Tag Archives: Alipay

Tencent, Alibaba Rivalry Builds With New Moves

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51Buy launches package tracking service

A suddenly intensifying rivalry between Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent (HKEx: 700) is building steam, as the pair jockey for position in the fast-growing space for electronic payments and other financial services. It does seem appropriate that these 2 companies are setting the national tone in this race, as they are China’s 2 biggest Internet firms and have risen rapidly on the strength of their ability to innovate. I slightly favor Tencent in this new race due to its ability to roll out new services that complement its existing products at a relatively gradual pace. That contrasts with Alibaba’s most recent approach of launching a much wider range of services at a quicker pace, which runs the risk of overwhelming and confusing consumers.

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Alibaba Yu E Bao Set For Bumpy Road

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AliPay’s Yu E Bao sparks debate

I avoided writing about Alibaba’s controversial new Yu E Bao financial product last week, not so much because it wasn’t newsworthy but because I was personally tired of writing about China’s leading e-commerce company that has been in the headlines nonstop for much of the last month. But after all the hype has settled, I want to weigh in with my view on this new product because I think most writers have missed the main point about Yu E Bao and why it’s likely to run into big problems. Read Full Post…

eBay’s Paypal: China Payment License In Sight

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PayPal still waiting for China license

China’s regulators have never been known for moving fast on anything, and that case seems to apply even more when it comes to allowing foreign players into emerging markets like third-party payment services. More than 2 years after China began awarding licenses for its domestic companies to offer such, foreign companies are still waiting for equal rights in the lucrative domestic market. But now US e-commerce giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)  is saying it could soon become the first foreign licensee to enter the market, providing both a big opportunity but also a major challenge as it seeks to catch up to Chinese rivals with more than a 2-year head-start. Read Full Post…

Online: Jingdong, Baidu, Dangdang 京东进军电子支付 百度营收放缓

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A number of interesting tidbits are sifting through the online world today, including news from the e-commerce space that Jingdong Mall is entering the electronic payments space and that Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) has replaced its CFO. Meantime, online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has reported its latest results that show its growth continues to slow, with the rapid rate of the slowdown slightly alarming.

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News Digest: June 21, 2012 报摘： 2012年6月21日

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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◙ Alibaba’s Alipay to Make Separate IPO – Executive (Chinese article)

◙ China Telcos Announce May 2012 Subscriber Totals (English article)

◙ Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT) Doubling Footprint in China (Businesswire)

◙ FTuan, Gaopeng to Merge, Tencent (HKEx: 700) to Hold 50 Pct of New Company (Chinese article)

◙ Sinopec (HKEx: 386) Weighing Bid for Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) Assets: FT (English article)

Post Office Delivers Attractive IPO 中邮速递推进IPO 或将受热捧

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After months of seeing a steady stream of lackluster IPOs go to market, often with lukewarm or  disastrous receptions, I’m finally happy to report the year’s first truly exciting new offering coming from the courier unit of China’s post office, which could be followed later in the year by another exciting listing for UnionPay, operator of the nation’s dominant electronic money transferring network. Let’s look first at the upcoming offering for China Postal Express, the package delivery unit of China Post, which has filed for a Shanghai listing to raise up to $1.6 billion. (English article) Reports of this offering first came out late last year, which looks like a smart way for investors to buy into China’s booming e-commerce story. (previous post) Financial details in China Postal Express’ IPO prospectus are few, but the broader industry data show China’s e-commerce market is now worth around $100 billion annually, translating to more than 1 billion small packages that must be shipped each year to buyers scattered around the country. As China’s biggest delivery service with a network covering the entire country, China Post is in a great position to capture a big portion of this e-commerce delivery business, and I suspect its own courier business is now highly profitable. Key risks are the cutthroat competition in the space that has driven many smaller couriers into the red, as well as China Posts’ own history as a state-owned entity that means it may lack many of the entrepreneurial instincts needed to become China’s next equivalent of UPS (NYSE: UPS) or FedEx (NYSE: FDX). But despite those risks, this certainly looks like the most exciting IPO we’ve seen so far this year, and I would expect demand to be high. Meantime, media are reporting that UnionPay, operator of an electronic money transfer network similar to Visa’s (NYSE: V) Plus network, is gearing up for its own big drive into the e-commerce space, with plans to launch a rewards system aimed at getting more people to use its online payments service over rivals like Alibaba’s AliPay or eBay’s (Nasdaq: EBAY) Paypal. (Chinese article) News of this plan is just the latest high profile move by UnionPay, which has the enviable advantage of counting most of the nation’s major banks as its shareholders. In previous months, we’ve seen UnionPay announce a string of other strategic moves and information, including an aggressive campaign to expand its network overseas and the recent release of some operating numbers which show its profit has exploded in recent years. (previous post) What’s more, there’s every reason to believe that UnionPay’s big bank shareholders would like to cash out some of their investment in the near future as part of their bid to strengthen their capital bases weakened by several years of binge lending under China’s economic stimulus plan of 2009 and 2010. All those factors lead me to strongly suspect that UnionPay is moving towards its own IPO, most likely a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which could come sometime in the second half of the year. If and when that happens, look for the offering to spark even more excitement than this Post Office one, as it offers a solid window into China’s financial services industry without many of the traditional risks of investing in the country’s state-owned banks.

