Consolidation continues to advance in the Chinese supermarket aisle, with word that Hong Kong grocery operator Dairy Farm (London: DFIB) is paying nearly $1 billion for 20 percent of Yonghui (Shanghai: 601933), one of China’s top chains. A couple of years ago I would have said this deal looked like a good one for both sides, combining Dairy Farm’s well-run Hong Kong-based chain of Wellcome supermarkets with Yonghui’s sizable Chinese operations. But frankly speaking, China’s rapid migration of food shopping into the e-commerce realm makes the whole idea of consolidation of brick-and-mortar operations look like a belated effort with limited growth potential. Read Full Post…
Shanghai is taking a ground-breaking step forward in improving the city’s mental health, with word that education officials are crafting guidelines that will see psychological counseling centers set up in most of the city’s schools starting next year. The step may sound small and even trivial to many foreigners, since such counseling centers have been present in most western schools for decades now.
But the move is really quite revolutionary for conservative China, and Shanghai should get kudos for taking this ground-breaking step. China’s rapid move to a market economy and more open society have put huge stress on everyone, as ways of doing things often change overnight and old social safety nets from the socialist era disappear. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
China Probes Threaten to Squeeze Foreign Profits (English article)
Shanghai GM (NYSE: GM) Admits To Coming Under Anti-Monopoly Investigation (Chinese article)
The following is the 7th and final part in a multi-part series about the rise of WeChat, the popular mobile instant messaging service owned by Tencent.
By Lanie Nie
WeChat builds an ecosystem
While China might be behind the US in many key areas of Internet development, it is quite advanced in the use of smartphones as the primary device for accessing the Internet. Tech guru Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends Report showed that China has more than 500 million mobile Internet users, accounting for 80 percent of its online population, the highest level worldwide. With the nation’s smartphone prices in freefall and high-speed 4G access expanding, it’s likely that a majority of Chinese people will be on the mobile Internet in the next 5 to 6 years. Read Full Post…
Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) hugely popular WeChat and QQ instant messaging platforms are once again hogging the headlines, reflecting the increasingly important role the 2 services are playing for the future development of the Internet giant. This time WeChat is in the news after coming under new government restrictions aimed at censoring some of its content. Meantime, QQ has formally launched an official shopping channel in partnership with e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), laying down a big challenge for sector leader Alibaba. Read Full Post…
After a failed bid at buying the world’s largest aircraft leasing company last year, China appears to be gearing up for a second attempt to enter the lucrative space with plans to bid for European giant Avolon. In this instance, the report is coming from a major Chinese newspaper that says China Investment Corp is teaming up with Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) in the bid, which could be worth some 12 billion euros ($16 billion). That would easily make it the largest global acquisition by a Chinese firm outside the resource sector, reflecting the country’s growing financial might as many European firms continue to struggle with after-effects of the continent’s debt crisis of several years ago. Read Full Post…
Update: Since originally writing this post, several reports have appeared saying Apple’s name wasn’t included on the latest government procurement list because it failed to submit the necessary paperwork.
I really didn’t want to write again about another major multinational getting bashed in China, but it seems hard to ignore the latest reports that gadget giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has formally joined the list of companies being banned from selling to the government due to national security concerns. At this rate, Chinese government agencies won’t be able to buy technology products from any foreign companies soon, and will be forced to do all their buying from domestic firms. That’s somewhat ironic, since many of those domestic firms are far less experienced than big global names like Apple and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), and thus are far more likely to unknowingly design products with major security flaws. Read Full Post…
I recently wrote how smartphone price wars may be claiming one of their first major victims in ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), and now we’re getting word that crosstown rival Huawei may also be getting crunched in the ongoing battle for supremacy at the low end of the market. The latest reports cite Huawei’s mobile device chief saying the company is formally ducking out of ultra low-end smartphones in its home China market, in what can only be seen as a major retreat for one of China’s biggest tech companies. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 8. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
China Imposes New Restrictions On Instant Messaging Tools: Xinhua (English article)
Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN) To Invest $500 Mln In China’s Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) (English article)
Huawei To Exit Ultra-Low End Smartphones, Cut 80 Pct Of Models By Year End (Chinese article)
Anti-Trust Probes Expand To Include 12 Japanese Automotive Firms (Chinese article)
Mercedes under microscope for after-sales practices
It’s a new day, which means it’s time for yet another government investigation into foreign firms that are coming under increasing scrutiny for both their products and business practices. This time it’s luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz (Frankfurt DAIGn) that’s coming under the microscope for anti-competitive pricing in China. Word of this latest probe comes just a week after software giant Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) revealed it is being probed for monopolistic business practices. (previous post)
Other major western multinationals have been probed for similar anti-competitive behavior in the latest year-long campaign, and still others have been targeted over allegations of corruption. Yet another group has been blacklisted from selling to to government organizations over concerns their products could create national security risks. Read Full Post…
Top executives from software security maker Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) and struggling game operator The9 (Nasdaq: NCTY) were getting chummy in the blogosphere last week, filling the airwaves with chatter as they prepared to announce a new alliance at the country’s top gaming trade show in Shanghai. Meantime, executives from PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992) took time out from their usual tech and marketing chatter to make some low-key criticism against the government, including a microblog post in defense of the beleaguered McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) as it grapples with one of its worst-ever food safety scandals in China. Read Full Post…
