If I was a shareholder in e-commerce firm Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), I would definitely sell my stock after hearing about the company’s latest announcement of a tie-up with Walmart-backed (NYSE: WMT) Yhd.com. I personally wasn’t surprised by the nature of the tie-up, which will see the pair cross-promote each others’ services, even though I was a bit disappointed that there was no equity exchange. Dangdang had previously confirmed it would announce a tie-up after rumors of an alliance first appeared a few weeks ago. This kind of hype followed by disappointment is quite typical of Dangdang’s co-founder and CEO Li Guoqing, whose fierce independence could ultimately lead to the marginalization or even death of his company. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 6. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), Yhd.com Form Strategic Partnership (PRNewswire)
Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) Reports Q4 And Full Year 2013 Results (PRNewswire)
Minsheng Bank (HKEx: 1988) Approved To Issue 20 Bln Yuan In Bonds (HKEx announcement)
Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) Apps Return to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) App Store (English article)
EMC (NYSE: EMC) Says China Sales Grow For 8th Consecutive Year (Chinese article)
Anti-monopoly regulator may need to brandish veto stamp
After years of fragmentation, China’s Internet has undergone a sudden and radical overhaul over the past year, with 3 major firms emerging as major consolidators. The frenzy of new tie-ups and acquisitions has been a welcome development, helping to cool overheated competition in a wide array of sectors where most companies were losing money.
But with the emergence of Alibaba, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) as the 3 major consolidators, China’s anti-monopoly regulator should start to give closer scrutiny to future deals to avoid too much reduction in the competition necessary to ensure future innovation and consumer choice. Such scrutiny could and should ultimately lead to the veto of some future deals, especially larger ones, by regulators who need to become more assertive in the space. Read Full Post…
Two of China’s older Internet names, e-commerce firm Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and leading video sharing site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU), are showing just how important profits have become for their investors, with shares of each posting big gains after reporting moves into the black after years of losses. In the case of Youku Tudou, the company didn’t actually report a net profit, but said it moved into the profit column on an operating basis in last year’s fourth quarter. Dangdang was more definitive, posting its first net profit since sinking into the red 2 years ago when competition in China’s e-commerce sector first began heating up. Read Full Post…
I don’t usually write about the same news twice in a single week, but in this case reports with new details on looming tie-ups involving 4 of China’s top e-commerce firms seem to justify an update. In the larger of the deals, the latest reports say top Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700) is nearing a deal that would see it buy 6-20 percent of JD.com, forging a partnership that would create a major new e-commerce contender to rival industry leader Alibaba. In the second update, 2 smaller e-commerce firms, Yihaodian and Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), have confirmed earlier reports that they will announce a major alliance early next month. Read Full Post…
Tie-up talk swirls around Tencent-JD.com, Dangdang-Yihaodian
It’s a new day on the Chinese Internet, which is as good an excuse as any to talk about rumors of the latest tie-ups in the overheated e-commerce space. One of the latest pieces of gossip has a partnership taking shape between JD.com and Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s second and third largest e-commerce operators. The other has an alliance forming between Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and Yihaodian, 2 smaller players at the bottom of the list of the country’s top 10 e-commerce firms. I’ll offer my own guess that there’s a 50-50 chance the first rumor is true, while chances of Dangdang-Yihaodian tie-up look much smaller, perhaps around 20 percent. Read Full Post…
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…
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)
Leading global toymaker Mattel (NYSE: MAT) and top retailer Walmart (NYSE: WMT) are quietly tinkering with their China approaches, as each tries to find success in a market that is so big they can’t afford to ignore it. Despite that allure, both global leaders have had difficulty making money in China to date, after relying too much on their global business practices that didn’t appeal to Chinese consumers. Now Walmart is making a second, quieter play at the market through its growing ties with e-commerce company Yihaodian. Mattel is also taking a longer term approach by trying to popularize its globally famous Barbie dolls and other toy brands among Chinese children and their parents. Read Full Post…
A new flurry of e-commerce news bits shows that competition in the sector continues unabated, with no signs of easing anytime soon. Sector leader Alibaba tops the headlines with word that it’s rolling out same-day delivery service for customers of its industry-leading TMall B2C site. Meantime, Yihaodian is drawing on its connections with global retailing giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) to boost its imported food business amid China’s nonstop series of food-safety scandals. These and similarly aggressive moves are also leading to signs of growing stress, with Jingdong, the second largest operator, making a strange anti-competitive complaint about rival Suning’s (Shenzhen: 002024) recent unified pricing policy. Read Full Post…
A new report on the explosion of e-commerce in China seems like a good opportunity to take a broader look at the sector and its longer term potential, including which players are likely to emerge as the big winners over the longer term. The latest figures indicate the potential of e-commerce in China is huge, meaning we could ultimately see 2 or 3 major players succeed in the market. But that also means we’re likely to see at least 3 or 4 casualties in the current battle for supremacy, since the field of major, well-funded contenders current numbers around 6 or 7. Read Full Post…
