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Tag Archives: Qunar
Qunar company news. Find out the latest breaking news for Qunar Cayman Islands Limited (QUNR).
Overview of an expert, doug Young.
Qunar, one of China’s largest online travel booking platforms, plans to expand its mobile business with a new $500 million investment
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on March 23. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Bets New 4-inch iPhone to Draw Converts in China, India (English article)
Huawei Matebook PCs Coming Soon, Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Rolls Out New Thinkbooks (Chinese article)
Opera CEO Says Didn’t Want to Sell Company to Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU) (Chinese article)
Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) Says Working with Airlines to Restore Online Ticketing (Chinese article)
CMC Invests Tens of Millions of Dollars in SoccerWorld Sports (Chinese article)
Bottom line: China Southern’s removal of its air tickets from Qunar represents the latest boycott by a major supplier, and will further deprive Qunar of a key revenue source, causing its losses to further widen.
China Southern dumps Qunar
The bumpy ride for China’s online travel services sector continues this week, with word that leading airline China Southern (HKEx: 1055; Shanghai: 600029) is withdrawing all of its tickets from Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) due to a high volume of customer complaints. China Southern is just the latest airline to make such a move on Qunar’s site, following in the path of rivals Air China (HKEx: 753; Shanghai: 601111) and Hainan Airlines (Shanghai: 600221).
This particular series of boycotts marks the latest flare-up in an increasingly tense relationship between online travel sites and the airlines and hotels that are their biggest suppliers. Just last month China Southern reportedly decided to withhold its cheapest tickets from all travel agents. And major hotel operators last year formed a group to counter the increasing clout of Qunar and Ctrip(Nasdaq: CTRP), the industry’s top 2 players that are now allies after forming a major equity tie-up last year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s anti-trust regulators need to wake up to the growing clout of big nmes like Tencent and Ctrip in emerging industries and move more aggressively to stop them from engaging in anti-competitive behavior.
iKang accuses rival of monopoly behavior
A war of words broke out last week between two of China’s largest private clinic operators, as one accused the other of violating the nation’s anti-monopoly laws with a recent purchase. The case pitting iKang (Nasdaq: KANG) against larger rival Health 100 (Shenzhen: 002044) casts a spotlight on growing concerns about anti-competitive behavior in China’s vibrant private sector, which boasts many companies whose size is already approaching some of the nation’s largest state-run giants.
And yet despite the size of these companies and increasing cases of anti-competitive behavior, China’s anti-monopoly regulators have largely ignored the domestic private sector, focusing instead on big foreign and state-run firms. The validity of iKang’s accusations against Health 100 still need to be proven, since China’s private clinic sector is still very young and may not have the scale to qualify for monopoly consideration. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on March 15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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The following press releases and news reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Qiyi.com, Universal Music Team Up in Paid Music Service (Chinese article)
JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Announces Q4 and Full Year 2015 Results (GlobeNewswire)
Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) Taking Part in Application for New Airline in Shenzhen (Chinese article)
Hard Rock Expands in China to Tap Growing Leisure Industry (English article)
China Resources Said Near SAB (London: SAB) JV Buyout for About $2 Bln (English article)
Bottom line: Baidu’s shares could see some upside through the rest of the year if it executes on reported plans to spin off its money-losing businesses, while NetEase could post lackluster performance unless it gets more aggressive in M&A.
Baidu stock jumps after results
Two of China’s top Internet companies have just released their latest quarterly results that both look pretty good, even though investor reaction was quite different to the latest financials from leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES), China’s second largest game operator. Baidu’s shares jumped 11 percent in after-hours trade after the release of its latest results that largely continued recent trends, while NetEase’s shares plunged 15 percent after its results came out.
In both instances, investors seem to be focused on the company’s financial strategy going forward rather than actual numbers in their latest reports. In the case of Baidu, investors are eagerly awaiting execution of a plan that will reportedly see the company spin off many of its newer non-search businesses that are losing big money. In the case of NetEase, investors may be disappointed that the company has been a non-player in China’s Internet M&A scene, even though it has quite a lot of cash in its coffers. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China Southern’s new move to stop offering heavily discounted tickets through travel agents looks aimed at the growing clout of Ctrip, and other carriers could follow with similar policies.
