Tag Archives: Baidu

Baidu Company News Baidu 百度, Inc. incorporated on January 2000, is classifed as web services company established by Robin Li and Eric Xu.
Overview of the Chinese high Tech Market by former Chief Editor of Reuters (Doug Young).
Baidu offers many services, including a search engine for websites, audio files and images.

Baidu in Figures
– Ranked 4th overall in the Alexa rankings
– In 2015, Baidu had over 1 billion visits / month
– Baidu offers 57 community services (Chinese encyclopedia, questions/Answers , forums … )

Slowing Ad Revenue Weighs on Phoenix 凤凰新媒体看淡广告收入前景

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The latest sign of an advertising slowdown on the Internet is coming from the high-flying Phoenix New Media (NYSE: FENG), whose investors did some profit-taking in Tuesday trade before the company announced impressive fourth-quarter results that saw its ad revenue double even as it predicted the rate of increase would slow quite a bit in the first quarter. (company announcement) Shares of Phoenix tumbled nearly 6 percent in Tuesday trade, though they bounced back slightly after-hours after the results came out. The company, the new media arm of Phoenix Satellite Television (HKEx: 2008), said its fourth-quarter advertising revenue jumped by just over 100 percent to $24 million, helping to drive a 200 percent increase in its net profit. But clearly the more worrisome element was Phoenix’s outlook for the current quarter, in which it forecast that ad revenue growth will slow to about 70 percent — meaning the rate of increase will slow by about a third. As a result, the company expects its growth rate for total revenues to fall by even more, about 50 percent, to about 35 percent in the current quarter. In fact, I’ve been predicting this slowdown for a while as China’s Internet companies, once flush with investor cash, start to burn through their money piles and either go out of business or cut back sharply on their ad spending. Earlier this week, popular online men’s fashion retailer Masa Maso said it was planning to slash its 2012 advertising budget by 50 percent, as it focused more on getting repeat business from existing customers rather than the costlier proposition of finding new ones through aggressive advertising. (previous post) The slowdown is likely to hit most companies that rely heavily on advertising for their revenue, from search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) down the food chain to leading portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and online video and social networking sites like Youku (NYSE: YOKU) and Renren (NYSE: RENN). Baidu previously forecast that growth for its revenue — nearly all of which comes from advertising services — would slow in the current quarter to 75 percent from 82 percent in last year’s fourth quarter. Premier names like Baidu are likely to see the smallest effect from the slowdown, although even Baidu could see its revenue growth rate slip below 50 percent by year end. Meantime, look for much bigger slowdowns at less attractive ad platforms like Youku and Renren, with names like Sina and Phoenix likely to be somewhere in the middle when the nascent downturn starts to accelerate.

Bottom line: Outlook from Phoenix New Media is the latest indicator of a looming ad slowdown, which will sharply curb growth at firms dependent on ad revenue.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Fashion E-tailer Cuts Point to Ad Slowdown 玛萨玛索削减广告投入

◙ Baidu’s Strong Growth Underwhelms 百度业绩持续强劲增长将投资者期望抬升过高

◙ Sohu Fails to Inspire With Latest Results 搜狐最新财报缺乏利好激励

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

Fashion E-tailer Cuts Point to Ad Slowdown 玛萨玛索削减广告投入

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There’s an interesting report in the domestic media saying popular online men’s fashion retailer Masa Maso is planning to slash its advertising budget by half this year, a move that will probably be repeated throughout the industry as many e-commerce firms, most of them losing money, go into cash conservation mode in their struggle to survive. Of course that also bodes poorly for companies that depend heavily on such ad spending for their revenue, from search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which gets nearly all its revenue from advertisers, to web portals like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) and video and social networking sites likes Youku (NYSE: Youku) and Renren (NYSE: RENN). Let’s look at the report itself, as it does contain some details that show how the situation could play out. It cites a Masa Maso executive saying the company began slashing its ad spending in the second half of last year as part of a strategy to focus more on customer retention, in what looks like a roundabout way of saying it finally realized it had to cut costs and become profitable or risk going bankrupt. (English article) Most significantly, the executive says Masa Maso will focus its limited spending on search advertising, reflecting a broader trend that will see e-commerce firms and other advertisers probably cut back on ad platforms with more marginal returns in favor of ones with better track records. That should play to the advantage of search, which obviously means that Baidu could suffer less than others when the looming spending downturn becomes a major tide. Meantime, I would expect portal operators like Sina to also do relatively well in the coming downturn, as they tend to attract more mainstream audiences that would appeal more to advertisers. Companies most likely to take the biggest hit are specialty players, especially ones that cater to younger demographics who have less money to spend and thus are  less attractive to advertisers. That category includes many money-losing companies such as video sharing sites like Youku and social networking ones like Renren, which means that these companies might have to wait longer still to achieve their quest for sustainable profits. I expect this report from Masa Maso reflects a sharp slashing of ad budgets for 2012 in general, meaning we should start to see some of the damage show up when companies that depend on ads for their revenue start reporting their first-quarter results in April and May. When that happens, look for investor dollars to flow to the big names like Baidu and Sina, while shares of less popular advertising platforms like Youku and Renren could take a hit.

