Baidu latest financial News

INTERNET: JD on the Rise, as Baidu and Weibo Stumble

By newsdoug on June 26, 2017

Bottom line: JD.com is likely to pass Baidu this week and become China’s third most valuable internet company, while Weibo’s stock is likely to enter a period of correction while it awaits an official live broadcasting license.

The era of the Internet triumvirate of Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), often called the BAT, is on the cusp of ending, as up-and-comer JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) looks set to pass Baidu in terms of market value. Meantime, I suspect the end of another era is coming for the soaring Weibo (Nasdaq: WB), which had some of the wind knocked out of its sails following some strict words from China’s heavy-handed regulator.

We’ll focus mostly on the Baidu/JD transition here, as that really does seem to mark a changing of the guard in China’s dynamic Internet sector. That move has seen Baidu experience a longer-term stagnation, as its core search business comes under assault from a few other newer players and it fails to find new revenue sources to offset the loss. On the other hand, JD.com seems unable to do any wrong these days, and is starting to resemble US titan Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) in the sense that people don’t really care whether it makes money. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Alibaba Pumps Up Ele.me, Baidu Take-Out in Play?

By newsdoug on May 30, 2017

Bottom line: Alibaba could take control of Ele.me after the latter’s latest fund-raising, and then make a bid for Baidu’s take-out dining service, leaving just two major players in the sector as it nears a more sustainable state.

The take-out dining wars have taken another interesting twist, with word that one of the oldest players, Ele.me, is on the cusp of raising a fresh $1 billion in new funds. What’s interesting about this latest fund raising is that it’s being led by Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which is also trying to carve out a niche in the market through its own Koubei take-out delivery service. But even more intriguing is the possibility that this new funding could be aimed at giving Ele.me the firepower it needs to buy out Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) take-out delivery service, which is reportedly being shopped by the country’s leading search engine.

There are many threads to this story, but the bottom line is an end game is slowly coming into sight for China’s take-out delivery business, following the typical boom period we often see for this kind of emerging sector. The current field of take-out dining services is dominated by three names, Alibaba-backed Ele.me, Tencent-backed (HKEx: 700) Meituan-Dianping and Baidu take-out. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Alibaba Works on China’s Railroad

By newsdoug on May 18, 2017

Bottom line: Alibaba’s potential new partnership with China’s rail operator could become a major new business opportunity, and could see the pair sign a strategic equity tie-up within the next year.

Up until now, I’ve written about China’s mixed-ownership reform program mostly in the context of China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the nation’s second largest wireless carrier, which is in the final stages of drafting a plan to sell some of itself to one or more private companies as part of a strategic alliance. But now the latest headlines on the program are coming from a decidedly low-tech source, with word that China’s railway operator has invited Internet giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) to participate in its own mixed-ownership reform plan.

This particular development is interesting because it marks the second time that Alibaba’s name has come up in the context of the mixed-ownership reform plan. The e-commerce giant has also come up in reports as a potential partner for Unicom, as have China’s other two Internet giants, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Tencent (HKEx: 700). Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Baidu Sells Game Unit in Relentless March to AI

By newsdoug on May 9, 2017

Bottom line: Baidu’s sale of its mobile game unit represents a broader shedding of non-search assets as it moves into artificial intelligence, though it’s far from clear how AI will provide a future business model.

Search giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is in yet another headline today that reflects its latest attempt at transformation from its original search business to an artificial intelligence (AI) specialist. This time the development is relatively incremental, with word that Baidu has formally sold off its inconsequential mobile games division for an equally inconsequential sum of 1.2 billion yuan ($174 million).

This particular news comes just days after Baidu founder Robin Li issued a letter to all employees talking about the first official change to his company’s mission statement in its 17 year history. (English article) That move seemed a bit overly dramatic to me, and resembled Li’s similar talk about putting all his energy into mobile search a few years ago. It all seems to be part of Li’s broader personality, that leaves him itching to do something new every 2 or 3 years. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Meituan, JD Take Anti-Corruption Fight to Trenches

By newsdoug on May 4, 2017

Bottom line: New anti-corruption moves at JD.com and Meituan-Dianping show the cleanup campaign is moving down to the grass-roots level, in a positive development that should help the companies as many seek to go abroad.

Meituan, JD.com in new anti-corruption snares

Anyone unfamiliar with China might find it peculiar and even worrisome that near simultaneous announcements appear to show problematic internal corruption at two of the nation’s top Internet companies, e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) and leading group buying site Meituan-Dianping. While the timing does seem somewhat coincidental, this kind of thing is becoming quite common these days, as China’s companies fall in behind the central government’s nearly 4-year-old anti-corruption campaign.

