Search Results for: baidu e-commerce

Xiu.com Funding Puts Glamor in Online Fashion 服饰类网站前景看好

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Intensifying competition will mean a tough road ahead for broader e-commerce in China, but one area that still looks attractive is apparel, as reflected by a nifty $100 million in new funding for online fashion house Xiu.com. (English article) The tidy amount follows a smaller $20 million funding in March, and this latest round includes such venture capital giants as Warburg Pincus and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The funding comes less than a month after online footwear seller Yougou.com received a rumored $450 million in funding from a group that included online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) (previous post), and as another leading online apparel seller, Vancl, gears up for an IPO that should be one of the hottest China offerings in the second half of the year. Apparel is also one of the best selling areas for Alibaba’s Taobao Mall, testifying to the strength of this product category that enjoys strong demand and is relatively less competitive due to higher barriers of entry. By comparison, more general merchandise e-commerce firms like Dang Dang (NYSE: DANG), 360Buy and Wal-Mart-backed (NYSE: WMT) Yihaodian seem to be locked in an increasingly bloody battle where marketing and distribution costs are markedly higher due to the broader array of products and customers they cater to. Of course, it may only be a matter of time before apparel makers get caught up in their own bloody battle for market share. But unlike general merchandise, these companies can more easily find their own niches due to the wide variety of clothing available, which may buffer them somewhat from cutthroat competition. Either way, the group certainly looks like a strong bet for now, and I would expect Vancl to see strong demand when it finally moves ahead with its IPO after broader market sentiment improves.

Bottom line: A new $100 million funding round for Xiu.com testifies to the strength of online apparel, and bodes well for Vancl’s upcoming IPO.

竞争加剧意味着中国电子商务业前路难一帆风顺，但服饰类领域看似仍具吸引力，时尚购物网走秀网（xiu.com）新一轮融资1亿美元就是例证。走秀网今年3月曾获2,000万美元投资，而本次又获美国华平投资集团（Warburg Pincus）和Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers等风投巨头投资。不到一个月前，鞋类销售网优购网（Yougou.com）据传获得4.5亿美元融资，投资方包括网络搜索巨头百度<BIDU.O>。凡客诚品正在准备首次公开募股（IPO），有望成为下半年最热门的中国上市企业。服饰也是淘宝商城最热销的领域之一，证明此类产品需求强劲，由於进入门槛较高，竞争相对没有那麽激烈。相比之下，销售日用百货的电子商务企业当当网<DANG.N>、京东商城和沃尔玛<WMT.N>投资的1号店似乎陷入激战，由於其产品和消费者范围更广，市场营销和渠道成本也明显更高。当然，服饰类企业激烈争夺市场份额或许也只是早晚的事情。但与一般商品不同，服饰类选择众多，企业更容易找到其小众定位，为其竞争提供了缓冲空间。目前看来，服饰类电子商务前景光明，我认为，市场情绪提振後，当凡客诚品最终进行IPO时，有望获得积极认购。

一句话：走秀网新一轮融资1亿美元证明，网络服饰销售颇具潜力，对凡客诚品即将IPO也是吉兆。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Belle, Baidu See Beauty in Online Shoe Store 百度和百丽投资优购网或为明智之举

◙ 360Buy — More Details But Still Pricey 京东商城值多少？

◙ Wal-Mart Buys Into China E-Commerce 沃尔玛进军中国电子商务

Tencent and Alibaba: It’s Not Easy Being Big 腾讯和阿里巴巴：想当老大不容易

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Internet titans Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) have worked hard over the years to become leaders in their respective spaces, reaping big rewards for shareholders in the process as their profits grew quickly in line with their revenues. But now the pair are suddenly waking up to a mid-life crisis, reflected by their latest quarterly results that showed sharply slowing growth. Alibaba.com, China’s leading B2B website, saw its second-quarter profit rise 29 percent, not bad in number terms but still the lowest rise in a year and a half. (English article) But perhaps more worrying was its drop in paying members, reflecting the simple fact that there are only so many potential companies in China who want to do their buying and selling on the Web. Results for leading online game operator Tencent were equally lackluster and perhaps even more worrisome, with profit up 29 percent, again not bad in absolute terms but the slowest growth rate in 4 years, while margins fell sharply as it spent money on new initiatives. (English article) Since peaking in May, Tencent’s shares are down 23 percent, while Alibaba.com’s are off by nearly half from a high in March. Alibaba investors should get set for a long winter, as the company doesn’t really seem to have any major new growth engines in the pipeline and it appears simply to be trying to squeeze more money out of existing customers — a strategy also being tried by search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) but one that has very limited potential. Tencent looks a bit more interesting, with major new initiatives in the pipeline in the fast-growing but extremely competitive e-commerce and video sharing spaces. Given Tencent’s strong past record at execution, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it find some success in one or both of these areas, helping to restart its fading growth. But regardless, both Alibaba and Tencent are unlikely to see profit or revenue growth again above the 30 percent level anytime soon.

