The Super Bowl may be the most watched TV program in the US, but it’s still relatively unknown in China due to the lack of popularity of American football. But the sport gained at least a few Chinese fans with its latest airing, as top executives from the likes of PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) tuned in to watch this year’s match-up that saw the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks.
Meantime, an executive from the struggling Sina Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) was busy criticizing rival Tencent (HKEx: 700) for the latter’s freeze-out of several major Internet firms from its hugely popular WeChat instant messaging platform. Finally, we’ll end this week’s round-up of tech executive chatter with buzz that hints a former online literature pioneer may be preparing to emerge from a forced retirement, as he returns after a tough business battle of the sort that’s quite common in China. Read Full Post…
Two big news stories were at the center of heated discussion in of the microblogging realm this past week, led by Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) high profile dispute with one of China’s main business regulators over accusations of being soft on piracy. At the same time, Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) roll-out of advertisements on its WeChat mobile messsaging platform also drew lots of comments, as users were suddenly greeted with unsolicited messages in the popular Moments feature that functions much like Facebook’s (Nasdaq: FB) newsfeeds.
Of course no weekly microblogging round-up would be complete without a mention of the media savvy Xiaomi, which was once again creating buzz after an embarrassing gaffe by global marketing chief Hugo Barra. That gaffe saw Barra use a politically incorrect version of a map of India in one of his presentations, showing India as the correct owner of parts of a disputed area of its long border with China. Read Full Post…
Internet executives were busy quashing a number of rumors on their microblogs this week, with smartphone sensation Xiaomi trying to stamp out reports of bitter relations with SNS giant Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), and e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) quashing talk of a major new investment in South Korea. But some of the more interesting chatter focused on the concept of company valuations, and just how widely such valuations can vary for China’s dynamic tech firms.
At the same time, a coming flurry of year-end parties began to kick off in the run-up to the Chinese New Year holiday that’s just a month away. The microblogging realm saw e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) singing its own praises at the company’s annual party, taking a shot at fast-fading rival Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) in the process. At around the same time, a stumbling Sina Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) also held an annual awards ceremony for notable microbloggers, in its own attempt to remain relevant in the social networking realm. Read Full Post…
The microblogging realm has been buzzing with posts from tech executives this past week, many of whom were hyping their products at a major gadget show taking place in Las Vegas. But back in China, smartphone sensation Xiaomi was generating its own usual buzz with hints that it may try to go upscale and challenge Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Samsung (Seoul: 005930) more directly with a pricey new offering later this month.
Meantime, the microblogging realm also saw some unusual noise from 2 tech executives who have been mostly quiet in the space for more than a year. The loudest noise came from Charles Zhang, founder of web stalwart Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), whose microblog on Sina Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) suddenly came to life as he moved to deflect rumors about massive layoffs at his company. Meantime, Chinese Internet patriarch Lee Kai-fu also made a rare tech-related post on his microblog, breaking a prolonged period of relative silence since he returned to his native Taiwan for treatment of cancer. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Chinese appliance makers and Internet companies need to focus their smart device efforts on one or two key alliances each, or risk spreading their resources too thin.
Haier in new tie-up with Evergrande
Smart devices look set to become a theme of the New Year, with new reports that domestic appliance giants Haier (HKEx: 1169) and Midea (Shenzhen: 000333) have formed major new tie-ups to develop the space. Similar alliances began accelerating in the second half of last year and are aimed at developing the “Internet of Things”, which envisions an interconnected world where devices and their owners can talk to each other at any time over a wide range of wired and wireless networks. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Xiaomi’s new smart air purifier looks like a good move to build up its ecosystem of interconnected smart devices, while LeTV’s new EV initiative is more likely a publicity ploy.
China’s entrepreneurial tech firms never miss a good business opportunity, and environmental plays are suddenly the flavor of the day with word of major new pollution-related plays by smartphone sensation Xiaomi and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Xiaomi has announced it will enter the smart devices space with a new line of air purifiers aimed at consumers tired of breathing polluted Chinese air. Meantime, LeTV has announced its intent to get into the electric vehicle (EV) business, as China opens up that sector to encourage development of more clean technology. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Weibo’s latest moves to stop users from defecting to WeChat reflect the company’s concerns over its fading momentum, and send a negative signal that will put pressure on its stock.