From an observer’s perspective, I have to say this kind of campaign is sorely needed in China’s corporate sector, both for state-run and private companies. The kinds of internal corruption detailed in these latest reports are far too common in companies, where employees regularly use their position to do things like extort money from and cheat customers, and even rip off their own companies. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Tencent Moves Up Value Chain, Opens Seattle Lab

By newsdoug on May 3, 2017

Bottom line: Tencent’s soaring market value reflects its leading position as a developer of social networking products, and its concurrent ability to monetize those products.

It seems that Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700) can do no wrong these days, at least based on a recent run-up in its share price. Just a couple of weeks after China’s Internet wunderkind passed US banking giant Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) to become the world’s 10th most valuable company, Tencent has just passed another milestone to become officially become worth more than $300 billion. (English article)

Of course all of this is just movement based on investor belief that the company’s prospects look rosy. In this case I would have to agree, though I might also argue the 10 percent rise in its share price over the last month may look a little too aggressive. At the same time, Tencent has also just announced its opening of an artificial intelligence (AI) lab in Seattle, joining Internet rival Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) in the race to see who can delve the fastest into an area that’s become a daily buzz word for Chinese media. Read Full Post…

TELECOMS: China Telecom Displays Aggression, Unicom Conservatism

By newsdoug on April 6, 2017

Bottom line: China Telecom’s aggressive bidding for a government contract highlights its more entrepreneurial style, while Unicom’s latest announcement on its private ownership plans reflects it conservative, bureaucratic style.

Unicom mixed ownership program crawls ahead

Two of China’s trio of wireless telcos are in the news today, reflecting an effort by Beijing to breathe some life into these laggard state-run behemoths that always seem unable to realize their potential. The first headline has China Telecom (HKex: 728; NYSE: CHA), the smallest of the nation’s 3 carriers, making an aggressive bid to essentially provide services for free to a government agency in northeast Liaoning province. The second has Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the second largest carrier, disclosing some more details on its plan to introduce some private capital to the company. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Baidu’s AI Obsession Spawns New Silicon Valley Center

By newsdoug on March 27, 2017

Bottom line: Baidu’s opening of a new artificial intelligence lab in Silicon Valley is the latest move in its AI obsession, which is likely to end in failure and a quiet pullback in around two years due to mediocre execution.

I’m officially dubbing Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) chief executive Robin Li the “two-year attention span man”, with word that the company is setting up a new Silicon Valley office in the rush to build up its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. If any one of China’s “big three” Internet chiefs deserves the title of “short attention span” man, it’s most definitely Robin Li. As far as I can remember, Li has been a “flavor of the moment” guy who fixates on the latest daily hot trend, most often to jettison the idea around 2 years later when it falls out of fashion. Read Full Post…

GAMES: NetEase Eyes Real Journey to the West

By newsdoug on March 2, 2017

Bottom line: NetEase’s new global expansion could stand a good chance of success due to its strong record with self-developed titles, which could help it pass Baidu in market value over the next 1-2 years.

NetEase holds developer forum in San Francisco

The company that made its name from a series of games based on the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West is trying to turn that story into reality, as NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) eyes expansion outside its home market. The West contained in NetEase’s latest announcement is quite different from the West in the classic novel, the former referring to North America and Europe while the latter refers to India.

But other similarities between the novel and this new global expansion do abound in NetEase’s new announcement that it has just held its first-ever developer’s forum in the West. In both cases, the main character is traveling into unfamiliar terrain in pursuit of major rewards. And in both cases, each faces big challenges before attaining those goals. Read Full Post…

TRAVEL: Ctrip Revs up in Q4, Set to Soar?

By newsdoug on February 23, 2017

Bottom line: Ctrip’s profits could double or more this year following its successful digestion of Qunar, providing some upside to its stock.

As earnings season for US-listed Chinese stocks hits full throttle, I thought I’d take a look at the latest results from Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP), which are sending mixed but generally positive signals. That’s because Ctrip is in the process of digesting former archrival Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR), which was the industry’s second largest player but is also losing quite a bit of money.

Ctrip pulled off the coup of the century a couple of years ago when it forged a deal that gave it a controlling stake of Qunar, acquiring the shares from former majority shareholder Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). I personally thought that deal should have received some regulatory scrutiny since it combined the top two players in the space. But the regulator apparently thought otherwise, or simply approved the deal if it was even asked. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Baidu’s iQiyi Raises $1.5 Bln, as Investors Hedge Bets

By newsdoug on February 22, 2017

Bottom line: iQiyi’s issue of convertible notes to raise its latest $1.5 billion shows it continues to post big losses, and investors are increasingly skeptical that it can become profitable in the next 2 years.

iQiyi lures investors with convertible notes

It seems no one is quite ready to believe that China’s cash-burning online video sites are ready for the profit column just yet. That seems to be the message coming from Baidu-backed (Nasdaq: BIDU) iQiyi, one of the leading players, which has just raised a fresh $1.5 billion via a convertible note issue. That would indicate that investors are hoping they can convert their notes into iQiyi stock when they come due, but can also simply collect back their money with interest instead. Read Full Post…