Bottom line: Internet giants Tencent and Alibaba.com are increasingly maturing, and won’t see top or bottom line growth above 30 percent in the next 2 years.

互联网巨头腾讯<0700.HK>和阿里巴巴<1688.HK>过去几年努力成为各自领域的领头羊，并在此过程中为其股东带来了巨额回报。但现如今，这两家企业突然间意识到自己陷入了“中年危机”，最明显的表现就是，最新的季度财报显示其增速骤然放缓。阿里巴巴第二季度利润上升29%，虽然不算太差，但仍是一年半中增速最慢的一个季度。但更令人担心的是，其商户的不断减少，这也反映出一个简单的事实，即中国只有少部分潜在企业愿意在网上进行交易。腾讯的业绩也乏善可陈，可能甚至更糟，其第二季度利润同比增长29%，从绝对数字来看并不算太差，但却是其四年来增速最慢的一次，同时由於其大举投资新项目，利润率也大幅下滑。自5月份达到峰值以来，腾讯的股价已下跌23%，而阿里巴巴的股价则从3月份的高点下跌了近一半。阿里巴巴投资者应做好应对漫长冬季的准备，因该公司似乎并无任何新的重要增长引擎可推出，公司似乎也只是试图从现有客户身上赚取更多钱。互联网搜索引擎巨头百度<BIDU.O>也在尝试这一策略，但其效果非常有限。腾讯的情况看起来更为有趣，该公司计划在快速发展但竞争异常激烈的电子商务和视频分享领域推出新的项目。鉴於腾讯过去强有力的执行记录，如果发现腾讯在上述两领域或其中之一获得成功，我并不会感到意外，这也有助於其重启增长态势。但无论如何，阿里巴巴和腾讯的利润或营收都不太可能在短时间内再次回到30%以上。

一句话：腾讯和阿里巴巴都日益成熟，但在未来两年内其营收或利润增长都不太可能回到30%以上。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Sina, Tencent Pose Threat in SNS, E-Commerce 新浪腾讯攻城掠地

◙ Alibaba’s Latest Yahoo Spat Masks Tepid Results 阿里巴巴与雅虎打口水仗是场烟幕弹？

◙ Tencent Looks to the Stars to Power Video Dreams 腾讯借力华谊 进军网络视频领域

Gaopeng Lay-Offs Auger Ad Spending Downturn 1高朋裁员预示网络广告支出或大幅下降

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There’s more negative buzz coming from Gaopeng, the group buying joint venture between Groupon and Tencent (HKEx: 700), which, when combined with other industry noise indicates a sharp downturn in online ad spending may be on the horizon. Just two weeks after reporting that Gaopeng had stopped advertising on Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) because they were too costly (previous post), Chinese media are reporting that Gaopeng has begun laying off staff to cut costs. (English article) The reports seem a bit fragmented and indicate a gradual lay offs began as early as April. But what does seem clear is that Gaopeng isn’t gaining nearly enough sales and revenue in China to justify the rapid build-up in its staffing and ad spending since its formation late last year. The latest Gaopeng developments echo similar recent buzz, with e-commerce executives saying competition has become incredibly fierce and unsustainable, and many players will be forced to cut back their advertising spending in the months ahead to keep from losing money. None of this should be surprising, since China now boasts at least three other big group-buying sites that have received major new funding this year (previous post), and the e-commerce space has also become a jungle in a very short time, with names like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) joining a space that was already crowded with big homegrown names like Alibaba and 360Buy. (previous post) This kind of hyper-competition can hardly be comforting for companies that derive a big part of their revenue from advertising spending, most notably  Baidu, Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), whose sites are popular with advertisers. I would look for all three of these companies to report sharp slowdowns in revenue growth starting late this year, and some consolidation in both the e-commerce and group buying space, which could see Gaopeng close down as Groupon focuses on more promising growth markets.