Bottom line: The upcoming IPO by the courier arm of China’s post office should get strong demand as a good e-commerce play, while UnionPay also looks to be moving closer to another exciting IPO.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Post Office: A Good E-Commerce Play 中国邮政分拆速递物流可谓电子商务”妙招

◙ UnionPay Stirs IPO Pot With Big Numbers 银联有望上市

◙ MoneyGram In Latest Financial Services Move 速汇金携手中行 提供汇款服务

Alibaba vs eBay: Chapter 2 Begins 阿里巴巴和eBay狭路又相逢

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After engaging in a bloody war in the online auctions space 7 years ago that ironically resulted in no winners, leading e-commerce firms Alibaba and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) may be gearing up for a second round in this entertaining conflict in the lucrative electronic payments area. That’s the way it looks following the latest disclosure that PayPal, eBay’s highly successful e-payments service, intends to enter China’s fast-growing domestic electronic payments market. (English article) In fact, PayPal already processes electronic payments between China and other countries, and indicated as early as last fall that it was seriously considering a bid to enter China’s domestic market that would allow it to process payments between Chinese buyers and sellers. That market is currently off limits to foreign-invested companies, but the country is now accepting applications and many it expect it to issue its first licenses to the group later this year, following the licensing of domestic players last year. A top PayPal executive has said he is cautiously optimistic his company will be one of the first foreign recipients of a new license. Anyone who follows the market knows that PayPal’s entry to the market would put it in direct competition with Alibaba’s AliPay, which has grown rapidly to become one of its most valuable assets and is now a leading player in the space. China Internet historians will recall that another Alibaba service, its Taobao online auctions marketplace, fought a fierce battle with eBay’s EachNet starting around 2005. That battle saw Taobao institute a strict no-fee policy that helped it rapidly steal share from EachNet, which at the time was the country’s dominant provider of online auction services, also known as consumer-to-consumer or C2C. EBay eventually conceded the battle, leaving the market to Alibaba which heavily trumpeted its victory in this battle. Ironically, Alibaba would go on to discover it had won the battle only to lose the war, as it could never find a way to earn very much money from its online auction business, which is now one of its smaller assets. After that battle, eBay and Alibaba actually had a brief friendly period where they joined forces, only to see eBay break off that relationship last year. (previous post) Unlike online auctions, which no longer generate much excitement among investors, e-payment services seem to be a safer long-term bet, as they can be used by anyone doing business on the Internet and generate steady revenue for providers in the form of transaction payments. AliPay clearly has an advantage in this market due to its longer operating history. But that said, PayPal has been active for years in the cross-border market between China and the rest of the world, and has the resources to wage a serious new war if it gets a license. Look for this newest battle to be quite colorful and interesting, with eBay quite possibly winning the second round of this ongoing rivalry with Alibaba.

