It seems appropriate that I’m writing this post on my computer while sitting in a coffee shop at a Wanda Plaza shopping center in Shanghai, since new reports say the Wanda real estate group owned by one of China’s richest men is planning a big new move into the booming e-commerce sector. Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin will certainly have plenty of competition if he makes such a move, including from an increasingly aggressive Walmart (NYSE: WMT), whose China-based Yihaodian site is reportedly getting set to move into a ground-breaking new free-trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai. Read Full Post…
I’ll end the week with a lighter look at an emerging trend in the China corporate world, which has seen some of the nation’s biggest tech personalities make high-profile bets with their equally successful peers from more traditional sectors. The latest in these high-tech wagers has seen Lei Jun, the charismatic founder of fast-growing smartphone maker Xiaomi, make a bet with Dong Mingzhu, often considered China’s most successful business woman as the chairman of appliance giant Gree (Shenzhen: 000651). These bets are mostly for entertainment and publicity on the one hand; but they do also represent the very real challenge that traditional industries are feeling from e-commerce and other emerging high-tech business models. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 12. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Wanda Group‘s Wang Jianlin To Enter E-Commerce (Chinese article)
Walmart’s (NYSE: WMT) Yihaodian Consolidates Under Shanghai FTZ Company (English article)
DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) is dropping the “animation” part of its name in its year-old China joint venture, with word of a major new expansion that underscores the Chinese film market’s growing clout. Word of the expansion comes as Wang Jianlin, China’s newly named richest man, also makes a big bet on Hollywood, with his multiple investments in movie theaters and related technology via has Wanda Group empire. DreamWorks and Wang are both chasing a Chinese film market that is growing at breakneck pack, and is now the world’s second largest after only the US. DreamWorks is also setting its sights on China’s rapidly transforming TV market, where the Internet and other new delivery channels look set to shake up the traditionally slow-moving sector. Read Full Post…
