Tag Archives: Kaixin

Kaixin Grows Games, Tencent Buy In Sight?

Kaixin: ripe for purchase by Tencent?

I’ll be a bit whimsical on this final day of the week with a prediction that a sale could be looming for social networking (SNS) site Kaixin, following reports of strong growth for the company’s online gaming business. Anyone reading this is probably puzzled, unsure about the relationship between a growing gaming business and a company getting acquired. I’ll explain all that shortly, but will end the suspense now by saying the potential buyer would be Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700), which shares a number of links and other key qualities with the much smaller Kaixin. Read Full Post…

News Digest: June 13, 2014

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Alibaba In Low-Profile US Tmall Launch, Eyes Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) (Chinese article)
  • Zhaopin (NYSE: ZPIN) Climbs 8.5 Pct In US Trading Debut (Chinese article)
  • BMW (Frankfurt: BMW) Places 800 Mln Yuan Auto Loan ABS In China (English article)
  • Wanxiang, NEC (HKEx: 6701) Form JV For Grid Energy Storage in China (Businesswire)
  •  Kaixin001’s ‘Yitong Tianxia’ Monthly Revenue Reaches 30 Mln Yuan (English article)

Microblogging Fades, Adding Urgency For Sina Weibo IPO

New industry data adds urgency for Sina Weibo IPO

New data is highlighting an online trend that I wrote about last year, namely that microblogs have peaked in popularity and are starting to decline, in a bad sign for leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) as it rushes monetize and list its popular Weibo service. Frankly speaking, I’m not too optimistic anymore about the prospects for Sina Weibo, which is really just a copy of US social media pioneer Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and hasn’t shown much ability to innovate in the rapidly changing social networking (SNS) space. All that said, I imagine this latest report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) is prompting new urgency for Sina to separately list its Weibo unit, and that such an IPO could come later this year. Read Full Post…

Baidu Buys Into Literarture, Sohu To SNS

Baidu reportedly near deal to buy Zongheng literature site

Internet stalwarts Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) are back in the M&A headlines with news of relatively small acquisitions, indicating the market may be running out of big targets as we prepare to end a landmark year for major deals in China. I’ve been reporting on Chinese Internet companies for more than a decade, and during most of that time would be lucky to see 1 or 2 major acquisitions or equity tie-ups in any single year. But all that changed this year, with top Internet names like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (HKEx: 700) emerging as major buyers in a series of deals collectively valued at billions of dollars. Read Full Post…

Sina Joins M&A Trail, NetEase Oinks Out

NetEase makes slow progress in pigs

Two of China’s oldest listed Internet firms are in the headlines these last few days, led by word that leading portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) has become the late web giant to make a mega bond offering as it eyes potential acquisitions. In the other more amusing news, NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) is reportedly struggling to build up its pig-raising business that it hyped a couple of years ago, spotlighting its inability to expand beyond its core online game business. Read Full Post…

Renren Downsizes Games, Ripe For Picking?

Renren downsizes game division

Former social networking (SNS) superstar Renren (NYSE: RENN) is reportedly downsizing its online game division, formerly its most promising unit, leading me to wonder if earlier rumors that the company’s days as an independent entity may be numbered. The story behind Renren’s rapid rise and now apparent fall is simple: The company was once considered China’s equivalent of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), and used that comparison to launch a successful IPO back in 2011. But since then it has been overtaken by other social networking services, most notably Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging service and Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat, putting the company’s future in jeopardy as it looks for a competitive advantage. Read Full Post…

Sina Weighs Down Weibo With Video

Sina Weibo ties up with Youku Tudou

Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging platform is moving in many different directions these days, this time adding a major video component through a new tie-up with online video leader Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). This new tie-up looks smart in some ways, as it pairs 2 leaders in online entertainment spaces that look complementary. But at the same time, Sina needs to be careful in its zealous campaign to commercialize Weibo, or risk alienating its millions of users and eventually driving them away to a growing array of rival products entering the market. Read Full Post…

Sina, Alibaba Resurrect Tie-Up Talks

Note: Since originally writing this post, Sina and Alibaba have formally announced their tie-up. (company announcement) Under the deal, Alibaba has purchased 18 percent of Sina Weibo for $586 million, valuing Weibo at about $3.3 billion. The pair said they expect the alliance to generate $380 million in revenue for Weibo over the next 3 years. Sina shares jumped nearly 10 percent after the news came out.

 

Weibo, Alibaba in new tie-up

It looks like I may have been premature in declaring last month that talks for a tie-up between leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and e-commerce leader Alibaba were dead. According to the latest reports, the pair have resuscitated their negotiations that began late last year and later collapsed due to disagreement over a valuation for Sina’s popular Weibo microblogging platform. Now media are reporting the talks have quietly resumed in recent weeks, and a deal could be announced very soon. (English article; Chinese article) Read Full Post…

News Digest: April 16

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • ‘Django Unchained’ Abruptly Pulled From China Theaters (English article)
  • Bertelsmann (Frankfurt: BTGGg) Joins With Kaixin Targeting Mothers, Children (Chinese article)
  • Shanda Games’ (Nasdaq: GAME) Actoz to Issue Shares For Mobile Expansion (PRNewswire)
  • Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Transforming To Compete With Apple, Samsung – CEO (Chinese article)

China Internet Rule: Beijing’s Order Obsession 中国互联网新规

Everyone is giving their view on China’s new Internet rule announced late last week and what it means for both web surfers and service providers, so I too feel a need to provide my own interpretation on this latest development in the country’s wild and often unruly social media space. In a nutshell, the new rule seems designed to formally put into law many of the practices already performed by major companies and individuals, and in that sense it doesn’t represent a huge change in Beijing’s stance toward the Internet and new media in general.

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Sina Weibo Sniffs E-Commerce With Alibaba 阿里巴巴或牵手新浪微博

New reports over the weekend have Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) popular but profit-challenged Weibo microblogging service sniffing out a strategic tie-up with e-commerce leader Alibaba, in what looks like a very smart tie-up to me if it’s true. Meantime in related news, NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) is shuttering one of its main social networking services (SNS) sites, again reflecting how difficult it is to make money in the popular but cash-poor world of SNS. Let’s take a look first at the big news regarding a potential Sina-Alibaba tie-up, which would mark a major step in the drive by Sina Weibo towards becoming profitable.

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