Bottom line: Strong response to Tesla’s latest EV in China and a major new solar plant plan from SolarReserve reflect Beijing’s strong promotion of new energy, which is also creating big waste by attracting unqualified companies to the sector.
SolarReserve in major new China initiative
A series of new reports is showing how Beijing’s strong support for new energy technologies is benefiting both domestic and foreign companies, as China tries to become a global leader in this emerging area. But the reports also spotlight the dangers that come with such aggressive support, which often leads to abuse of subsidies and other preferential policies that can lead to big waste and market distortions.
One of the reports centers on US new energy car superstar Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), and quotes an executive saying that China has become the second largest market for its newest and first relatively affordable electric vehicle (EV). The second report comes from the solar energy sector, and has US solar plant developer SolarReserve LLC in a major new partnership to build more than $2 billion worth of solar farms in China. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s new loss in a China trademark dispute marks a minor setback, but is more symbolically significant as the latest in a sudden series of negative developments for the company in its second largest market.
Apple loses China trademark dispute
After a relatively long winning streak in China, Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) fortunes are suddenly looking much less certain in its second largest market. First the tech giant posted a big drop in quarterly China sales during its latest reporting quarter, and now it has just lost a trademark dispute with a local company over use of its iPhone brand.
This latest setback doesn’t look that big for Apple in terms of money, since the winner in the dispute is a leather goods maker that will presumably use the iPhone trademark on products like wallets and clothing. But the loss is symbolic for a global giant that until just a few weeks ago was riding high in China on the back of a string of positive developments and media coverage. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: LeEco’s plan to develop a major Silicon Valley office on land purchased from Yahoo reflects the rapid rise and global ambitions of the former, and the accelerating decline of the latter.
LeEco eyes new Silicon Valley home
A new report involving a Silicon Valley land deal is shining a spotlight on Chinese Internet giant LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) and US counterpart Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), illustrating the rapid rise of the former and accelerating descent of the latter. The deal itself is rather mundane, involving a 48.6 acre plot of undeveloped land that Yahoo bought a decade ago for $100 million near its Silicon Valley headquarters. LeEco is reportedly eyeing the land for development of a new campus, some 2 years after it set up its original dual US headquarters in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
LeEco, formerly known as LeTV, is one of China’s fastest rising online entertainment companies that is increasingly moving into a wide array of new product areas. Two of those are e-commerce and smart cars, and I suspect the Silicon Valley expansion would house both of those initiatives. LeEco is also moving into film production, though that element of its US efforts is probably based out of its Los Angeles office. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on May 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Loses China Trademark Case for ‘iPhone’ on Leather Goods (English article)
Lackluster Chinese Box Office Posts Weak 5 Pct Gain Over May Day Holiday (Chinese article)
SolarReserve Partners With Shenhua (HKEx: 1088) on $2 Bln China Solar Projects（English article）
Telsa (Nasdaq: TSLA) Says China 2nd Largest Market for Model 3, Eyes Suzhou Plant (Chinese article)
China’s YOU On Demand (Nasdaq: YOD) in JV with LA-Based Frequency Networks (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: A new global tie-up with Uber marks a major advance for Ant Financial’s Alipay, while new Internet car initiatives by Tencent and Alibaba are unlikely to find big audiences despite getting big resources from their backers.
Alibaba, Tencent car initiatives drive ahead
A series of stories involving Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700) reflect the growing importance China’s leading Internet firms are placing on cars, which could be the next major battleground for web-based services. Alibaba is in 2 related headlines, including one that says its affiliated Ant Financial unit has signed a major tie-up that will allow anyone in the world to use its Alipay electronic payments service to pay for Uber hired cars.
The other 2 headlines both involve car manufacturing, including one that says mass production has begun for the first Internet-equipped model co-produced through a tie-up between Alibaba and SAIC (Shanghai: 600104), China’s leading car maker. The other headline says a car-making venture backed by Tencent has been quietly poaching workers from the likes of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Germany’s Daimler (Frankfurt: DAIGn), as it gears up for its own production. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A hospital scandal surrounding Baidu could shave as much as another 3-5 percent off its stock over the next week, but will fade afterwards and have relatively little longer term impact.