China Southern takes aim at Ctrip
China’s largest airline has joined a growing uprising against increasingly dominant online travel agent Ctrip(Nasdaq: CTRP), with reports that China Southern (HKEx: 1055; Shanghai: 600029) will no longer offer its most heavily discounted tickets via third-party agents. The actual move will see China Southern offer tickets with discounts of 60 percent or more only on its own website.
The move is the latest by travel products and services providers who are unhappy with Ctrip’s growing clout in the market, following a string of deals last year that saw the company purchase strategic stakes in most of its major rivals. Since that has happened, a growing number of hotels, airlines and other travel services companies have complained they are getting squeezed by a group including Ctrip and its partners, whose position looks increasingly like a monopoly. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A sudden spate of new mega-fundings by Meituan-Dianping, Lufax and JD Finance show there is still big interest in China’s private tech and finance sectors, despite the nation’s rapidly slowing economy.
Investors throw billions at Meituan-Dianping, Lufax, JD Finance
It seems I may have been a bit premature with my recent prediction that the mega-fundings that crested in China a year ago were finished. That’s my assessment after reading about 3 new mega-deals in the tech sector this week, all worth more than $1 billion. Leading the pack was recently merged group buying giant Meituan-Dianping, whose whopping $3.3 billion in new funding values the company at $18 billion.
That latest news came just a day after media reported another deal that saw peer-to-peer (P2P) lending giant Lufax just raise its own new funding of $1.2 billion, valuing the firm at $18.5 billion. Last but not least was announcement at the start of the week that the finance unit of e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) had just raised 6.65 billion yuan, or just over $1 billion, valuing the firm at 46.7 billion yuan ($7 billion). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New scandals involving fraudsters using Baidu and Ctrip platforms highlight a major problem for major web companies from third-party merchants, but are unlikely to have a big impact on their business.
Frausters make headaches for Baidu, Ctrip
Two new scandals involving leading travel services provider Ctrip(Nasdaq: CTRP) and top search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) are shining a spotlight on the daily battle China’s top Internet firms must do with the hundreds of fraudsters lurking online. The first case has Baidu dealing with fraudsters who tried to sell products on its Tieba social communities service, while Ctrip has landing in trouble after 2 people bought invalid tickets from independent travel agencies on one of its open marketplaces.
The biggest case for this kind of fraud came a year ago, when China’s commerce regulator released a report showing huge volumes of trafficking in pirated goods on the Taobao marketplace operated by leading e-commerce site Alibaba(NYSE: BABA). In all of these cases the fraud isn’t being directly committed by the big-name companies, but rather by small, third-party merchants doing business on their sites. But the big Internet names are realizing that they are ultimately responsible for the reliability of all transactions taking place on their sites. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Qunar’s management overhaul marks the start of a new chapter as a partner of former arch-rival Ctrip, while its dispute with 2 major airlines reflects challenges it will face due to its open platform business model.
Qunar in management overhaul
Online travel giant Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) is experiencing a turbulent new year, announcing a major overhaul that will see 3 of its top managers depart. The shake-up is the first big fallout following a landmark tie-up with former arch-rival Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) last year, and looks aimed at stripping Qunar of its independence as it gets set to work more closely with its former foe.
Meantime, Qunar is also feeling some turbulence due to a dispute with 2 of China’s largest airlines. That spat has China Southern (HKEx: 1055; Shanghai: 601766) and Hainan Airlines (Shanghai: 600221) both reportedly blocking their tickets from being sold on Qunar’s websites. The airlines’ noise is the latest in a growing chorus of discontent from companies whose travel products and services are sold by Qunar and its rivals. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 6. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Dalian Wanda Clinches Deal for Legendary Entertainment – Source (English article)
Faraday Unveils Concept Electric Race Car with LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) (English article)
Commerce Ministry Asks More Questions in Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Anti-Trust Probe (Chinese article)
New Huawei Mate 8 Smartphone Sells More Than 1 Mln Units in Less Than a Month (Chinese article)
Air China, China Eastern Join Airlines Parting With Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) (Chinese article)