Bottom line: Web firms that rely heavily on ad spending will see a sharp slowdown in revenue growth around the end of the year, as advertisers slash spending amid fierce competition.

美国团购网站Groupon和腾讯<0700.HK>合资的高朋团购再传出负面消息，结合业内其它消息来看，网络广告支出大幅下降或初露端倪。两周前有报导称高朋因费用太高已停止在百度<BIDU.O>和谷歌<GOOG.O>的广告投放。目前中国媒体报导称，高朋网已开始裁员，以削减成本。这些零散报导指出，高朋网早在4月就开始逐步裁员。但可以确定的是，高朋网自去年底成立以来，其在华销售和营收表现一般，与其雇员人数和广告支出的迅速增加不成正比。 业内近期出现类似情况，电子商务高管称，团购行业竞争白热化，发展变得不可持续，许多团购网未来几个月为避免亏损，将被迫削减广告支出。这些都并不令人惊讶，中国今年至少有三大团购网获得大规模融资，电子商务领域竞争也变得异常激烈，本土已有阿里巴巴和京东网等巨头，而沃尔玛也进军中国电子商务领域。这种激烈竞争让收入主要来自广告的公司很难感到欣喜，例如百度、新浪<SINA.O>和搜狐<SOHU.O>。我预计，今年底开始，这三家公司的收入增长将大幅下降，电子商务和团购网领域都将出现整合，由於Groupon关注更具增长潜力的市场，可能会关闭高朋网。

一句话：由於团购网和电子商务领域竞争激烈，广告商将大幅削减开支，严重依赖广告收入的网络公司营收增长将在年底大幅下降。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Trouble Lurks in China Group Buying, as Gaopeng Drops Baidu 高朋停止百度的广告投放 团购行业初露窘相

◙ Groupon in China: Real Deal or Same Old Story?

◙ Wal-Mart Buys Into China E-Commerce 沃尔玛进军中国电子商务

Investors Feast on Sun Art 高鑫零售首日挂牌表现抢眼

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After weeks of seeing one IPO scrapped after another as market sentiment toward China listings evaporated, especially in the Internet space, it’s nice to see there’s still healthy demand for a good, solid offer like hypermarket operator Sun Art Retail Group’s (HKEx: 6808) $1 billion IPO. After pricing at the top of their range, Sun Art’s Hong Kong listed shares soared as much as 43 percent on their first trading day, in one of the best debuts this year and in sharp contrast to the many flops for Chinese companies going public in Hong Kong and the United States. (English article) Sentiment has dropped so sharply that three companies, Internet firms Xunlei, Tudou and Shanda Cloudary, have all yanked their offerings in the last week due to terrible demand as investors fret over the quality of these firms’ accounting. (previous post) Such is clearly not the case for Sun Art, which operates in a much more straightforward business running supermarkets, which also has huge potential. As China’s mid-tier and smaller cities become wealthier, supermarket operators like Sun Art, whose stores carry the RT-Mart and Auchan names, should be able to go into these areas and easily attract consumers with their stores that offer more convenience and variety to traditional food stores that now dominate most of these towns. A growing number of suburban satellite cities of major metropolises like Shanghai and Beijing should also provide good fodder for growth. Already ranking first in the hypermarket sector, just ahead of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), China Resources Enterprise (HKEx: 291) and Carrefour (Paris: CAR), Sun Art seems in prime position to capitalize on China’s growing hunger for mega-supermarkets.

Bottom line: Sun-Art looks like a strong bet for China’s fast-growing supermarket space, with plenty of room for upside for its newly listed shares.

随着市场对中国上市企业情绪转弱，数周来各公司纷纷取消IPO计划，尤其是在互联网领域。很高兴还能看到市场对像大卖场运营商高鑫零售有限公司<6808.HK>等好企业的股票需求强劲。高鑫零售IPO价格定在招股区间上限，规模为10亿美元。高鑫零售上市首日飙升43%。是今年上市首日表现最好的股票之一，与在香港和美国上市的其他中国企业股票的下跌形成鲜明对比。市场人气急转直下，以致迅雷、土豆和盛大文学三家企业均在上周搁置上市计划，因投资者担心各公司财务问题，认购情况不好。但高鑫零售很明显未受此影响。随着中国二线和较小城市日益富裕，高鑫零售等大卖场运营商应该能打入这些地区，并能轻易地吸引消费者。北京、上海等大城市周围日益增加的郊区卫星城市也将为其增长提供机遇。作为中国国内最大的大卖场运营商，高鑫零售似乎在中国超大型超市的发展中占得了先机。

