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Journalist China
Business news from China By Doug Young.
Doug Young, journalist, has lived and worked in China for 20 years, much of that as a journalist, writing about publicly listed Chinese companies.
He is based in Shanghai where, in addition to his role as editor of Young’s China Business Blog, he teaches financial journalism at Fudan University, one of China’s top journalism programs.
He contributes regularly to a wide range of publications in both China and the west, including Forbes, CNN, Seeking Alpha and Reuters, as well as Asia-based publications including the South China Morning Post, Global Times, Shanghai Daily and Shanghai Observer
Investors in China real estate service stocks have a short memory these days, reflecting the broader uncertainty in the country’s real estate market that could be on the edge of a major downturn. After a sharp sell-off earlier this week on concerns about a property bubble, shares of SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) have come bouncing back on news about equity tie-ups with 2 leading home agency companies. Shares of its 2 major listed peers, E-House (NYSE: EJ) and Leju (NYSE: LEJU), have also quickly bounced back from the brief sell-off as investors decided it might be premature to worry about a downturn. Read Full Post…
Two headlines are casting a spotlight on a love affair between China and Hollywood being fueled by a soaring Chinese box office that could one day surpass the US as the world’s largest. One of the news bits shows just how big the Chinese box office is becoming, with word that domestic ticket sales soared 25 percent in the first half of the year. The other headline highlights the growing number of partnerships that are springing up, with industry giant Shanghai Media Group (SMG) reportedly in a deal to buy Galloping Horse, a Beijing production house whose assets include the Hollywood Digital Domain special effects house. Read Full Post…
Customer loyalty poll highlights Xioami’s long march ahead
Cyberchatter over the past week was shining a spotlight on the huge task ahead for domestic Chinese smartphone makers, as they engage in cut-throat competition in their massive home market. A new survey posted by a top regional telecoms executive showed just how little loyalty Chinese customers feel towards most of the domestic brands, underscoring the fact that low prices are still their major attraction.
Meantime, fading e-commerce veteran Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) was also facing its own uphill battle, as its core online book business was reportedly on the cusp of being overtaken by much newer rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), China’s second largest player. True to his usual form, Dangdang’s talkative but short-sighted co-founder Li Guoqing was more focused on a new employee incentive plan than the looming negative milestone for a division that was once his company’s core business. Read Full Post…
A trio of cross-border news bits is highlighting the complexities in the China-US trade relationship, where accusations of cybersyping from both sides have raised tensions and threatened to derail business dealings in the sensitive high-tech space. All 3 news bits involve tech giant IBM (NYSE: IBM), which was one of the earliest and most active US tech firms to come to China, and thus stands to lose the most from recent tensions. Two of the headlines look relatively positive, including China’s approval of a multibillion-dollar M&A deal and IBM’s launch of a major new business initiative. The third looks more ominous, and has a top lender preparing to ditch its IBM servers in favor of homegrown products in a shift that looks highly political.
After zooming into China with a slick publicity campaign earlier this year, electric car superstar Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) has run into a major new roadblock in one of its most promising markets over a trademark dispute. Tesla thought it had settled a matter that jumped into the headlines last summer as it was preparing to formally move into China. But apparently the trademark squatter who purchased the Tesla names in English and Chinese wasn’t satisfied, and has formally sued the company. Based on past cases, this one could be costly for Tesla, forcing it to pay tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars if it wants to reclaim its name in China. Read Full Post…
I wrote about taxi apps a few times last year when they first became a hot topic, but haven’t written much since then despite frequent appearances in the headlines about their aggressive business practices. At the end of the day the news didn’t seem too interesting, and companies like Didi and Kuaidi seemed destined to remain relatively small in a sector with limited growth potential. But a new war pitting US giant Uber against the Chinese start-ups seems worth writing about, as it has bigger potential to shake up the market and also to draw attention from Chinese regulators. Read Full Post…
An important step in China’s ongoing battle against piracy is showing signs of being undermined, with word that a Shenzhen company that received a record fine for copyright violations was attempting to avoid the penalty through use of an old trick.
The Shenzhen government should take extra efforts to enforce the penalty, and also make sure that the company, QVOD, permanently ends its piracy practices. Such a tack would send a strong message to Chinese companies that intellectual property theft of any kind won’t be tolerated, and the government will tirelessly pursue culprits until they are brought to justice. Read Full Post…
Two of the world’s biggest social networking service (SNS) operators are in the headlines as the new week begins, starting with word that Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is moving ahead with its plans to open in China. Meantime, separate reports are saying Japanese-based mobile instant messaging service Line has been disrupted in China, perhaps for carrying sensitive content.
These news bits may look different on the surface, but they’re really quite similar in broader terms. China is extremely wary of offshore-based SNS like Facebook, Line and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), because they are not subject to the country’s strict self-censorship laws. Thus companies that want to develop a China business must open offices and host their Chinese services on local servers to placate Beijing, which is what Facebook and Line are doing now. Read Full Post…
It’s now been 3 years since a series of accounting scandals toppled a handful of overseas-listed Chinese high-flyers, starting with a financial services company called Longtop. The scandals were sparked by opportunistic short sellers, who launched a steady stream of similar assaults highlighting the aggressive accounting practices at many Chinese companies. But after Longtop and 1 or 2 other big names fell, all major companies managed to repel the attacks and get on with business. Now some investors might be wondering if another major player may be set to fall, following new ominous signs coming from embattled security software maker NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ). Read Full Post…
Lenovo’s IBM, Motorola buys come under the microscope
A month after word first emerged that Lenovo’s (HKEx: 992) mega-deal to buy IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) low-end server business was running into political headwinds, Lenovo is coming out and directly saying it expects to close the deal by the end of the year. Some of my sources near IBM are giving a similar message, even after a top Lenovo executive said last month that the ongoing cybersecurity spat between Beijing and Washington could derail the deal. Lenovo is also saying it expects to close its separate purchase of Motorola Mobility in the same time frame, marking the first time I’ve ever seen anyone imply that the purchase of that company from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) might face any political headwinds. Read Full Post…
Separate reports about a new IPO by one company and potential exit from the Nasdaq by another are reflecting the mixed feelings that Chinese firms have for New York, where public listings can bring both prestige and also headaches. In the new listing category, media are reporting that yet another mobile game developer called iDreamSky has just made its first public filing for a New York IPO to raise up to $110 million. Meantime, other media are reporting that veteran online travel service eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) could be gearing up for a buy-out by much larger rival Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP). Read Full Post…