Bottom line: A new war could shape up between Alibaba and eBay later this year in electronic payments, putting pressure on Alilbaba’s lucrative AliPay service.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Alibaba, eBay Lovefest Over as eBay Rethinks China 阿里巴巴和eBay的蜜月期结束

◙ E-Payments: Lots of Noise But Little Space

◙ Alibaba in Alipay Deal: Jack Ma Wins Again 支付宝股权纷争尘埃落定 马云公关赚钱两不误

Alibaba Tests Waters for Group Listing 阿里巴巴试水集团整体上市

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Even as it continues the slow and tortured process of a massive buyback of shares from its biggest stakeholder, leading Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba continues to test the waters for a potential mega-listing of itself, this time by releasing data on group-wide profits that highlight its fast-growth story. Chinese media are quoting a document recently filed with the US securities regulator saying Alibaba Group, 40 percent owned by struggling global search firm Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), posted a profit of $339 million in the 12 months through October 2011, marking an impressive seven-fold increase from the previous 12-month period (Chinese article) The data show that the huge profit jump was clearly the result of Alibaba’s achieving economies of scale, since revenue grew by a much slower but still impressive 80 percent to $2.3 billion. Clearly the big jump in profits didn’t come from its Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) B2B marketplace, one of the group’s oldest assets and its only publicly traded one which has seen growth slow sharply in the last year as its business matures and it deals with a fraud scandal. Alibaba is in the process of privatizing Alibaba.com in its effort to downplay that slower growing part of its business and draw more attention to its higher growth units like its Tianmao online mall, formerly known as Taobao Mall, and its AliPay e-payments unit, both of which were probably major contributors to the big jump in profits. Of course people who follow this story will know that Alibaba is trying to buy out the 40 percent stake in the company held by Yahoo, in talks that have dragged on for months now. I’m quite certain that Alibaba is trying to buy back the stake for a price that will give it the highest valuation possible, as it probably plans to turn around and re-sell some or all of that stake at a premium to other investors. The latest disclosure of the group’s fast profit growth, combined with comments from an executive a few weeks ago (previous post), make it look increasingly like Alibaba is seriously considering a listing for the entire group company once it cuts its ties with Yahoo. I’ve previously said such an offering looks like a smart move, as Alibaba is a relatively rare case where its parts are probably worth more together as a package than as individual pieces, as they are all focused on the core e-commerce business and have many synergies. The company is reportedly trying to strike a Yahoo deal that would value it at $32 billion or more, and with these kinds of financials and general market hype created by founder Jack Ma it’s looking like he might actually get that valuation or even higher. He and his team have always hinted they think they should be valued in the same neighborhood as Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s 2 most valuable Internet companies, now both worth about $48 billion. A group listing would certainly come close to helping him reach that target.

Bottom line: The release of group-level data on Alibaba’s rapid growth is the latest indication the company is weighing a potential listing of the entire group either this year or next.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Alibaba.com Privatization: Parent IPO Coming? 阿里巴巴网私有化：母公司或将上市？