Bottom line: A slash in advertising by a major fashion retailer reflects broader cuts by e-commerce firms this year, which will soon show up in ad-dependent firms’ bottom lines.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Baidu’s Strong Growth Underwhelms 百度业绩持续强劲增长将投资者期望抬升过高

◙ Sohu Fails to Inspire With Latest Results 搜狐最新财报缺乏利好激励

◙ Sina Results: Not So Diversified After All 新浪仍依赖广告,突围遇阻

Sina Gets Serious on Weibo 新浪开始严肃对待微博

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After months of frustration for investors, Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) has finally laid out a detailed plan for how it will earn money from Weibo, with company executives forecasting the highly popular but unprofitable microblogging service will produce “meaningful” money by the second half of this year. Investors clearly liked what they heard, bidding up Sina’s shares by 12 percent in New York trading the day after CEO Charles Chao made his comments on a conference call to discuss Sina’s otherwise unimpressive fourth-quarter results. (English article; results announcement) I’ve had a glance at the plan, and it looks like a mixed bag of some things that are likely to work and some that probably won’t. In the first category, the most promising part is Sina’s plan to sign up enterprise customers and launch an ad display system on Weibo, which now boasts more than 250 million users. (English article) These 2 approaches look smart because they both target business customers, who are probably quite happy to pay big bucks for a chance to reach Weibo’s millions of users. Less interesting are Sina’s plans to roll out a growing number of paid services for Weibo users, including paid gaming services. In one of its few previously announced Weibo monetization initiatives, Sina said in January it would offer a premium version of Weibo for users who wanted to pay for extras like getting SMS mobile phone notifications when they received new posts to their accounts. (previous post) That announcement was greeted with mostly yawns, as everyone, myself included, knows it’s very difficult to get people to start paying for services that they’ve previous gotten for free — especially the big majority of Weibo users who are under 30 and don’t necessarily have lots of cash to spend. Of course, execution will be key in all of this, as it’s easy to say you’re going to target enterprise customers but not necessarily as easy to create products that those customers will want. Facebook has been quite successful at making this transition, though the road has been less smooth for Twitter, the global microblogging giant. In China the story is the same, with Baidu (Nasaq: BIDU) a clear leader at monetizing the huge traffic that flows through its search engine while local Facebook equivalent Renren (NYSE: RENN) has had more difficulty. Given Sina’s long history and relatively strong record at executing this kind of strategy, I would say its chances of making some significant money from Weibo by the end of this year are good. If that happens, I would look for an IPO of this high-profile unit as soon as mid-2013.

Bottom line: Sina’s plans to target corporate customers to monetize its Weibo service looks like a smart move, though plans to get money from ordinary users look more problematic.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Sina Tests Weibo Demand With Paid Offering 新浪试水微博增值收费服务

