For the latest news on U.S.- and Hong Kong-traded Chinese stocks, visit our new Bamboo Works site.
Media/Entertainment
youngchinabiz.com : latest Business news about Media – Entertainment in China by expert / journalist Doug Young : more than two decades of experience in writting about Chinese Companies
Bottom line: China Telecom’s sale of several key entertainment assets to a separately run and listed unit reflects the company’s more dynamic nature compared with its 2 peers, as it tries to create services that can compete with private-sector rivals.
China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) is showing once more why it’s a telco to watch, with word that it’s formally spinning off 4 of the main entertainment businesses on its main E Surfing platform to one of its independently run and listed units. In this case the telco is spinning off the four to its fully-owned but separately managed Besttone Holdings (Shanghai: 600640) unit, in what looks like a bid to make these services more competitive with private sector rivals. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: iQiyi won’t make an IPO next year even though Baidu would like to get the company off its books, while Renren’s privatization marks one of the last buyouts for a US-listed Chinese firm from a wave dating back to last year.
iQiyi reportedly eyes 2017 IPO
The year 2016 is winding down as an unmemorable one for Chinese IPOs, thanks to a rocky start that cast a chill over the entire space. That said, the new year could be a bit more lively, amid signs that China’s securities regulator is opening the gates a bit wider to new offerings. That signal could bode well for offshore listings as well, with word that loss-making online video site iQiyi, controlled by online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), is contemplating such an offering next year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: IDG’s new investment in a French soccer club and related joint venture providing soccer training and consulting in China looks like a savvy move to monetize growing demand for sports-related services.
IDG brings French soccer to China
Corporate China’s recent love affair with sports shows no signs of easing as 2016 winds down, with word of a new investment that will see IDG Capital form a joint venture to bring European-caliber soccer training to China. This particular deal was first reported back in August, but it seems a formal agreement has just been signed between IDG, one of the most successful foreign venture capital firms in China, and France’s Lyon Group. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Wanda’s cautionary words to Donald Trump are unlikely to have much impact on the incoming US president, who is likely to take a more skeptical view of Chinese M&A in Hollywood.
Wanda appeals to Trump via MPAA
Wanda Group founder and chief Wang Jianlin is used to getting what he wants, especially when it comes to overseas buying as he tries to build up a global entertainment empire. But one of China’s richest men is clearly rattled by the ambivalent or even hostile attitude towards his country by US president-elect Donald Trump.
Worried about the changing winds in Washington, Wang has turned to Hollywood’s mouthpiece, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), to tell Trump that Hollywood could face huge consequences if he tries to shut down China’s recent buying binge. Wang has been Hollywood’s most enthusiastic shopper these days, purchasing cinema operator AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) and studio Legendary Entertainment over the last few years. He also announced a recent deal to buy Dick Clark Productions, and recently signed a major co-production deal with Sony Pictures. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new Hong Kong lawsuit against LeEco by a small creditor over unpaid bills could mark the start of a new wave, which could ultimately snowball into a new crisis as its partners scramble to get back money they’re owed before it’s too late.
HK newspaper sues LeEco for unpaid debt
I’ve been skillfully avoiding writing about the embattled LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) for the past month, even as the former online video high-flyer landed at the center of a storm that could ultimately result in its downfall. So a small story in the latest headlines, involving a lawsuit against the company over unpaid bills, looks like a good opening to take a quick look at a high-tech tale that consumed the Chinese headlines for much of last month. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Wanda’s first major made-for-China sporting event, a bicycle tour of scenic Guangxi province, looks like a well-conceived initiative that could auger well for its longer-term effort to tap the Chinese sports market.
Wanda launch Guangxi cycling event
Following its opening of several massive theme parks across China, entertainment aspirant Wanda Group has just announced the launch of what it hopes will become one of the nation’s premier sporting events that can earn a place on the global bicycling map. That announcement has Wanda pedaling its new Tour of Guangxi event, which will take cyclists through one of China’s most scenic provinces that includes the famous craggy mountains surrounding the city of Guilin. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Meitu’s shares are likely to price and debut weakly due to skepticism about its profit potential from big western investors, but could perform better over the longer term if the beauty app can monetize its large user base.
Meitu sets IPO price range
What’s likely to be Hong Kong’s biggest high-tech IPO in nearly a decade is creeping ahead, with word that beauty app operator Meitu has set a price range for its widely watched offering that puts it within reach of its target to raise $750 million. But a read between the lines shows that this offering could easily price at the lower end of its range, following earlier investor worries that Meitu might have difficulty leveraging its huge customer base into meaningful profits anytime soon.
Meitu’s quandary is hardly unique, in an Internet universe where having huge user numbers doesn’t always translate to big profits. In this case Meitu, operator of an app that lets users tweak selfies to make themselves look more attractive, is quite rich in terms of traffic, with 450 million active users. But it hasn’t found a way to actually make money from that audience, and instead earns 95 percent of its revenue from sales of smartphones that draw people to its app. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: NetEase’s finish at the top of a global ranking for mobile game downloads attests to its rising status in the sector, while the pork business of its founder Ding Lei also appears to be gaining traction after years of effort.
NetEase mobile games top Tencent in October
Perennial runner-up NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) has suddenly vaulted into the champion’s spot on China’s mobile game leader board, unexpectedly passing Tencent (HKEx:) in an important metric for their industry. The surprise move is probably a fluke, and I expect Tencent will retake the top spot in the next rankings for most sales from online mobile game app downloads compiled by App Annie. Still, it does underscore why I’ve previously said that NetEase is probably the most underappreciated company among China’s top Internet players. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The closure of former Time Warner Chinese TV station CETV reflects the broader decline of traditional broadcasting worldwide, and also heavy restrictions on foreigners for operating video delivery channels in China.
CETV pulled from China airwaves
As Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) pursues a blockbuster merger deal with AT&T (NYSE: T) in the US, a much quieter story in China reflects the end of a frustrating chapter for the entertainment giant and many of its western peers that hoped to make a fortune in the world’s most populous market. That story has the relatively obscure Tom Group (HKEx: 2383) announcing the shuttering of its China Entertainment Television station, also known as CETV. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Sohu may be forced to separately sell off its portal, video, search and gaming units over the next 1-2 years, or risk seeing them gradually fall in value as the company’s losses mount.
Sohu plunges after latest results
After running for years as a solid second-tier player, Internet veteran Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) is finally showing signs of running out of steam, based on its latest quarterly results and word of a major new loan to the company from its cash-rich but fading Changyou (Nasdaq: CYOU) gaming unit. This kind of turn isn’t all that surprising, since status as a second-tier player should only be temporary and such companies should either aspire to top-tier positions or sell themselves to rivals to ensure their longer term survival.
But Sohu has defied such pressures, largely due to the fiercely independent nature of its founder Charles Zhang, who is both quite shrewd but also famously averse to giving control of his empire to others. These latest results show that Zhang may soon have no choice but to sell some or all of his company, or risk seeing it slowly relegated to oblivion due to pressure from better-run rivals. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s Wanda Group will continue a recent trend of hunting for top global talent to build its growing entertainment empire, as it seeks to challenge the likes of Disney.
The aggressively expanding Wanda Group is filling up its ranks with foreign-trained China veterans as it tries to challenge the likes of global names like Disney (NYSE: DIS) with moves into the movie and theme park spaces. Now the company is going on a major shopping spree for top talent from some of those companies, led by new reports that it has just poached a top Disney theme park executive to head its own theme park division. At the same time, other reports are pointing out that Wanda also recently hired Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) former top China executive to help lead its Internet division. Read Full Post…
