting at a launch in Singapore.
Meantime, Li Guoqing, the talkative co-founder of fading e-commerce pioneer Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), spent much of the past week regaling followers with laments about his own shortcomings as a father. I found Li’s series of posts about his sputtering relationship with his son both interesting and revealing. The musings, which sound almost desperate at times, hint that perhaps Li’s attention is shifting to a neglected personal life as his business empire that was one of China’s earliest e-commerce players shows rapid signs of aging. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Chinese Charge British Former Head Of GSK (London: GSK) China With Bribery (English article)
Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat has grown so quickly over the last 2 years that it was almost inevitable that the popular mobile messaging service would come under fire from China’s state-run media or Beijing regulators. The service briefly clashed with the telecoms regulator last year during a high-profile spat with leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), and now WeChat is coming under fire from leading broadcaster CCTV for becoming a hotbed for rumor mongering and fraudulent advertisements. Read Full Post…
China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) is quickly becoming a company to watch, with new signals indicating it will soon receive a 4G license for its FDD-LTE technology as it searches for private partners to co-develop new services. These 2 news bits actually come from separate sources, but they collectively show that China Telecom could be poised to gain some market share over its larger and more bureaucratic rivals China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU). Regular readers will know that I’m relatively bullish on China Mobile and China Telecom, though I’m far less enthusiastic about the schizophrenic Unicom. Read Full Post…
Most of us have certain dates that we dread, either for personal or cultural reasons. Many westerners worry about bad luck on Friday the 13th, and Chinese avoid celebrations on unlucky days like the Qing Ming and winter solstice festivals. Those dates are common to everyone, though many of us also have dates we dread for our own individual reasons.
For me my most dreaded date came just this past week, on May 5 to be exact, which was when my official Shanghai residence permit was set to expire. Expiration of official documents is always a hassle, as it means you have to go to government offices or fill out burdensome online forms to apply for new ones. In China the situation is worse, since the government requires most foreigners to get numerous permits and other official forms to legally live and work in the country. Read Full Post…