◙ Alibaba Looks for Value With Delisting Plan 阿里巴巴计划退市以寻求价值

◙ Alibaba: Let’s Get This Show Finished 阿里巴巴和雅虎赶紧“离婚”吧

Alibaba’s Etao Faces New Merchant Revolt

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E-commerce leader Alibaba Group looks set to soon get its long-awaited wish for separation from major stakeholder Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), but it won’t have much time to celebrate as new fires seem to be popping up everywhere for nearly all of its major businesses. The latest crisis for the increasingly embattled company has cropped up at its Etao search site, which Alibaba is trying to build up as a specialist in e-commerce searches that can eventually rival online search titan Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Chinese media are reporting that Etao has confirmed that it is no longer indexing search information from sites for a number of major online retailers, including general merchandiser Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and electronics giant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) (Chinese article). The confirmation comes just a week after another leading e-commerce site, 360Buy, hinted it may block its pages from Etao searches (previous post), and indeed 360Buy was among the new list of confirmed companies whose pages will no longer be indexed by Etao. With all these major online retailers blocking their material from Etao searches, and the list likely to grow, Alibaba must certainly be worried about the future viability of Etao as a true e-commerce search engine. This latest crisis follows an uprising earlier this month by independent merchants on Alibaba’s B2C platform, Taobao Mall, after the site sharply hiked its fees. That same group of merchants, which has been wreaking havoc on the Taobao Mall site, later moved its rabble-rousing campaign to Alibaba’s electronic payments site, Alipay, as well. (previous post) While all of these crises rage, Alibaba got a rare piece of good news as domestic media reported that Yahoo is looking to sell its 40 percent stake in Alibaba, as the US web giant tries to dispell broader talk that the entire company itself is for sale. Alibaba has long clamored for Yahoo to sell the stake amid friction between the two companies, so clearly it should be happy about this news. But with all the crises now happening in its own businesses, Alibaba won’t have much time to celebrate and indeed might wish it had an ally to help it in this time of trouble.

Bottom line: Alibaba may soon get its official independence from major stakeholder Yahoo, but it won’t have time to celebrate as it faces an escalating crisis at its Etao search site.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Albaba Faces New Assaults From Merchants, 360Buy 阿里巴巴受到中小商户和京东商城的双重夹攻

◙ Taobao Mall’s IPO March Collides With Merchant Uprising 淘宝商城IPO或因商户“起义”被推迟

◙ Alibaba Sharpens Focus in Yahoo Buy-Out, Taobao Mall 阿里巴巴回购雅虎所持股权有望

Albaba Faces New Assaults From Merchants, 360Buy 阿里巴巴受到中小商户和京东商城的双重夹攻

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Embattled Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba is looking more and more like a fortress under attack these days, facing assaults on two fronts in the latest chapter of its ongoing spats with the rest of the online world. The first and more serious of those spats has seen smaller online merchants, upset over huge fee hikes at Taobao Mall, Alibaba’s main B2C site, launch an assault on Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments site, according to domestic media reports. (English article; Chinese article) The reports are quite colorful, with enraged small- and medium-sized merchants, who have complained the fee hikes are designed to weed them out, withdrawing massive amounts of money from Alipay one day late last week, and then blocking access to the service completely. This mass movement comes after the same group of merchants wreaked havoc on Taobao Mall itself a couple of weeks ago by making mass bogus purchases from large merchants on the site, only to cancel their transactions hours later. (previous post) Beijing has reportedly stepped in to try to mediate the dispute and Alibaba itself has made some conciliatory gestures, but obviously the merchants aren’t happy with progress so far and the damage to Taobao Mall looks set to drag on for at least a couple of months, if not longer. In the second development, media are reporting that 360Buy, one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, is hinting it may soon block its pages from searches on Etao, Alibaba’s site that specializes in e-commerce related searches. (Chinese article) Such a break would be a major blow to Etao, and would follow 360Buy’s cut off of ties with Alipay back in August, reflecting a broader feud. (previous post) Many in the online world already blame Alibaba founder Jack Ma for the negative overseas sentiment towards China Internet stocks due to his high profile dispute with Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) earlier this year over ownership of Alipay. These latest disputes will hardly help his company’s damaged reputation, and could mark the latest chapter in a longer decline for the company.

Bottom line: Alibaba’s latest disputes with smaller merchants on its Taobao platform and e-commerce giant 360Buy mark the latest chapter in what could become a long-term decline for the firm.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Taobao Mall’s IPO March Collides With Merchant Uprising 淘宝商城IPO或因商户“起义”被推迟

