Bottom line: Apple’s cleanup of its China app store reflects the deceptive marketing that often occurs on the Chinese Internet, and also Apple’s more transparent approach towards its actions in China.
Apple cleans up China app store
iPhone users in China are discovering a new look at Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) local app store, following the removal of more than 10,000 apps over a one-day period late last week. App store users first noticed something unusual when it appeared that the popular news app called Jinri Toutiao, or Today’s Headlines, suddenly seemed to disappear from Apple’s China store. But further examination showed that Apple was simply removing redundant versions of the app, many of which had very similar names and identical appearances. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The latest China trip by Apple’s CEO is designed to spotlight the company’s new mega-investment in Didi Chuxing and show its continued relevance for local app makers, as it seeks positive media coverage to halt a recent series of negative news.
Apple CEO looks for positive news on China trip
Less than 2 weeks after media first reported plans for a new China trip by Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO, Tim Cook has appeared in Beijing for the eighth visit to his company’s second largest market. This particular visit comes at a sensitive time for Apple, which has experienced a number of China setbacks recently, led by a sharp drop in sales during the first 3 months of the year.
Against that backdrop, I previously said that Cook’s new trip looked partly aimed at damage control, though we should also note that he was already a frequent visitor to the country. In keeping with the past, Cook was relatively low key this time and didn’t even announce his arrival in China until he was spotted at a meeting with some of the company’s local app development partners in Beijing. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Sougou could gain some momentum in the search market this year following some innovative new tie-ups with WeChat, while Xunlei’s stock will remain under pressure as it gets dogged by more piracy issues.
Sogou launches news feature on WeChat
More than a year after emerging as China’s third-largest search engine with the merger of 2 second-tier players, Sogou is finally making an interesting move by launching a news app that takes advantages of its ties to Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700). The move looks particularly promising, since the rapid rise of another similar app called Today’s Headlines shows that this is clearly an area with strong demand. The move could pose a serious challenge to the high-flying Today’s Headlines, which earlier this week was named as one of China’s top 10 mobile apps for 2014. (previous post) Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Itochu, Charoen (Tokyo: 8001) Pay $10.4 Bln for Stake in Citic (HKEx: 267) (English article)
China Telecom Incremental Increases Outpace China Mobile, Unicom in 2014 (Chinese article)
Spring Airlines (Shanghai: 601021) To Make Trading Debut In Shanghai (Chinese article)
New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) Announces Second Fiscal Quarter Results (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: A new list of China’s top apps spotlights fast-growing names like news app Today’s Headlines, photo app Meitu and dictionary app Youdao, which could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds this year.
Meitu earns place on top 10 app list
A newly released list of China’s top 10 apps for 2014 is shining a spotlight on an up-and-coming field of lesser known names that could be companies to watch, as many are much younger than stalwarts like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700). The “BAT” trio of China’s biggest Internet firms took 4 of the top 10 spots on the list, which was compiled by Baidu. But far more interesting were some of the other names, including recently listed social networking app Momo (Nasdaq: MOMO) and news app Today’s Headlines, which made its own headlines with its meteoric rise last year. Read Full Post…
A couple of smaller deals are in the headlines today, with smartphone sensation Xiaomi dipping its toe into the financial services market and online news portal Phoenix New Media (NYSE: FENG) eying the news feed business. Both deals are relatively small in terms of size, but each provides some interesting insight on the thinking at these 2 different companies in the tech and new media space. The first deal has Xiaomi joining a group of investors betting on a peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platform called Jimu Box. The second has Phoenix investing in Particle Inc, maker of an app that lets users design personalized feeds to receive news over their mobile phones. Read Full Post…
China was traditionally known for its rampant piracy, but is now suddenly becoming a strong copyright protection advocate with the rise of a new generation of video site operators looking to protect their intellectual property. In the latest twist of this new and somewhat unexpected trend, Internet TV operator LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) has successfully sued fast-rising smartphone maker Xiaomi for copyright violations related to Xiaomi’s problem-plagued Internet TV set-top boxes. Read Full Post…
Today’s Headlines assaulted for copyright violations
It’s not easy being a high-flying start-up, and the burden becomes even heavier when a company builds up huge expectations for itself through excessive hype. Smartphone sensation Xiaomi was in the headlines last week when it launched a big price cut, leading some to speculate the company was struggling to meet its aggressive sales targets. Now in the latest setbacks for other start-ups, media are reporting that a fast-rising news app called Today’s Headlines is being assaulted on several fronts for copyright infringement. Separately, a newly launched group of mobile service providers called virtual network operators (VNOs) has also received a setback after experiencing widespread technical glitches. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Vacation Rental Site Tujia Completes $100 Mln Series C Funding (English article)
ZTE (HKEx: 763) Files Antitrust Complaint With European Commission Against Vringo (Businesswire)
Guangzhou Daily Withdraws Lawsuit Against Today’s Headlines App (Chinese article)
Huawei Expands In Russian Tech Services After Putin’s China Deal (English article)
Billionaire JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Founder Lines Up Next Challenge: Beating Alibaba (English article)
Vancl, JD execs look enviously at news app funding
The microblogging realm was relatively quiet over the past week, as all of China took a moment of silence for the thousands of high school students who had to suffer through the annual torture session also known as the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, held over the weekend. A few tech executives reflected on the gaokao on their microblogs, though none had too much positive to say about an test that places huge pressure on students and is often criticized for its emphasis on rote memorization. Meantime, a couple of other tech executives were full of skepticism and just a touch of envy for a news app that made headlines after it attracted a whopping $100 million in new funding less than 2 years after its founding. Read Full Post…