Weibo takes new steps to counter WeChat’s rise
An entertaining war is breaking out in the social networking (SNS) space, with word that the Twitter-like Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) is taking steps to punish people who use the service to promote their parallel accounts on archrival WeChat. I say this particular war is somewhat entertaining, as it seems quite petty and reflects the intense competition between these 2 companies. But at a more serious level, Weibo’s move reflects the very real fact that its service is rapidly losing eyeballs to the trendier WeChat, which is far more versatile and is also optimized for the fast-growing mobile Internet space. Read Full Post…
Most of China’s high-tech attention was focused on the scenic canal city of Wuzhen near Shanghai this past week, as a who’s-who of top Internet executives gathered for a conference that billed itself as a global gathering. Most of China’s top names were reportedly at the event, including Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) Robin Li, Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) Jack Ma and NetEase’s (Nasdaq: NTES) Ding Lei. But the guest list was notably lacking in major global names, and at least one executive commented on the sensitive subject of the exclusion of global leaders like Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) from the Chinese Internet.
Meantime, the marketing savvy Lei Jun, who is also CEO and hypemaster supreme for smartphone sensation Xiaomi, also managed to make his own mini splash in the microblogging realm by declaring his own ambition to overtake Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to become the world’s biggest smartphone brand. Such hype from Lei isn’t all that unusual, though I was somewhat surprised to see several executives from other firms chime in with support for this upwardly mobile company. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Shares of Sina and Youku Tudou will continue to be laggards due to their cloudy outlooks, and Youku Tudou could face even greater pressure if it doesn’t sell itself to a larger buyer like Alibaba.
Sina’s Q3 results fail to excite
Today marks the high point of the third-quarter earnings season for Internet companies, with leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and top online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) posting results that didn’t impress investors too much. Both companies reported operating losses for the quarter, even though each managed to pare those losses from previous periods. But the bottom line for Sina was anemic growth in its core advertising revenue, while Youku Tudou’s biggest trouble sign came from ballooning costs. Youku Tudou isn’t being helped either by an ongoing government crackdown against online video operators. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 14. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Seeking $8 Bln in First US Bond Sale (English article)
China’s Tencent (HKEx: 700), Warner Music Partner For Music Streaming (English article)
Shanghai Jin Jiang (Shanghai: 600754) To Buy Louvre Hotels Group For $1.5 Bln (English article)
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Reports Q3 Financial Results (PRNewswire)
China’s Banks To Raise $10 Bln In Year-End Preference Share Bonanza (English article)
Lenovo’s (HKEx: 992) talkative CEO Yang Yuanqing was headline news in the microblogging realm over the past week, as the chatty executive formally launched his own account on Sina Weibo and proceeded to bombard the airwaves with a steady series of thoughts on a wide range of topics. Yang is already quite talkative in general, granting numerous media interviews and giving his thoughts on just about anything to anyone who will listen. So this kind of move isn’t really that surprising, and I expect we’ll hear lots from him in the months and years ahead.
Meantime, executives from the equally talkative Xiaomi were also full of microblogging chatter, touting their latest steal of a high-profile executive from another tech firm. In this case they were congratulating themselves for hiring Chen Tong, one of the earliest top employees at web stalwart Sina (Nasdaq: SINA). A final footnote in this week’s microblogging roundup also saw a teasing tweet from the missing CEO of online video site LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104), amid recent speculation that he may have left China to avoid criminal prosecution. Read Full Post…
China’s entrepreneurial tech firms never miss a good business opportunity, and environmental plays are suddenly the flavor of the day with word of major new pollution-related plays by smartphone sensation Xiaomi and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Xiaomi has announced it will enter the smart devices space with a new line of air purifiers aimed at consumers tired of breathing polluted Chinese air. Meantime, LeTV has announced its intent to get into the electric vehicle (EV) business, as China opens up that sector to encourage development of more clean technology. 
