The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 11-13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Eyes EU Luxury Cars As Trade Dispute Rages (English article)
Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iOS 7 Will Play Nice With Tencent, Sina Weibo (English article)
Censorship Lawsuit Against Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), China Gets New Life In US (English article)
China Pulls ‘The Croods’ From Cinemas 2 Weeks Early (English article)
Camelot Information Systems (NYSE: CIS) Announces Unaudited Q1 Results (PRNewswire)
After months of complaining about new competition from the private sector, dominant mobile carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) is finally developing its own rival products to combat the rapid rise of WeChat, a popular mobile messaging app run by Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700). This move is what China Mobile should have done from the start, and marks the carrier’s own important realization that it can’t depend on Beijing to protect its dominant market status the way it might have in the socialist era. Read Full Post…
Ex Cloudary exec detained on suspicion of espionage
An escalating clash between 2 of China’s top Internet names has taken an interesting twist, with word that a former Shanda executive has been detained just before the formal launch of his new online literature company backed by sector giant Tencent (HKEx: 700). Broadly speaking, I’m somewhat encouraged by this latest development, which shows that China may finally be preparing to crack down on perpetrators of economic crimes who in the past often faced little or no serious punishment for their offenses. At the same time, I do worry that this latest detention may have less to do with the law, and more to do with politics and guanxi. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 31. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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AIG (NYSE: AIG), PICC (HKEx: 2328) In Agency Distribution JV (Businesswire)
American Public Wary of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment – Report (Businesswire)
Shanda Deals Blow To Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) Online Literature Drive (Chinese article)
Toyota (Tokyo: 7203) To Make Batteries In China As Nation Warms To Hybrids (English article)
YingliGreen Energy (NYSE: YGE) Reports Q1 Results (PRNewswire)
China’s sluggish media and telecoms sectors are getting a couple of new boosts from different directions, as part of Beijing’s bid to breathe new life into a space now dominated by slow-moving state-run behemoths. The first of those boosts has one such behemoth, CCTV, in a new joint venture to promote Internet protocol television (IPTV) with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), China’s second largest media company. The second is a bit more incremental, with media reporting that Beijing has just issued a formal pilot plan for setting up the nation’s first batch of virtual network operators (VNO). Read Full Post…
New moves from Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) and global retailer WalMart (NYSE: WMT) are turning up the competition in China’s e-commerce wars, which are quickly becoming a contest to see who can outspend whom. Both of these latest initiatives look quite pricey, especially Tencent’s move that will see it roll out an ultra-fast product delivery program. WalMart, meantime, is pouring big money into a campaign to build a new in-house clothing brand for its recently acquired Yihaodian online store. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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EU warns China It Is Ready To Launch Telecoms Probe (English article)
I’ll openly admit that I’ve generally sided with Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) in its ongoing dispute with China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) over Tencent’s popular WeChat mobile messaging service; but a new report today on the debate is also making me realize that China Mobile’s point has some validity, even if I disagree with its tactics to address the issue. The report I’m talking about cites an executive at Shanghai-based China Merchants Bank (HKEx: 3968; Shanghai: 600036), a leading regional lender, saying his bank is piloting a service on WeChat as it looks to migrate some of its mobile-based services to the platform. (English article)Read Full Post…
After years of inactivity, China’s Internet sector has seen a sudden flurry of M&A deals with potential to consolidate the fragmented space and create some truly world class companies that could one day compete with the likes of Amazon and Google. While commercial factors are mostly behind this sudden M&A spring, Beijing could also play a limited role by encouraging more consolidation, helping to lay the foundation for a vibrant and sustainable Internet sector that could become a global leader. Read Full Post…
A sudden flurry of activity has caught my attention at Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), one of China’s oldest Internet portals, which has splashed into the headlines several times in the last couple of months after years of being ignored by investors. What has most caught my attention most this time around was a comment in one of the recent reports that Sohu founder and Chairman Charles Zhang was recently experiencing some kind of emotional fatigue, which leads me to wonder if the company may be headed for a breakup. Read Full Post…
SNS moves beyond idle chatter in after Ya’an quake
The Ya’an earthquake now already 2 weeks ago has cast an interesting new spotlight on China’s vibrant field of social networking services (SNS), showing a different side to these sites that are largely seen as little more than frivolous, time-wasting toys. As a frequent user of Chinese sites like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, Tencent (HKEx: 700) WeChat and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), I can personally testify that I mostly use these sites to fill up idle time at home or on the subway, often when I’m trying to procrastinate or am just feeling bored. But these sites are suddenly earning new praise as a critical communication tool during the Ya’an earthquake, arguably the first major global disaster since SNS services began their meteoric rise less than a decade ago. Read Full Post…
