Two recent encounters with high-level westerners from very different backgrounds has made me realize just how much China has changed as a career choice for foreigners in the last two decades. At the same time, it’s also made me realize that the older generation of “China hands” represented by one of those westerners who came to Asia in the 1980s and ‘90s are a dying species, perhaps destined for extinction in the not-too-distant future.
Some may say this transformation of China to a routine work location for foreign executives from its former status as an exotic and often difficult destination is a good thing, reflecting a rapid economic advance that has vastly improved the lives of the country’s 1.3 billion people. I mostly agree with this view, since the China of today is certainly a better place to live in most ways than the one of just a decade or two earlier. But the looming relegation of these China hands to the history books also seems like a reason for reflection and just a touch of melancholy, since many of these people were instrumental in helping China to transform to its current state of prosperity. Read Full Post…
After disappearing from the headlines for a few months, venture-funded smartphone maker Xiaomi is popping back into the news with mixed signals about its plans for a new low-end model. I’ve often said that Xiaomi’s marketing-savvy co-founder Lei Jun sees his company as China’s version of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), since many of the company’s product development and sales tactics look similar to the US tech giant’s. This latest plan for a new low-cost smartphone called Hongmi, or “Red Rice”, seems to follow that pattern, since buzz has been building for a while that Apple may also be preparing to launch a more affordable version of its premium iPhone. Read Full Post…
Funding may be drying up for Internet companies in mainstream sectors like e-commerce, but 2 new deals for online firms in the education and information space show there’s still money out there chasing some of these less developed niche areas. More broadly speaking, these 2 newest deals are also relatively small, reflecting the fact that we’re unlikely to see many blockbuster new financing rounds of $100 million or more anytime soon in China’s overheated tech space. That said, some of these newer deals in emerging spaces could represent important interesting investment opportunities that could ultimately be purchased by bigger rivals or make offshore IPOs. Read Full Post…
After disappearing from the headlines for a few months, the ongoing search war between industry leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and challenger Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) has jumped back into the news with reports that the former has sued the latter. This new lawsuit is most likely just the first phase in a new stage of the battle between these 2 companies, and I fully expect Qihoo to file a countersuit within the next few weeks. I could even be a bit sarcastic and express my surprise that Qihoo didn’t file the first suit in this rivalry, since the software security specialist is notoriously litigious and has probably sued just about every major Chinese Internet company at some point. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 8-10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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UK Lawmakers Say Huawei-BT (London: BT) Deal Exposes Flawed Security Controls (English article)
Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU), Sina (Nasdaq: YOKU) Collaborate On Content Promotion (PRNewswire)
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle Reader Makes Formal China Launch (Chinese article)
Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sogou Denies Reports Of Acquisition By Alibaba (Chinese article)
US Food Workers Union Comments On China Poultry Plant Disaster (Businesswire)
When is a modestly successful IPO cause for big celebration? The answer is: When your name is LightInTheBox, and you’ve just completed the first IPO in New York by a Chinese company in a half a year. Not only is LightInTheBox the first major New York IPO by a Chinese firm this year, but it’s also only the third such offering since the beginning of 2012, reflecting the chilly investor climate that has stifled such listings on Wall Street for more than 2 years. Read Full Post…
Many of the usual global CEOs are in China this week for the annual Fortune Global Forum in the interior city of Chengdu, but what’s really interesting this year is the presence of many big Hollywood executives. I use the word “interesting” instead of “surprising”, because the presence of top executives from names like DreamWorks Animation (Nasdaq: DWA) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) isn’t really that unexpected considering the sudden love affair between China and Hollywood that’s developed rather rapidly over the last year and a half. Even the music industry is finally starting to believe in the huge potential of the China market, with the head of the US-based Recording Academy, organizer of the Grammy Awards, also attending the event in Chengdu. Read Full Post…
An interesting new Chinese media report is questioning whether US fast food giant Yum (NYSE: YUM) is spoiling the Little Sheep chain of hot pot restaurants it acquired just a year ago. The numbers released by Yum certainly don’t look very so-so, and comments by an unnamed restaurant official don’t paint a very rosy picture either for Little Sheep under Yum’s management. But it’s probably still too early to say whether this acquisition will be a success, and I would still be willing to bet we’ll see Little Sheep start making some new and exciting moves later this year. Read Full Post…
China is quickly learning how to play the game of tit-for-tat trade wars, with news that Beijing has launched a new anti-dumping probe against wines imported from the European Union. Anyone who has followed recent China-EU trade relations will know, of course, that announcement of this new probe by the Commerce Ministry comes the same day that the EU formally announced anti-dumping tariffs against imported Chinese solar panels. Read Full Post…
A day after we saw the latest sign that Lenovo (HKEx: 992) was pursuing a major purchase in the US, we’re getting news of another smaller deal by China’s leading PC maker with word of a new smartphone tie-up with faded Japanese brand NEC (HKEx: 6701). Whereas I quite like the US deal that would see Lenovo buy the low-end server business of IBM (HKEx: IBM), this smaller deal with NEC looks more like Lenovo’s older pattern of buying up dying global brands with little or no real value. Read Full Post…
After more than a year of antagonism, I’m happy to see that the voice of reason finally seems to be coming to the ongoing clash between China and the west in their prolonged dispute over Beijing’s state support for solar panel sector. Germany seems to be the driving force behind this welcome change in tone, following German Chancellor Angela Merckel’s remarks last week that she opposed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar cells being proposed by the EU’s trade office. Merkel correctly realized that a trade war over solar panels wouldn’t benefit anyone, and could potentially deal a crippling blow to a sector that will be critical to the world’s future energy security. Read Full Post…
