The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 12-14. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba Estimates Own Market Value At $130 Bln (Chinese article)
China’s Hony Capital Snaps Up Pizza Express For $1.6 Bln (English article)
China’s 3 State-Owned Carriers Form Telecoms Tower Firm (English article)
China State TV Says Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone Creates Security Concern (English article)
Headphone Maker Beats Sues Chinese Counterfeiters For $135 Bln (English article)
The embattled telecoms pair of Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) are embarking on major hiring sprees outside their home market, seeking to not only import foreign expertise but also foreign faces as they try to look more global and less Chinese. That’s my major takeaway on reading separate reports that ZTE is launching a drive to recruit workers from 2 struggling western cellphone giants, while Huawei is also hiring thousands of new employees in Europe to cater to its largest market outside of China.
Anyone who thought that Chinese telcos behaved like commercial companies is getting a lesson in the country’s unique blend of capitalism, with news that all 3 state-run carriers have been ordered to slash their promotional spending. In any other market, such a move would carry huge anti-competitive overtones and the regulator would quickly step in and stop such coordinated action. But this isn’t any other market, and the order to slash spending is coming from the government organization that is effectively the major shareholder of China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL), China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) and China Telecom. (HKEx: 728; NYS:E CHA) Read Full Post…
I was disappointed but certainly not surprised to read that homegrown telecoms equipment giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) won the big majority of a major new batch of contracts from dominant wireless carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) to build its 4G network. Regular readers will know that I’m a strong advocate of free trade, and believe that Chinese and western equipment sellers should receive 4G contracts in any country roughly in line with their global market share. But in China such major purchasing often has a political element, especially when the buyer is a state-run company, which is clearly the case here. Read Full Post…
After more than a year of preparation, China’s newly licensed virtual network operators (VNOs) began launching mobile service last week, as part of Beijing’s drive to invigorate the stodgy telecoms services sector long dominated by 3 state-run carriers. The launch of VNOs by e-commerce giant JD.com and leading electronics chain Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) both look well-conceived by targeting specific groups of consumers who are both relatively affluent and big users of mobile services. Read Full Post…
It’s probably too early to declare the death of an ambitious plan to liven up China’s stodgy telecoms services sector through the injection of new private sector competition. But the latest reports that these new competitors, called virtual network operators (VNOs), are facing difficulties due to high prices being charged by their suppliers is just the latest sign that the plan from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is running into trouble. I’ve been predicting such trouble all along, and these latest reports are raising serious concerns that the new VNOs will never get a serious chance to succeed. Read Full Post…
I generally try to avoid taking sides in political disputes like the one involving US accusations that Chinese telecoms equipment from Huawei could pose a national security threat. But in the case of the latest revelations about US government spying on Huawei, I do think that Washington should at least discuss the results of its efforts to find evidence of a covert relationship between Huawei and the Chinese military. At the same time, I find Beijing’s condemnation of the snooping a bit insincere, as I’m quite sure that China and most other nations also engage in similar electronic spying. (English article) Read Full Post…
The 4G strategies of China’s 2 smaller telcos are starting to emerge under an unusual hybrid scheme being rolled out by the nation’s telecoms regulator, and the path being pursued by China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) certainly doesn’t look encouraging. Both Unicom and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) have been given the nod to launch commercial 4G service using a homegrown standard known as TD-LTE, even though both plan to build their main networks using a more globally tested technology technology called FDD-LTE. But whereas China Telecom is making minimal investment in TD-LTE, Unicom seems intent on wasting billions of dollars, with word that it has awarded contracts to 8 companies to start construction of a network based on the technology. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 25-27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Renren (NYSE: RENN) Sells Remaining Stake In Nuomi to Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) (PRNewswire)
Embattled smartphone and telecoms equipment maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is all over the headlines today, led by word that the company has strongly bounced back into the black after a major restructuring to cut costs and realign its businesses. ZTE also announced aggressive sales targets this year for its fast-growing smartphone business, which it hopes will offset much slower growth for its older networking equipment unit. But the upbeat news was partly offset by word that the US is launching a new probe into ZTE and several other smartphone makers, after a US company filed a patent infringement complaint. Read Full Post…
I have to admit I was quite disappointed to read that China’s regulator has set an extremely modest target for a new group of virtual network operators (VNOs) that will finally break the telecoms services monopoly held by China’s big 3 state-run telcos. I wasn’t expecting huge things from this new group of operators, who will lease network capacity from the trio of existing telcos and then sell telecoms services under their own brands. But the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s goal of just 50 million VNO mobile service subscribers by the end of next year looks ridiculously low to me and hints of worries that this new pilot program could be plagued with problems. (English article) Read Full Post…
