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Tag Archives: Youku Tudou
Latest financial and Business news from youku tudou INC
Stock analysis for Youku Tudou Inc (YOKU:New York) including stock news, corporate company news, key statistics, fundamentals and company profile
Bottom line: Beijing should be commended for its recent program to open up telecoms services to private investment, and should consider accelerating the program and allowing in foreign participation.
Beijing injects competition into telecoms services
A campaign to bring private money into China’s telecoms sector was in the headlines twice over the last 2 weeks, reflecting a broader Beijing campaign to inject new life into traditional sectors like banking and energy that are now dominated by large and often slow-moving state-run firms.
One headline came late last week, when media reported that 20 million new phone numbers would be injected into a year-old program allowing private companies to sell mobile service. That followed even bigger news a week earlier, when media said the telecoms regulator hoped to allow private investors to build domestic telecoms network infrastructure for the first time. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: TVB’s choice of a Shanghai-based traditional broadcaster as its mainland partner looks like a bad selection to ensure its future, as such traditional media rapidly get overtaken by more nimble Internet-based players.
TVB places bets on Shanghai Gang
Hong Kong has been buzzing this past week over the latest mainland encroachment on its media sector, which is seeing leading broadcaster TVB (HKEx: 511) sell a stake in itself to a Chinese investor. But few have gone past the headlines to see what’s really behind this deal, and whether it can help to ensure the longer term survival of a company that has long dominated Hong Kong’s broadcasting scene. In a nutshell, TVB is placing its bets on a group of Chinese media high-flyers that I like to call the “Shanghai Gang”, because they are rooted in China’s largest media market and have strong ties to the city’s monopoly broadcaster, Shanghai Media Group (SMG). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: More Chinese online video companies could soon follow LeTV onto the global stage as their home market soars, providing competition in smaller markets to locally entrenched players like Hong Kong’s PCCW and TVB.
LeTV marches into HK
China is generally considered a technology follower rather than a leader, but new data are showing an exciting trend that could see it finally emerge as a global innovator in Internet-connected video services. The factors behind this movement are uniquely Chinese, and stem from a huge pent-up demand in China for quality video services. Such services are finally starting to come from a growing range of private companies led by names like LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104), Xiaomi and Youku Tudou (Nasdaq: YOKU), which are far more innovative and nimble than the stodgy state-run firms that dominate the traditional broadcasting sector.
Those newer companies are showing early signs of trying to go global, using Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian markets as their stepping stones onto the world stage. Such markets are relatively small and rely heavily on western content, making them particularly fertile ground for some of these Chinese firms that can create and distribute content more suitable for Asian audiences. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A round of April Fool’s Day pranks by China’s Internet companies marks a nice break from their usual cut-throat tactics, while the soaring valuation for a newly created taxi app leader looks more typical for the sector.
Internet firms get into April Fool’s spirit
It’s a relatively quiet news day as we head into April, so I thought I’d take a break from all the latest crackdowns and controversies by looking at some of the clever pranks played by China’s top Internet names on April Fool’s Day. At the same time, one company that’s in no fooling mood is a new taxi app giant that’s being formed with a merger of the 2 top players, and could soon receive an impressive $8.75 billion valuation after a new investment.
These 2 particular headlines don’t really have much in common, since one is largely playful and meant to be fun while the other involves the far more serious business of determining a company’s value. The April Fool’s stories are a nice break from the usual competition and wars of words that are standard fare on China’s Internet. By comparison, bidding up valuations to inflated levels like we’re now seeing with the pending merger of DidiDache and Kuaidi Dache has become standard fare on China’s Internet, as investors bet big on future growth in the market. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New moves against e-commerce and online video firms are extensions of a broader crackdown on rogue Internet practices, which will slow short-term growth at some companies but ultimately create a healthier business environment.
E-Commerce in China
Crackdowns widen on video, e-commerce
It seems like I write about the latest Internet crackdown far too often these days, as Beijing focuses on a wide range of industries where it wants to clean up what it sees as unhealthy business practices. Another 2 such crackdowns are in the headlines as we head into spring, one in the scandal-wracked e-commerce space and the other in online video. Both crackdowns actually began earlier, and these latest moves just show the regulators don’t feel that their job is finished yet.
Of course it’s a slight oversimplification to say this broader series of crackdowns is coming from a single source, since the commerce regulator has been the main driver behind the e-commerce crackdown and the broadcasting and publishing regulator is behind the video clean-up. But those 2 concurrent campaigns, along with other similar ones, probably underscore a recent resolve by central leaders in Beijing to clean up a Chinese business landscape that’s often riddled with corrupt and illegal practices. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China To Punish Tencent, Youku Tudou, Other Video Sites For Pornography (English article)
Bottom line: Dangdang’s growth is likely to slow rapidly over the next 2 years as it gets marginalized by larger rivals, putting pressure on its owners to sell the company before it sinks back into the red.
Dangdang posts strong profit growth
Investors were breathing a big sigh of relief after reading the latest quarterly results from Dangdang (NYSE: DANG), as an ongoing turnaround at the former e-commerce leader boosted both its top and bottom lines. The news erased concerns that sparked a sell-off just a couple of weeks earlier, after the company unexpectedly announced a last-minute delay in the release of earnings report for unspecified scheduling reasons.
While the Dangdang fears were ultimately unfounded, the same hasn’t been true for former online video high-flyer Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). In that instance, Youku Tudou played a similar scheduling trick for the release of its earnings report around the same time, and ultimately served up gloomy results. It also disclosed it was being probed by the US securities regulator for aggressive accounting that may have been illegal. (previous post) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new SEC probe into Youku Tudou’s accounting, following another probe into possible disclosure breaches by Alibaba, could undermine investor confidence in big Chinese Internet firms.
SEC probes Youku Tudou accounting
Just a month after e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) said it was being probed for possible violations of US securities laws, former online video high-flyer Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) revealed it is also being questioned by the US stock regulator for aggressive accounting practices that may have misled investors. The nature of the potential violations are quite different in each case, but both create a worrisome larger picture since they involve 2 of China’s biggest and most trusted Internet companies. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 21-23. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bacardi Challenges Baijiu With Tea-Based “Tang” Liquor Developed For China (Chinese article)
Yidao Welcomes Cooperation With Uber, Sees No Need For Merger (Chinese article)
Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sougou Eyes US IPO In 2nd Half 2015, Sees Value At $3 Bln (Chinese article)
Reuters (Toronto: TR) Websites Blocked In China (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Reports 2014 Profit Of 109 Bln Yuan, Down 10 Pct (Chinese article)
Coolpad (HKEx: 2369), Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) To Roll Out Own Mobile OS (Chinese article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Names Gianfranco Lanci As Company President (HKEx announcement)
Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) Reports Unaudited Q4 And Full Year 2014 Results (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: Unusual scheduling announcements mean the latest quarterly earnings from Youku Tudou and Dangdang could disappoint, though a recent sell-off in their shares looks overblown.
Quarterly earnings announcements often ignite big moves in stocks, sparking big gains or losses if companies exceed or miss market expectations. It’s far less common to see company announcements of when they will release their latest quarterly reports create similar reactions. But that’s exactly what’s happened with the latest such earnings date announcements from struggling online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and faded e-commerce player Dangdang (NYSE: DANG).
Shares of both companies have tanked to lows not seen in more than a year, following their release of unusual announcements about when they will report their next quarterly earnings. Company announcements of such dates are quite standard industry practice, allowing investors to prepare and attend conference calls to discuss the numbers. Such date announcements typically come 1-3 weeks before the actual results are announced, giving investors adequate time to prepare. Read Full Post…
