Bottom line: A meeting between Jack Ma and Donald Trump is a major coup for Alibaba and bodes well for its US relations, while a privatization plan for its partly owned Intime Retail reflects its spottier record for strategic investments.
Jack Ma scores Donald Trump meeting
E-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is wasting no time making big headlines in the New Year, starting with a major coup that has seen founder Jack Ma become the first big Chinese business leader to score a meeting with incoming US president Donald Trump. At the same time, the company is also suffering a much smaller defeat back at home, with word that Alibaba will help to privatize Intime Retail (HKEx: 1833), after becoming a major shareholder in the brick-and-mortar retailer nearly 3 years ago. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Chinese smartphone brands with local production are most likely to survive upcoming price wars they are exporting to India, while Nokia’s new smartphones are unlikely to make any inroads in China over the next 2-3 years.
China exports smartphone price wars to India
A case of deja vu is rapidly shaping up in India, where Chinese smartphone makers have flocked over the last two years in search of growth outside their overheated home market. In this case media are reporting that Chinese brands have surged to take half of the Indian market by dumping millions of their cheap look-alike Android phones into the country.
Meantime back in their own home country, nostalgia has become the word of the moment with word that Nokia (Helsinki: NOK1V) has officially re-entered a market it once dominated. Nokia joins a number of other faded brands to rediscover China, including former arch-rival Motorola, which has become the smartphone flagship of the brand’s current owner Lenovo (HKEx: 992). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new arbitration claim by a LeEco supplier could trigger a domino effect that sends the company into crisis, while TCL’s first BlackBerry model is likely to get lukewarm reviews when it debuts in March.
TCL teases first BlackBerry model at CES
We’ll close out the week with a couple of smartphone headlines, which seems appropriate since the world’s biggest consumer electronics show, CES, is taking place this week in Las Vegas. All 3 companies in the news are showing off their wares at CES, including cellphone stalwart TCL (Shenzhen: 000100), which is teasing us with video of its first model under a new tie-up with struggling smartphone pioneer BlackBerry (Toronto: BB).
Meantime, the other company on my radar, the cash-challenged LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104), was also in CES headlines earlier this week after showing off a sexy new energy car it’s helping to develop. But the company has just landed in a far more ominous headline here in China, where one of its smartphone manufacturing partners is calling for arbitration to try and get cash for a growing pile of unpaid bills. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Sogou is unlikely to make an IPO this year, despite new talk of potential for such a plan from its CEO, and may ultimately never list due to its lackluster performance.
Sogou floats another IPO plan
Online search engine Sogou is testing the market yet again for a potential IPO, hoping to spin a story of opportunity to grab market share from scandal-tainted industry leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). That story may sound attractive to investors unfamiliar with this perennial number-three in China’s search market, whose main shareholders are web portal Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) and Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700).
The only problem is that Sogou’s credibility is nearly nil these days, a direct result of the equally low credibility of controlling shareholder Sohu, which seizes on any opportunity to talk up IPOs for its various units. Accordingly, I will quite definitively go on the record saying this particular IPO won’t happen this year, and possibly not ever, regardless of what anyone at Sohu or Sogou says. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Huawei’s revenue growth for 2017 is likely to drop by more than half from 2016’s rate of 32 percent as it cuts its money-losing businesses, with the biggest slowdown likely to come in its smartphone unit.
Huawei to focus on profitability in 2017
Quality over quantity is a growing theme in China these days, as the nation puts aside its previous pursuit of high growth at any cost in exchange for more sustainable expansion in high-quality areas. After starting at the top in Beijing, that theme is trickling down the corporate food chain to telecoms giant Huawei, whose New Year’s message hints that company growth could slow sharply this year.
Or course everything is relative, since Huawei has just announced preliminary results that show its revenue for 2016 jumped an impressive 32 percent to 520 billion yuan, or a whopping $74 billion. To put things in perspective, its biggest global rival Ericsson (Stockholm: ERICb) is seeing its sales contract, and is expected to post about $65 billion in revenue this year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Closure of Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post was inevitable due to the decline of traditional media, and its online effort ThePaper stands a better than 50 percent chance of longer-term survival due to relatively good execution.
Oriental Morning Post yields to ThePaper
On this next-to-last work day before the New Year, I’m taking a break from the usual high-tech buzz to zoom in on a subject that’s even closer to my heart — and wallet. That subject is the rapid transformation sweeping through the media both in China and the west, creating huge uncertainties. That wave is in the headlines today with announcement of the closure of one of Shanghai’s largest and most respected newspapers.
Here I have to admit my own bias, since as a Shanghai resident until recently I was at one point quite fond of the Oriental Morning Post, which has just announced it will cease publication on January 1. The news is hardly shocking, as it was first rumored in the middle of the year and a couple of my sources informally confirmed it for me since then. Read Full Post…
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: Tencent’s new investment in Nokia’s former mapping unit Here reflects the Chinese herd mentality to pile into new technologies, but also looks like a relatively savvy way to enter the space by pairing with experienced partners.
Tencent ties with mapping giant Here
Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) doesn’t want to be left behind in the race with rivals Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) into self-driving new energy cars that may someday dominate the streets of both China and the world. That appears to be the message from the latest headlines, which have Tencent involved in a somewhat complicated deal that will give it a small stake in a high-powered mapping company that counts car giants BMW, Daimler and Audi as its main investors. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The departure of 2 recently hired executives from Faraday Future hints at chaos and uncertainty that has spread from struggling backer LeEco, a situation that only looks set to worsen.
Faraday Future execs depart
Cash-challenged online video company LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) is getting an early shock in the run-up to the world’s largest consumer electronics show, with word that two top executives have defected from its Faraday Future electric car unit. Anyone reading about these company for the first time is probably scratching his or her head, trying to figure out what exactly online video and electric cars have in common and why a relatively young Internet company like LeEco would be in this business. But that’s exactly the problem. 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: Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace is likely to be included on the annual US “notorious markets” for piracy list for the next 1-2 years, after its return to the list this year.
Alibaba’s Taobao gets coal for Christmas
Christmas may be just around the corner, but the folks at e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) won’t be feeling much holiday cheer this year. That’s because Alibaba’s hugely popular Taobao C2C marketplace has just been included on the latest edition of Washington’s annual “notorious markets” for piracy list, in a sharp rebuke to the company. The move reverses an earlier decision by Washington 4 years ago, when it took Taobao off the list to acknowledge its efforts to fight the problem. Read Full Post…