◙ Twitter Eyeing China? Twitter想进中国？

◙ Sina’s Weibo Suffers New Setback With Lawsuit 吉林市驻京办可能起诉新浪微博

Confidence Crisis Easing For US China Stocks 中国概念股信任危机缓和

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While it’s never too smart to call a major market turnaround, growing signs are emerging that last year’s confidence crisis for US-listed China stocks may have finally turned a corner, with a strong rebound on the horizon if the broader market remains healthy. The first 2 months of the year have seen several positive developments for Chinese stocks in New York, following a disastrous 2011 that most would rather forget as their shares were pummeled by a series of accounting scandals that undermined the entire sector. Sensing that the worst of the crisis is over, 3 Chinese companies have filed for new US listings in the last few weeks, betting that investors will once again be interested in the China growth story. At the same time, short sellers and lawyers who seized on the crisis to make quick bucks have found far less success in some of their most recent attacks, indicating investors are once again giving Chinese companies the benefit of the doubt now that many more questionable firms have been de-listed. The nascent return of confidence is most evident in the share prices for many US-listed Chinese firms, some of which fell by 50 percent or more last year at the height of the crisis that began with attacks on 2 names, financial services company Longtop Financial and timber firm Sino-Forest. Both companies saw their shares tumble after short sellers questioned different aspects of their accounting, and Longtop was ultimately de-listed. Since bottoming out in mid December, shares of many industry stalwarts that were dragged down in the crisis have posted a strong recovery, with Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and top web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) both up about 20 percent since mid-December. Even smaller names have joined in the rally, with social networking site Renren (NYSE: RENN) and online video site Youku (NYSE: YOKU) both up by 30 or more. Equally significant has been the failure of a number of short seller attacks, which netted big bucks for companies last year. Muddy Waters, whose name became synonymous with the attacks after its successful assault on Sino-Forest last year, has found much less success with a more recent attack on Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN). Focus shares initially fell sharply after Muddy Waters questioned some of its data late last year, but have rallied sharply since then and are now close to their pre-attack levels. A similar attack late last year on security software firm Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) has also failed to convince investors, with the company’s stock now trading near pre-attack levels after initially falling more than 10 percent. At the same time, a series of recent investor lawsuits designed to seize on a drop in the share price of IT outsourcing firm Camelot Information Systems (NYSE: CIS) has also failed to dent the company’s stock price, again indicating investors may feel the worst is past and these Chinese companies are now more trustworthy. As the confidence creeps back, a small trickle of Chinese companies have decided to test their luck with the New York IPO market. Car rental firm China Auto was first out of the gate when it filed for an offering in January, ending several months with no major new Chinese listings. It was followed this month by e-commerce firm Vipshop and Shanda Cloudary, which initially filed for an IPO last year but had to pull the offering due to poor investor sentiment at the height of the crisis. The real test of whether the worst is really past will lie in the weeks ahead, as these 3 offerings go to market and meet with either investor interest or more skepticism. I personally think China Auto could do well, though the 2 Internet offerings could meet with more tepid interest as both are still losing money. Still, if these 3 can post even modest success, which looks like a strong possibility, it could signal the crisis has truly turned the corner, meaning a solid rally may be in store for these stocks for the rest of the year.

Bottom line: Growing signs are emerging that the confidence crisis for US-listed China stocks may be over, with 3 upcoming IPOs providing a strong test of a turning point for the battered sector.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Outlook Cloudy As Shanda Refiles for Literature IPO 盛大文学重启赴美IPO计划

◙ Citron Keeps Up Qihoo Assault 香橼继续攻击奇虎

◙ Sharks Continue to Circle China Stocks 在美上市中国企业将持续面临做空和法律诉讼压力

News Digest: February 24, 2012 报摘： 2012年2月24日

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Prevails in Shanghai Court, Blocks Proview Bid to Halt IPad Sales (English article)

◙ China’s Minsheng Bank (HKEx: 1988) Gets Approval For H-share Issue (English article)

◙ Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) Announces Q4 and Full Year Results (PRNewswire)

◙ Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) Announces Q4 and Full Year Results (PRNewswire)

◙ Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Opens Singapore R&D Center to Explore SE Asia Opportunities (Chinese article)

◙ Latest calendar for Q1 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)

Ctrip Results: Investing for the Future 携程未雨绸缪提高未来竞争力

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Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) has just released an earnings report that has left investors unsure of what to think of this travel bellwether, though I’m guardedly encouraged by signs that show it is preparing for a future of growing competition. Its latest results show that revenue grew 18 percent in the fourth quarter and is expected to maintain that rate in the current period, but that operating and net profit both fell by similar amounts — not exactly encouraging signs for an industry leader. (company announcement; Chinese article) The culprit behind the so-so results seems to be ballooning  expenses, which rose 46 percent in the fourth quarter due to a number of initiatives, including expansion of the company’s headquarters in Shanghai and procurement of new land in the interior city of Chengdu for expansion there as well. Ctrip also purchased the remaining 10 percent of Wing On Travel it didn’t already own, making it the full owner of the popular Hong Kong travel agency. Investors were a bit unsure what to think of the results, initially bidding up Ctrip shares slightly after the results came out, only to change their mind and ultimately bid the shares down by 1 percent. Clearly no one likes to see revenue growth stalling and profits falling, but I’ve always considered this company a strong innovator and leader in its core travel services space, and its latest jump in costs look to me like it’s making solid moves to build for the future. That could be important, as chief rival eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) saw its longtime stakeholder Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) become its controlling stakeholder late last year, indicating the leading US online travel services firm may be preparing an aggressive push into the China market. (previous post) What’s more, another up-and-coming player named Qunar got a major boost last year when it received a $300 million investment from leading online search firm Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). (previous post) Ctrip has always been a strong innovator, and its Shanghai and Chengdu expansions reflect its growing needs for workers and space as it adds interesting new products and services to its lineup. I also like the Wing On initiative, as that could position Ctrip for growth in the lucrative Hong Kong market and also provide a springboard into other foreign markets. On the whole, these latest results look relatively encouraging, though Ctrip will need to show that its increased spending can ultimately lead to stronger revenue gains and a return to bottom line growth.

