The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Cook Apologizes For After-Sales Service Lapses (Chinese article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
China Telcos Announce January 2013 Subscriber Totals (English article)
Jingdong Mall to Foster Development of “Born on 360Buy” Brands (English article)
China’s second largest e-commerce site Jingdong Mall may not be good at making profits, but its latest round of mega fund-raising shows it’s become quite adept at convincing wealthy investors of its longer-term viability. Equally important, this latest round of $400 million in new fund raising means Jingdong may still be eying an IPO in the near term, reviving a plan that it launched last year but later abandoned due to a weak market. It would most likely want to make the offering sooner rather than later, since archrival and market leader Alibaba may also looking to make its own multibillion-dollar offering later this year if market conditions remain positive.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 16-18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Saudi’s Kingdom Buys $400m Stake In Chinese E-retailer Jingdong Mall (English article)
France’s Renault (Paris: RENA) Recalling Over 60,000 Cars In China: Xinhua (English article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Forms New Americas Unit To Strengthen Americas Business (Chinese article)
Cherokee (Nasdaq: CHKE) Expands China Presence Flagship Store On Tmall.com (Businesswire)
After several misguided e-commerce initiatives that ended in failure, Internet giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is finally making what looks like a smart move in the highly competitive space by focusing on what it does best: providing search services. In this case, media are reporting that China’s dominant provider online search company has quietly launched an e-commerce search engine, in what looks like a direct challenge to e-commerce leader Alibaba’s own eTao e-commerce search site.
Just days after announcing it would shutter its Hong Kong stores, we’re getting word that struggling home appliance and electronics retailer Gome (HKEx: 493) is also cutting positions in its online division as it looks to return to profitability. These latest job cuts look particularly interesting to me, as they seem to represent a retreat in the important but ultracompetitive e-commerce space, where rivals like Suning.com (Shenzhen: 002024) and Jingdong Mall continue to add staff even as everyone is losing massive money. In this case, Gome’s online cut-backs could perhaps presage a future strengthening of its current alliance with e-commerce specialist Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), and even result in a future marriage between these 2 companies whose e-commerce and traditional retailing businesses are quite complementary.
I’ve been writing for most of the past year about China’s bloody e-commerce battles, and now we’re getting some figures that finally show how bad the situation is with news that up-and-comer Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) has missed its 2012 online sales target by a relatively large margin. This bad stumble reflects the fact that China’s e-commerce market may have big potential, but the overall space is still limited in size. What’s more, with so many big names fighting for a piece of the pie, everyone is having to sell their products at very low prices that ultimately result in lower overall revenues and operating losses.
E-commerce leader Alibaba is quickly discovering that being big has its benefits, but it also comes with many challenges — a fact that’s reflected in a recent series of major reorganizations aimed at making the company more efficient. Meantime, Alibaba’s top rival Jingdong Mall is also grappling with its own issues, most notably its inability to earn a profit, which may be the reason behind its latest proclamation that it won’t make an initial public offering until 2015 at the earliest. Alibaba’s latest major restructure and Jingdong’s delay of its IPO plans are largely unrelated; but both developments do reflect the fact that each company has become quite large and diverse and needs some organizational makeover to maximize its appeal to investors before planned IPOs.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Liu Qiangdong: Jingdong Mall Won’t Make IPO Before 2015 (Chinese article)
Media are reporting that online retailers Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) is launching a major overhaul and Vancl is facing issues from its own big retrenchment, as each searches for elusive profits that have become increasingly hard to find in the current cutthroat e-commerce space. In Dangdang’s case, the company is attempting to focus on several key product groups, giving up its previous aim of becoming a general merchandise giant like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). Meantime, online clothing retailer Vancl’s own ongoing slimming exercise has left it so lean that it is reportedly running into logistical problems that are resulting in delayed shipments to some of its customers. All of this reflects just how difficult China’s e-commerce environment has become, with most companies resorting to desperate measures in their bids to conserve cash and become profitable in the ultra-competitive space.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Denies Alibaba to Invest in Weibo Rumor (Chinese article)
NDRC to Probe Authenticity of E-Commerce Promotions During Chinese New Year (Chinese article)