The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Ant Financial Set Up With Alibaba Assets Alipay, Yu’ebao And Others (Chinese article)
Spring Airlines To Become First Public Low-Cost Carrier With IPO By Year End (Chinese article)
Internet Giants’ Brawl Ends With Qihoo (NYSE:QIHU) Final Loss To Tencent (English article)
McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) Hits Snag In China Expansion With Franchisee Dispute (Chinese article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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VNOs Enter Silent Period, Sign-Ups Total Just 300,000 After 3 Months (Chinese article)
SAIC Seeks Written Explanation In Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Probe Within 20 Days (Chinese article)
Huawei, Alipay Introduce First Domestic Fingerprint Payment Standard (Chinese article)
Phoenix Publishing & Media (Shanghai: 601928) To Acquire 10 Pct Of PPTV (English article)
China’s Li Ning (HKEx: 2331) Stumbles From Gold Medal Spot To No Man’s Land (English article)
The following is Part 6 in a multi-part series about the rise of WeChat, the popular mobile instant messaging service owned by Tencent.
By Lanie Nie
WeChat builds up payment capabilities
WeChat has played a key role in Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) recent efforts to build a “federal republic” on the mobile Internet. That interpretation comes from Cheng Lingfeng, a China tech reporter and former Tencent employee, describing Tencent’s strategy of selling stakes to close partners who promote WeChat Payment, a new service that allows users to link their bank cards to their WeChat accounts to facilitate online transaction payments. Such linkage gives WeChat users easy access to selected paid add-on services like shopping, mobile top up and taxi booking. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Xiaomi Says Smartphone Shipments Almost Quadruple In First Half (English article)
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Appoints New China President (English article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Expects IBM, Mobility Deals To Be Completed By Year End (English article)
The growing feud between banks and China’s biggest Internet firms has taken a major new turn, with word that leading lender ICBC (HKEx: 1398) may be preparing to formally sever ties with Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments platform. The move would be clearly aimed at Alibaba’s wildly popular Yu’ebao service, which lets users put excess funds from their Alipay accounts into a product that functions much like a traditional bank savings account but offers much higher interest rates. Of course the next big question is whether other big banks will follow ICBC’s lead, and I suspect the answer is that many will indeed do so. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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ICBC (HKEx: 1398) Cuts Off Alipay, To Phase Out 3rd Party Payment Platforms (Chinese article)
P2P Lending Platform China Risk Finance Weighs US Listing – Source (Chinese article)
Agricultural Bank Of China (HKEx: 1288) Announces Annual 2013 Results (HKEx announcement)
Wanda To Add 780 RealD (NYSE: RLD) 3D Cinema Systems Across China (Businesswire)
Camelot (NYSE: CIS) Announces Shareholder Approval of Merger Agreement (PRNewswire)
Alibaba’s colorful and sometimes controversial founder Jack Ma has been called many things in the past, but even he must be surprised and somewhat alarmed at the latest monicker of “vampire” given to him by an influential commentator at CCTV, China’s leading broadcaster. I don’t usually take sides in this kind of politically sensitive debate, though in this case I really do think that CCTV’s claim is largely unjustified. I suspect the attack, which Alibaba is correctly taking quite seriously, was prompted at least partly at the urging of big state-run lenders that are unhappy about the meteoric rise of Alibaba’s Yu’ebao service, which competes with traditional savings accounts. Read Full Post…
Things have certainly changed over the last 3 years in Lunar New Year messaging, as reflected by the flood of tech executives using their microblogs to weigh in on Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) launch of a red envelope gift function for its popular WeChat platform over the holiday period. Most of the comments were admiring and even in a slight state of awe at the big success of WeChat’s hongbao product, which lets users send gift money to their friends and relatives over the popular instant messaging platform. But at least one post from Alibaba smelled of sour grapes, and a Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) executive also took a backhanded swipe at the rival to his company’s own Weibo microblogging service. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Hershey (NYSE: HSY) To Buy Majority Of Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Co (Businesswire)
AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA) Stockholders Approve of Merger Agreement (PRNewswire)
Alibaba, Wanda Group Team Up On Movie Ticket Payments On Alipay (Chinese article)
Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) Invests in Online Car Rental Firm Yongche (English article)
Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Starts Offering Cars In China With No Chinese Name (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alipay Restructures, Nearly 20,000 Employees Become Stakeholders (Chinese article)
Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) Announces Selective Preliminary Q3 Results (PRNewswire)
People’s Daily’s Jike Search Engine In Process Of Disappearing (Chinese article)
Mindray (NYSE: MR) Announces Up To $200 Mln Share Repurchase Program (PRNewswire)
AFM: China’s Top Industry Players to Descend on Hollywood (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 31-September 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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