一句话：在中国快速发展的超级市场行业，高鑫零售看似非常有潜力，其股票还有很大上升空间。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ China’s Drive to the Suburbs: A Nice Supermarket Play 中国年轻人郊区购房 超市势将获益

◙ Wal-Mart Buys Into China E-Commerce 沃尔玛进军中国电子商务

◙ Belle, Baidu See Beauty in Online Shoe Store 百度和百丽投资优购网或为明智之举

360Buy — More Details But Still Pricey 京东商城值多少？

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We’re finally getting a bit more clarity on e-commerce company 360Buy, and why investors like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) chief Robin Li all recently plowed $1.5 billion into the company, leading its Chairman Liu Qiangdong to proclaim his baby was worth $10 billion. So, let’s backtrack a bit and do a quick analysis of this one. At a media briefing in Beijing, Liu told the world his company hopes to turn profitable next year, and could make an IPO worth $2 billion or more not long after that. (English article; Chinese article) Kudos to 360Buy for at least waiting to become profitable before going public, unlike Youku (NYSE: YOKU), which decided getting to market was more important than showing investors you can actually earn money (though investors don’t seem to have cared in that case). The only problem is, 360Buy seems to have a higher image of itself than the numbers would suggest. Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), 360Buy’s only listed competitor, has a market cap of about $1.5 billion and is about a third 360Buy’s size in terms of market share, according to the reports. That means 360Buy should be worth about $5.5 billion by my estimates. The way the China market is growing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 360Buy’s market value double in the next two years. But a lot can also happen in that time, and anyone who says the company is worth $10 billion now appears to be suffering from a case of China Internet overvaluation fever.

Bottom line: 360Buy is about two years ahead of the market in terms of its own assessment of the valuation.

沃尔玛<WMT.N>、俄罗斯DST投资公司和百度李彦宏近期向京东商城投资共约15亿美元，京东商城董事长刘强东宣称该公司价值100亿美元。那麽我们不妨来迅速分析一下吧。刘强东在记者会上表示，寄望於京东商城明年实现盈利，而实现盈利後不久将进行首次公开发行(IPO)，拟筹资20亿美元或更多。京东商城这点值得赞许，至少打算等到盈利後再上市，不像优酷<YOKU.N>，後者似乎认为上市比证明其盈利能力更重要，不过优酷投资者好像并不在意这点。眼下唯一的问题是，京东商城的形象似乎有点被吹捧了。其竞争对手当当<DANG.N>市场份额约为京东商城的三分之一，市值约15亿美元，以此推算，我认为京东商城价值应在55亿美元左右。不过鉴於中国市场扩张速度，倘若未来两年中京东商城价值增长一倍，我也不会感到奇怪。但未来两年可能发生很多事情。

一句话：京东商城对自身价值的评估，较市场超前了两年左右。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ 360Buy — A $10 Bln Company? 京东商城价值100亿美元？

◙ 360Buy — Are They Really Worth That Much? 京东商城——真值那么多钱？

◙ Wal-Mart Buys Into China E-Commerce 沃尔玛进军中国电子商务

Alibaba’s Latest Yahoo Spat Masks Tepid Results 阿里巴巴与雅虎打口水仗是场烟幕弹？

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How convenient for Alibaba Group that the latest blow-up in its endless feud with controlling stakeholder Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) comes as China’s sputtering e-commerce giant has just released quarterly results that are far from mind-blowing. (Results announcement) But first things first, and let’s discuss this latest spat with Yahoo. Believe it or not, I actually believe Alibaba this time when it says it quietly moved its lucrative Alipay electronic payments service into a separate company beyond its direct control due to upcoming Chinese regulations that forbid foreign ownership of electronic payment processors. (Alibaba statement) In fact, Chinese media are reporting that other e-payment companies are also quietly cutting their ties to foreign investors for the same reason. (English article) But back to Aliababa. While I find Alibaba’s move to be credibly motivated, what I find more disingenuous is the fact it made the move without consulting or even informing Yahoo, which, after all, owns 40 percent of Alibaba. Meantime, Alibaba’s main listed unit, Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) in the midst of all this has quietly posted results that are far from stellar, with just 3 percent revenue growth quarter on quarter and 10 percent profit gains, following a scandal at the company earlier this year over fake suppliers on its network designed to boost numbers. Does all this brouhaha over the Yahoo spat, even if it wasn’t engineered deliberately, look just a little bit like a smoke screen to hide the bad numbers?