Hospital scandal continues to rock Baidu
A scandal involving exaggerated claims by one of its advertisers continues to consume Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which has fired a top executive in response to a story that has wiped out $6 billion from its market value. At the same time, Qihoo’s (NYSE: QIHU) rival search engine has announced it will no longer do business with hospitals like the one at the center of the scandal, nor with other sellers of medical products and services.
The government has taken the unusual step of assembling inter-agency task forces to investigate the case involving a young cancer patient who claimed he was misled by both Baidu and the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Force. (Chinese article) As the scandal picked up momentum late last week, media are reporting that Baidu fired vice president Wang Zhan for harming the company.(Chinese article) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Beijing should promote cutting-edge companies like Tesla that can help advance its new energy agenda, while abandoning ones like Yingli that use old technology to make cheap copycat products.
Tesla nearing China plant?
Two green energy stories were in the headlines last week, spotlighting China’s drive to become a global leader in the new technology and also the right and wrong ways to achieve that aim. An item involving US electric vehicle (EV) powerhouse Tesla (Nasdaq: TSL) represented the right approach, with reports that the company might near a deal with Beijing to build a manufacturing plant in China. Meantime, former solar panel heavyweight Yingli (NYSE: YGE) was in the wrong approach column, announcing that its ill-conceived model of using old technology and cheap prices to do business had pushed it to the brink of insolvency, despite ongoing local efforts to rescue the company.
Beijing should take note of these 2 examples and do more to promote companies like Tesla that can develop cutting-edge technology for use in widely-respected products that the market wants. At the same time, it should abandon copycats like Yingli that don’t innovate and can only compete by offering cheap products using old technology. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on May 4. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Tencent (HKEx: 700) Venture Poaches Google Talent as Chinese Techs Pile into Autos (English article)
SAIC Begins Mass Production for Car Jointly Produced With Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) (Chinese article)
Bottom line: 21Vianet’s new convertible bond indicates it may be abandoning its previous plan to privatize from New York, and could help to boost its shares by bringing in more investors from China.
21Vianet abandoning privatization?
Nearly a year after announcing a plan to privatize from New York, data center operator 21Vianet (Nasdaq: VNET) has just issued an unusual plan that could see it sell a major stake of itself to a group of Chinese buyers through a convertible bond issue. The plan comes as quite a surprise, since one wouldn’t expect this kind of move from a company that was expecting to imminently privatize.
Accordingly, we could interpret this move as hinting that 21Vianet is quietly abandoning its de-listing plan in favor of an approach that could appeal to many other US-listed Chinese companies whose own privatizations have also stalled over the last year. Such an approach would see these companies bring in major new Chinese investors through this kind of convertible bond issue, which could ultimately help those companies to achieve their target of raising their valuations. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new scandal surrounding deceptive results on Baidu’s search service could force the company to be more transparent, but is unlikely to have a long-term impact on the company’s stock.
Baidu at center of new scandal
I have to admit I’ve been quite surprised by a new storm involving the manipulative ways of search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which began building over the May Day holiday and became so big it splashed into global headlines after the company’s stock tanked on Monday. My surprise is mostly that this scandal became so big, since Baidu’s manipulative pay-to-play tactics for search results are quite well known, and should be obvious to anyone who uses the search engine regularly.
The scandal that’s riveting China saw a 21-year-old student search on Baidu for a hospital to treat his rare form of cancer, and select what he thought was the best option partly based on a high search ranking. The young man later died, but not before blasting the hospital and Baidu for their misleading ways, resulting in a firestorm of criticism on the web. The growing noise caused Baidu’s stock to tank on Wall Street, shedding nearly 8 percent in Monday trade. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s sudden loss of China market share to domestic rivals Huawei, Oppo and Vivo is a wake-up call that the tech giant needs to find new cutting-edge product areas to replace rapidly commoditizing smartphones.
Apple under pressure from China brands
The latest message for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is coming in loud and clear from China, saying the company needs to find the next big thing if it wants to retain its crown as a global high-tech leader. That message has been playing out from numerous sources throughout this week, starting with Apple’s own latest financial results that showed its sales plummeted in China in the first quarter of this year.
That report was quickly followed by a flurry of new data from various research houses, all showing that Apple was rapidly losing China market share to homegrown up-and-comers like Huawei, as well as a recently rising duo of Oppo and Vivo. Adding insult to the injury was the disclosure by billionaire investor Carl Icahn that he recently dumped his Apple shares over concerns about the company’s eroding position in China. Read Full Post…
