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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
German luxury automaker BMW (Frankfurt: BMW) is in 2 sets of China headlines today, coming under a media attack for its high prices as it separately announced it will bring its electric vehicles (EVs) to the market. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might try to link these 2 pieces of news and say that BMW knew the media attack was coming, and made its EV announcement to try and deflect the negative publicity. But I really doubt these 2 pieces of news are related. Instead the new attack from leading broadcaster CCTV reflects one of the biggest and more unique dangers that major multinationals like BMW face in China. The EV announcement represents the kinds of counteroffensives such companies must launch to maintain a positive image. Read Full Post…
E-commerce leader Alibaba is forming some interesting new tie-ups with major multinationals, including a new strategic partnership with Dutch electronics giant Philips (Amsterdam: PHG) and a pairing between its recently acquired AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP) online mapping division and leading German automaker Volkswagen (Frankfurt: VOWG). I’ve previously said I’m not a big fan of Alibaba’s recent M&A binge, as it looks a bit lacking in focus and could lead to operational headaches as the company tries to integrate so many different businesses. But these latest non-acquisitive tie-ups with major global partners look like a smarter strategy for expanding its reach as it prepares for a multibillion-dollar New York IPO. Read Full Post…
A few news bits and data points are spotlighting the big potential in China’s healthcare market over the next few years for companies that can tap into an overhaul of the national medical system. While that news looks good for healthcare companies overall, the limited universe of publicly traded firms available to western investors looks a bit spottier due to individual company issues. Regulatory issues could also be a risk, as highlighted by a new price fixing ruling against US drug giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JJ). Still, there could be some interesting buying opportunities for the right companies. Read Full Post…
E-commerce leader Alibaba is back in the headlines with its purchase of a stake in a Singaporean parcel delivery company, continuing its hyperactive acquisition spree that seems increasingly lacking in focus. Meantime, another e-commerce tie-up that I wrote about earlier this week has formally happened, with word that a new series of e-commerce channels run by JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) has begun to appear on one of the top screens for users of Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) popular WeChat mobile messaging service. Read Full Post…
Big publicly-traded state-run enterprises have suddenly begun flooding the market with billions of dollars in new preferred shares, ever since Beijing’s recent roll-out of reforms allow such fund raising. The trend initially looked like a way to recapitalize the nation’s major banks, many of which are sitting on mountains of problematic infrastructure loans made during China’s massive economic stimulus plan during the global financial crisis. But the trend has just taken an interesting twist with word that a major construction company is planning its own massive preferred share issue to raise up to $4.8 billion. Read Full Post…
The tech world was buzzing this past week over the launch of yet another domestic smartphone brand, though I’ll admit I was a bit puzzled by all the microblog posts from a wide range of executives. It was only after I consulted one of my Chinese friends that I realized the launch of the inaugural smartphone from domestic newcomer Smartisan was far less about a new product, and more about Luo Yonghao, China’s most famous English teacher. Meantime, newly rich tech executive Chen Ou was sending out his own series of microblog posts aimed at detractors who credited his family connections with the success of his newly listed online cosmetics seller Jumei International (NYSE: JMEI).
The latest reports that Beijing is pressuring Chinese banks to stop using high-end servers from computing giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) don’t come as a huge surprise, amid escalating tensions between China and the US over cyber spying. This particular development is just the latest in a series of similar moves that dates back to last year, when Beijing began quietly pressuring many big state-run firms to stop using US tech products following revelations from the Edward Snowden cyber-spying scandal. The ironic element of Beijing’s anti-foreign tech campaign is that it could actually make the nation’s technology networks and systems even more vulnerable to spying, since most domestic products are far less sophisticated than their foreign counterparts. Read Full Post…
Techies have been buzzing about the huge potential of the mobile Internet for much of the last 2 years, but the latest headlines from social networking (SNS) giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) and recently listed mobile game developer Sungy Mobile (Nasdaq: GOMO) show the space is still rife with growing pains. Tencent is discovering that its wildly popular WeChat mobile messaging service is attracting not only hundreds of millions of legitimate users, but also masses of spamsters and scam artists and is trying to clean up the platform. Meantime, Sungy has just announced quarterly results that might look good for a company in any other space, but were clearly a disappointment for investors who were looking for meteoric growth. Read Full Post…
Shanghai is quickly emerging as ground zero for the world’s top 2 gaming console makers to enter China, with word that Sony (Tokyo: 6753) has formed a new local tie-up aimed at bringing its PlayStation to the market. The company’s new plan comes just weeks after word emerged of a similar plan by rival Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) for its popular Xbox in partnership with another Shanghai media company. Both companies are seeking to tap China’s massive appetite for electronic gaming, after Beijing recently lifted a decade-long ban on the sale of foreign consoles in the market. Read Full Post…
With its new IPO now firmly in the past, e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) is finally getting back to business as it seeks to challenge industry leader Alibaba. Two of its newest moves in that drive both look quite exciting, and are part of its recent equity tie-up with leading social networking company Tencent (HKEx: 700). One of those has JD making a major personnel move in its underdeveloped C2C e-commerce business that it recently acquired in the Tencent tie-up. The other has JD on the cusp of launching a major new sales channel over Tencent’s wildly popular WeChat mobile messaging service. Read Full Post…
After a brief cooling down period, the wars that have rattled China’s economic relationships with many of its largest trading partners were back in the headlines last week with developments in 2 cases, one involving the US and the other India. The pair of new developments comes just weeks after China levied its own punitive tariffs on a different set of products from the US and European Union. Read Full Post…