Bottom line: Alibaba’s latest very public spat with Yahoo is a coincidental, but very conveniently timed, smoke screen masking the deteriorating performance for scandal-plagued Alibaba.com.

中国电子商务巨擘阿里巴巴又与其控股股东雅虎<YHOO.O>打起了嘴仗，其实前者刚刚公布了季度财报——业绩远称不上令人兴奋。但让我们先讨论一下最近发生的这场争执吧。信不信由你，实际上我倒相信阿里巴巴这次的表态：即它之所以悄悄将支付宝所有权转移给另一家公司，是因担心不久中国监管部门将禁止外国公司控股电子支付平台。中国媒体还报导过，其他电子支付公司也因同样原因在悄悄切断与外国投资者的联系。但让我觉得阿里巴巴不那麽真诚的一个事实是，阿里巴巴并未事先徵询雅虎意见甚或通知雅虎，毕竟後者持有阿里巴巴40%的股权。与此同时，阿里巴巴的主要上市公司Alibaba.com<1688.HK>悄悄公布了财报，其季度营收较上季只增长了3%，盈利增长 10%，这些数字远称不上令人印象深刻。今年早些时候，该公司还曾传出为推高业绩而制造虚假供应商的丑闻。那麽现在看来，阿里巴巴如此大张旗鼓地与雅虎展开论战，即便并非处心积虑，也是不是有点为了掩饰财报不佳而放出的烟雾弹呢？

一句话：阿里巴巴最近与雅虎大张旗鼓的争执，也许是一场虽属偶然但时机恰到好处的烟幕弹，旨在掩饰Alibaba.com糟糕的财报。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Alibaba Challenges Investors to Read Between the Lines As Big Slowdown Looms 阿里巴巴：财报说了些什麽？

◙ Alibaba, Baidu Get Snagged in U.S. Piracy Report

◙ Alibaba Resignations: Is the Magic Gone?

360Buy — A $10 Bln Company? 京东商城价值100亿美元？

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A couple of weeks after reporting my amazement at a $1.5 billion foreign investment in e-commerce site 360Buy (previous post), one of the investors is finally speaking out to defend the move. A top exec at Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian firm whose investments include a major stake in Facebook, is saying in a local interview he thinks 360Buy may be worth about $10 billion, which should give everyone an idea of how much the group got for its $1.5 billion investment. (Chinese article) In fairness, 360Buy, which hasn’t given any financials, has a solid reputation in China and is certainly an e-commerce leader. But let’s take a look at the competition: Sure, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Tencent (HKEx: 700) have become darlings of investors, who have given them sky-high valuations and meteoric market caps in the $30-$40 billion range. But after those, most top Chinese Internet firms, including leaders like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA), NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) and Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA), have been stuck in the $6-$8 billion range for quite a while. So, is 360Buy really worth $10 billion? We’ll have to see some financials before we can give a better answer, but I predict the numbers will ultimately disappoint and investors will be reluctant to reward the company with valuations like those for Baidu and Tencent.

Bottom line: DST made a smart investment in Facebook, but its 360Buy investment is overly optimistic and will yield much lower returns.

本 月早些时候，我对京东商城获得海外15亿美元融资感到诧异，如今主要投资方之一终於站出来谈论此项投资的合理性。俄罗斯投资公司DST高管称，他认为京东 商城价值约100亿美元。京东商城未曾公布过财务数据，不过公平地说，在中国大陆口碑还不错，堪称电子商务巨头。但我们不妨看看其它竞争者的情况：百 度<BIDU.O>和腾讯<0700.HK>成了投资者的宠儿，市值达到三四百亿美元。但除此之外，中国多数顶尖互联网企业，包 括新浪<SINA.O>，网易<NTES.O>和盛大网络<SNDA.O>，市值均徘徊於60-80亿美元。因此， 京东商城真的价值100亿美元吗？我们恐怕先得看看财务数据，才能更好地判断。但据我推测，其财务数据最终将令人失望，投资者对其估值将远远无法媲美百度 和腾讯。

一句话：DST当初投资Facebook是明智的，但这次投资京东商城恐怕是太过乐观了，得到的回报会低得多。

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ 360Buy — Are They Really Worth That Much? 京东商城——真值那么多钱？

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