◙ Alibaba Sharpens Focus in Yahoo Buy-Out, Taobao Mall 阿里巴巴回购雅虎所持股权有望

◙ Alibaba.com Blows Smoke With HiChina Spin-Off Plan 阿里巴巴网络分拆万网放烟幕弹

360Buy $5 Bln IPO Plan Looks Like Desperation 京东商城50亿美元上市计划凸显绝望

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I have just one word to describe the news that leading Chinese online merchant 360Buy will try to raise up to $5 billion in the largest-ever Internet IPO for a Chinese company in the US: desperation. (English article; Chinese article) But I have to at least give this company credit for trying to get to market before a looming Chinese Internet bubble bursts, which could rapidly wipe out billions of dollars that investors have pumped into 360Buy, which officially calls itself Jingdong Mall. This is the company that surprised the world in April when it raised a whopping $1.5 billion — a record for a Chinese Internet company — from an investor group that included Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, better known for its investment in Facebook. (previous post) Digital Sky’s chief later tried to justify the size of the investment, estimating that 360Buy could have a market cap of $10 billion — more than double that of most to Chinese Internet firms and trailing only top players Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) (previous post) Never mind the fact that 360Buy was losing money, which will become quite clear to everyone when if and when it files its IPO prospectus. Lots has happened since that landmark investment five months agol. Most notably, competition in the e-commerce space has heated up considerably with the influx of billions of dollars in new investment. Money-losing online promotions offering goods at ridiculously low prices appear almost daily, and early signs of distress have begun to appear with big names like group buying site Gaopeng and clothing retailer Vancl laying off staff (previous post). 360Buy showed its own signs of distress last month when it abruptly severed relations with e-payments provider AliPay in a move to cut costs. (previous post) I suspect Digital Sky and the other investors from that $1.5 billion funding round are starting to panic, and are now in a race against time to get back some of their investment before China’s bursting Internet bubble is impossible to ignore. If I were a gambler, I would say this offering will raise $1 billion at the most, and quite probably less, if it even makes it to market. The way things are rapidly developing, the company will be lucky to get a valuation of $5 billion.

Bottom line: 360Buy’s sudden rush to raise up to $5 billion in a US IPO is a sign of desperation, as investors look for quick returns before China’s Internet bubble bursts.

看到京东商城要去美国上市筹资50亿美元的消息，我只想用一个词来描述我的看法：绝望。京东商城是中国最大的购物网站，这个上市计划一旦成功将创下中国互联网公司赴美上市筹资额的历史之最。不过，对京东在中国互联网行业泡沫行将破裂前，尝试借助资本市场的努力，我还是至少要给予褒奖。中国互联网泡沫的破裂可能导致投资者对京东商城倾情投入的数十亿美元迅速灰飞烟灭。今年4月，京东商城从包括俄罗斯风投公司数字天空技术（Digital Sky Technologies）的投资者财团成功筹集到15亿美元资金，创下中国互联网公司对外定向筹资的纪录。这让外界倍感意外。数字天空技术更出名的行动当属投资Facebook，该公司後来试图为其投资规模找出理由，称京东商城的估值可能高达100亿美元，较大多数其他中国互联网公司的市值高出一倍有余，仅次于百度和腾讯等龙头企业。不要介意京东商城正在亏损，这一事实在这家公司发布上市招股书的时候将大白天下。在五个月前获得标志性巨额投资之後发生了很多事情。最值得关注的是，随着数十亿美元投资的流入，电子商务行业竞争显着升级。几乎每天都能看到提供荒唐低价商品的赔钱促销活动，随着团购网站高朋和服装零售网站凡客的裁员，电子商务行业已经初露危机迹象。上月，京东商城以降低成本的名义突然弃用支付宝，正是前者面临危机的迹象。我猜测，稍早提供15亿美元融资的数字天空技术公司等投资者已经感到痛楚，在不敢无视中国互联网泡沫行将破裂的情况下，正争分夺秒争取上市，以抢先回收部分投资。如果我是一名赌家，我会押注京东商城若决定上市，最多筹得10亿美元，并很可能更少。世事变幻莫测，京东商城若能筹得50亿美元，则需要运气。

一句话：京东商城突然宣布计划赴美上市筹资50亿美元，释放出绝望的信号，机构投资者期待抢在中国互联网泡沫破裂前赶快回收投资。

Related postings 相关文章:

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

◙ 360Buy Cuts Off Alipay As China Internet Froth Builds 京东停用支付宝印证中国互联网泡沫

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