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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
The number 1,000 took on new significance in the blogosphere this past week, with tech titans Lenovo (HKEx: 992), Huawei and Xiaomi in a sudden new rush to chop prices for some of their newest products to under 1,000 yuan. The number translates to roughly $160, and is certainly not a bad price for the relatively high quality smartphones and tablet PCs that are suddenly being sold by the trio at that price and even less.
Meantime, tech executives were also paying tribute on their microblogs to Pat McGovern, the billionaire founder of the IDG media empire that was one of earliest venture capital investors to realize the potential of China’s Internet. McGovern, who died last Wednesday, leaves behind an empire that helped to fund some of China’s most recognizable Internet names, including sector leaders Tencent (HKEx: 700), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and SouFun (NYSE: SFUN), and many others. Read Full Post…
Retail village to debut alongside Shanghai Disneyland
An amusing rivalry between 2 US entertainment giants is rapidly shaping up in Shanghai, with developers of the new Disneyland (NYSE: DIS) resort announcing a major new retail development just days after DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) broke ground on its own massive entertainment complex in the city. The close timing of these 2 announcements may be partly coincidental, but the rivalry certainly isn’t. Hollywood followers will know that DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was formerly the head of Disney’s famous animation division, and only left the company after a famous fall-out with former Disney chief Michael Eisner. Read Full Post…
The growing feud between banks and China’s biggest Internet firms has taken a major new turn, with word that leading lender ICBC (HKEx: 1398) may be preparing to formally sever ties with Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments platform. The move would be clearly aimed at Alibaba’s wildly popular Yu’ebao service, which lets users put excess funds from their Alipay accounts into a product that functions much like a traditional bank savings account but offers much higher interest rates. Of course the next big question is whether other big banks will follow ICBC’s lead, and I suspect the answer is that many will indeed do so. Read Full Post…
Nearly all of the Chinese companies to list in New York during the current IPO boom have come from the tech sector, but reports of a new candidate that combines tech and finance looks like an interesting one to watch. The company, China Risk Finance, operates a peer-to-peer (P2P) loan platform, and is reportedly talking to investment banks about a potential New York listing later this year. (Chinese article) That could provide investors with an interesting and potentially exciting chance to buy into China’s small but quickly growing private financial services sector. Read Full Post…
China achieved an important milestone in its trade relations with the west last week when it settled 2 disputes with the European Union through negotiations, a less familiar tactic that produced a similar breakthrough deal last year. Both sides should be commended for this new approach, which not only avoids damaging trade wars but also helps to build a friendlier trade relationship based on mutual trust. Read Full Post…
US probe of JPMorgan claims victim in top official
The recent series of foreign government probes into their companies’ China business practices has claimed its first major victim, with word that the local investment banking chief of JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) will retire from the company. There’s no direct evidence that the departure of longtime JPMorgan executive Fang Fang is related to the ongoing US probe against his company’s China hiring practices. But of course everyone is speculating that’s the case. The development looks like a positive one, as it sends a message that foreign companies intend to change the way they do business in China, and I expect we could see some other similar executive shuffles in the months ahead. Read Full Post…
I generally try to avoid taking sides in political disputes like the one involving US accusations that Chinese telecoms equipment from Huawei could pose a national security threat. But in the case of the latest revelations about US government spying on Huawei, I do think that Washington should at least discuss the results of its efforts to find evidence of a covert relationship between Huawei and the Chinese military. At the same time, I find Beijing’s condemnation of the snooping a bit insincere, as I’m quite sure that China and most other nations also engage in similar electronic spying. (English article) Read Full Post…
After a 4 year cycle that saw China’s group buying sector first boom and then crash spectacularly, we could finally see an IPO soon from Meituan, which has emerged as the industry’s leader and a true survivor. Media are reporting that Meituan is close to getting $100 million in new funding — an admirable feat in the current climate that has seen investors largely shun the group of former high flyers. That investment would come just weeks after leading Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700) purchased 20 percent of Dianping, another strong player that has emerged in the group buying space. (previous post) Read Full Post…
Perhaps I was a bit hasty a couple of weeks ago in declaring that a new IPO plan by online real estate company E-House (NYSE: EJ) for its Leju unit looked like the recycling of an old listing that flopped and was eventually privatized. Since that initial announcement, E-House has followed with a couple of new plans for Leju, both involving collaboration with Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s biggest Internet company. In the latest of those, E-House has just announced that Tencent will become a strategic investor in Leju, paying $180 million for 15 percent of the unit. (company announcement) Read Full Post…
Telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) are in the headlines today for their newer product initiatives, as each tries to offset slowing growth in their core telecoms equipment business. Of the pair, Huawei’s news looks the most bullish, with the company targeting a sharp rise in smartphone sales as it sets its sights on overtaking Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) as the world’s second largest seller. Meantime, ZTE has formally rolled out its new gaming console, the FunBox, which looks a bit more exciting that I’d originally imagined and carries an extremely low price tag. Read Full Post…
A growing love affair between Hollywood and Shanghai has taken a major step forward, with the formal ground-breaking for a $2.4 billion entertainment complex being co-developed by US giant DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) and the city’s leading broadcaster. As a longtime industry watcher, I’m most encouraged that this project is actually moving forward, even if the latest price tag is a bit lower than the figure given when the deal was first announced nearly 2 years ago. Over the years I’ve seen too many cases where big new Sino-foreign projects have been announced with big fanfare, only to later die quiet deaths due to failure to get necessary approvals and financing. Read Full Post…