Bottom line: Ctrip’s latest results show a company that is investing heavily for a future of stiffer competition, but it will soon need to show some returns on those new investments.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Expedia Boosts China Ties, Watch Out Ctrip Expedia增持艺龙股份携程要小心了

◙ China Lodging: Rebound Ahead 中国经济型酒店业绩回升在望

◙ Ctrip’s Latest Initiative: Insurance 携程新举动：保险

Baidu’s Strong Growth Underwhelms 百度业绩持续强劲增长将投资者期望抬升过高

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When is 80 percent growth nothing to get excited about? When you’re Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), China’s leading search engine, whose latest earnings report featuring 82.5 percent revenue growth and a 77 percent jump in profit is being greeted largely with yawns from investors who have come to expect this kind of turbo-charged growth from China’s Internet star. (earnings announcement) Baidu’s outlook for the first quarter was equally upbeat, with the company forecasting revenue growth of about 75 percent for the current reporting period. Shareholders bid up Baidu stock by 2.5 percent after the report came out, a modest gain reflecting the fact that the results and the guidance were mostly in line with expectation. I’ve looked over the report and there’s really not much of note in there. The company continues to be a one-note story, with nearly all of its revenue coming from its core online advertising services, which were up 82 percent for the quarter. Growth in revenue per customer seems to be slowing, up just 5 percent from the previous quarter, perhaps reflecting the fatigue that customers are starting to feel at having Baidu continually squeeze them for more money. Of course, when your investors start to expect 80 percent growth from you each quarter, the biggest danger is that they will punish you when you start to post lower numbers, which is almost inevitable. Leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) learned that lesson the hard way last year, when expectations for its incredibly popular Weibo microblogging site grew a bit too big, fueling a rapid rise in Sina’s shares, which then  tumbled almost as quickly after Weibo ran into some regulatory obstacles and also showed signs of inability to quickly make money. (previous post) I still think China’s online ad market is due for a rapid slowdown later this year when the country’s current Internet bubble starts to burst. On top of that, some rival search engines are starting to gain some traction against Baidu, including Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sogou and perhaps more importantly Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) Soso, which seems to be gaining more momentum lately. All things considered, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Baidu’s turbo-charged growth fade somewhat by the end of this year, falling to the 50 percent level or perhaps even lower. When that happens, look for investors to punish its stock much the way they did to Sina last year.

Bottom line: Baidu’s continued turbo-charged growth has set investor expectations unreasonably high, with a slowdown that will deal a hit to its stock likely by the end of the year.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Baidu Dreams of Brazil 百度试水巴西

◙ Sohu Fails to Inspire With Latest Results 搜狐最新财报缺乏利好激励

◙ Tencent Search: Baidu Beware? 腾讯搜搜成功关键依赖创新

News Digest: February 17, 2012 报摘： 2012年2月17日

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Announces Q4 and Fiscal Year 2011 Results (PRNewswire)

◙ Alibaba to Offer HK$13.5 Per Alibaba.com (HKEx: 1688) Share in Privatization, For 46 Premium (Chinese article)

◙ “Kung Fu Panda” Maker DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) May Set Up Studio in China (English article)

◙ Facebook Registers Several Dozen Trademarks in China to Avoid Future Disputes (Chinese article)

◙ Huawei President Ren Zhengfei: Getting Pushed Out By Employees Is a Good Thing (Chinese article)

◙ Latest calendar for Q1 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)

Baidu Dreams of Brazil 百度试水巴西

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After questioning most of Internet search leader Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) recent net initiatives as misguided, I’m happy to say it’s finally making a new and potentially promising move by exploring an expansion into Brazil. (Chinese article) Such a move looks particularly smart as it would leverage both Baidu’s experience in online search as well as its expertise in making products for developing markets specialist that often have many different characteristics from larger developed markets in the west. Media are reporting that Baidu is preparing to set up an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, with plans to enter the market by first launching an online encyclopedia similar to Wikipedia. While there are still no concrete plans for roll-out of a Brazilian search service, I would expect to see such a product probably within the next year as Baidu gets a better feel for the market. Followers of Baidu will know that the company took its first steps outside China several years ago with the launch of a search service in Japan. That initiative has been a failure to date, with the service only ranking around 800th in the Japanese market despite several years of operation. Largely as a result of the Japan debacle, Baidu’s overseas initiatives have lost around $100 million from 2008 to 2010. I’m still not sure why Baidu chose Japan for its first overseas step, as the market is already notoriously difficult for foreign companies and represents a highly developed and competitive Internet market where Baidu has little or no advantage, especially over homegrown players. By comparison, Brazil shares many characteristics with China, as both are BRICS countries that are have all seen rapid development over the last 5 years. While Baidu may not know much about Portuguese, Brazil’s native language, it certainly understands behavior patterns for advertising in this kind of a market based on its own success in China. It should be able to leverage that experience to boost its chances of success in the market, much the way that Chinese PC leader Lenovo (HKEx: 992) has found success in the last 2 years by re-focusing on its expertise in emerging markets. If Baidu can develop strong search algorithms for Portuguese, which should be possible with the right local talent, I would give this initiative a good chance of success, providing the company with a potential springboard to some of the other BRICS countries as it seeks to expand outside its home China market.

Bottom line: Baidu’s new move into Brazil looks like a smart move with good chances of success, leveraging on its expertise in both search and developing markets.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Baidu’s Silence: Shortfall Ahead? 百度低调发财报：或开始下坡路？

◙ Search Wars Heat Up With Latest Anti-Baidu Moves 中国网络搜索战升温

◙ New Lawsuit Has Potential to Bite Baidu 百度或因新侵权诉讼案“受伤

360Buy Losing Focus With Travel Plan 京东商城涉足在线旅行服务业 偏离核心业务

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China’s Internet companies are famous for straying from their core businesses in pursuit of new growth even though such initiatives seldom work, and now e-commerce specialist 360Buy looks set to joint the club with a new travel services initiative. (English article) Nearly ever major Chinese Internet firm has dabbled in areas outside its core competency, with names like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Alibaba all making such initiatives, nearly all of which have ended in abysmal failures. None of these companies seem to have noticed that the big western names like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) have succeeded largely by focusing on their core areas, and only expanding into new ones when they can leverage some of their existing expertise. So that makes the latest move by 360Buy, which also goes by the name Jingdong Mall, look perfectly consistent with what other Chinese companies have done. In this case, 360Buy says it will launch a hotel booking service, and that it has already signed up 20,000 hotels in China, Hong Kong and Macau as partners. A company spokesman said the move is part of the company’s drive to become a more diversified online services company, instead of just an e-commerce specialist. Never mind the fact that the online travel services sector is already quite competitive, dominated by Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Expedia-controlled eLong (Nasdaq: LONG), or that Baidu also recently entered the space with its investment in a company called Qunar. (previous post) We should also ignore the fact that 360Buy is currently locked in a series of price wars with rivals like Dangdang (NYSE DANG), and that rival Alibaba has learned its lesson and remains focused on e-commerce after its foray into online search ended in a complete disaster several years ago. In fact, I suspect this latest initiative is probably designed to generate market interest in 360Buy, which wants desperately to make a New York IPO to raise much needed cash. 360Buy launched its IPO process last fall, only to see the offering fall victim to abysmal market sentiment due to a series of accounting scandals at US-listed Chinese companies. This new travel services initiative looks like fantasy to me, and an initiative that’s 95 percent likely to fail. But those kinds of difficult odds never stopped a Chinese company from this kind of initiative before, and I would expect to see a few more strange initiatives coming out of 360Buy before it relaunches its IPO bid, probably sometime in the first half of this year.

Bottom line: 360Buy’s new initiative in the travel services space is almost guaranteed to fail, and could be more designed to generate hype in the run-up to a US IPO later this year.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ E-Commerce: 360Buy Awaits IPO Window, Amazon Expands 京东IPO融资心切 亚马逊物流扩张加剧竞争

◙ 360Buy Heats Up E-Books, People’s Daily Goes to Market 京东商城高调进军电子书,人民网开启上市进程

◙ Internet Investors Seek Refuge in Big Names 互联网投资者选择性支持中国市场领头羊