Bottom line: LeEco and Coolpad could see a brief surge in smartphone sales due to strong promotional efforts, but will rapidly fade when consumers realize its models are the same as many other products on the market.
Coolpad gets new CEO
Just a day after the release of new data showing the surging Oppo was close to stealing China’s smartphone crown from a stumbling Huawei, sector newcomer and online video superstar LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) is talking up new sales targets that imply it believes it can win the title as soon as next year. That’s quite big talk for a company that only entered the smartphone business last year and has never finished among the top 5 vendors for China. But LeEco CEO Jia Yueting has never been afraid of making such bold predictions, following a Chinese tradition that has seen similar big talk come from most of the nation’s other major smartphone makers. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Yihaodian could regain momentum in China’s online grocery market under an aggressive 1 billion yuan promotion by new owner JD.com and strong support from former owner Walmart.
Yihaodian launches 1 bln yuan promotion
One major obstacle for foreign companies in China is their reluctance to engage in the kind of cut-throat price wars that are all too common in many of the nation’s huge but extremely competitive emerging markets. Such reluctance was a big factor behind the disappointing progress for Walmart’s (NYSE: WMT) local e-commerce venture Yihaodian, and prompted the US retailer to sell the company in June in exchange for shares of local e-commerce powerhouse JD.com (Nasdaq: JD). Now we’re getting word that JD is preparing to position Yihaodian as its flagship online grocery store, and is getting set to launch a massive price war in its bid to achieve that target. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on August 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to Open First Independent Asia Pacific R&D Center in China (Chinese article)
Former Huawei Honor Brand President Named as Coolpad (HKEx: 2369) CEO (Chinese article)
Bottom line: The latest quarterly smartphone data show Oppo could soon take China’s smartphone crown from Huawei, whose rapidly slowing sales could cause it to badly miss its 2016 target.
Oppo closes in on China smartphone crown
Recent trends in China’s fiercely competitive smartphone market are accelerating in the latest quarterly data, led by a plunge in sales and market share for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and sharply slowing growth for local leader Huawei. At the same time, the surging Oppo continues its meteoric rise to cement its position as China’s second largest smartphone maker, as it closes in on Huawei.
All that said, the smartphone crown for China, the world’s biggest market, is shaping up to be quite a hot potato that changes hands often. Just 3 years ago that title belonged to Samsung (Seoul: 005930), which was later supplanted by Xiaomi, a former superstar that barely made the top 5 in the newly released second-quarter rankings from IDC. (press release) Apple has also briefly held the title, only to be overtaken last year by current leader Huawei. Read Full Post…
Following signs earlier this year that they were resisting a call to end to domestic roaming fees, China’s big 3 wireless carriers are finally reversing course and bowing to pressure from the telecoms regulator to follow a practice already common in much of the world. But leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) is taking its time making the transition, saying it will gradually phase out such fees over the next 2 years. Smaller rival China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) appears to be moving more quickly, while the perpetually befuddled China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU) has yet to state its policy on the issue. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on August 16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Top 3 China Smartphone Vendors Get Combined 47 Pct Market Share in Q2 – IDC (press release)
Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Removes ‘Autopilot’ From China Website After Beijing Crash (English article)
Direct Broadcasting Platform Douyu Raises 1.5 Bln Yuan in Series C Funding (Chinese article)
Bulls and Bears Collide as Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) Surges to Record (English article)
Didi Chuxing Adds Hired Driver Feature to Platform (Chinese article)
Bottom line: A blossoming price war between Alibaba and JD.com in the online grocery space could stretch out for the next year, costing each hundreds of millions of dollars on promotions as they battle for market share.
Alibaba to spend billions on Tmall Supermarket
Just days after e-commerce partners JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) revealed a major promotion for their online grocery business, sector leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is firing back that it will outspend its smaller rivals in the hotly contested space. This sudden price war in online groceries space looks remarkably similar to another battle that broke out nearly a year ago, when Alibaba launched another major promotion against online grocer Yihaodian, Walmart’s main China e-commerce site at the time. Walmart appeared to later concede defeat in that battle just two months ago when it sold Yihaodian in exchange for shares in JD.com, Alibaba’s chief rival. Read Full Post…
Two stories from our 2-month-old Shanghai Disneyland are taking center stage in this week’s Street View, one involving some irate visitors who had to wait in long lines for attractions that were closed, and the other a campaign to rid our subways of Disney balloons. But the real story here is the fact that our new Disney Resort has been relatively scandal-free in the 2 months since its grand opening in June, which seems like a major accomplishment due to the huge attention it’s attracting.
As a longtime reporter who formerly covered Disney, I can say with authority that the US entertainment giant is a magnet for publicity, both negative and positive. Any sort of accident or other negative thing that would normally be considered quite minor suddenly becomes major news when it happens inside a Disney resort, which undoubtedly causes numerous headaches for the company’s public relations team. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on August 13-15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Film (Shanghai: 600977) Jumps 91 Pct in 1st Week After Record Entertainment IPO (English article)
McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) to Stop Using Antibiotic Food in US, No Word on China (Chinese article)
E-House (NYSE: EJ) Announces Completion of Merger (PRNewswire)
China Mobile (HKEx: 941) to Eliminate Domestic Roaming Fees by Year End (Chinese article)
AC Milan’s Chinese Buyers Name Club’s Future CEO (English article)
Bottom line: China Mobile’s strong profit growth shows the company has executed well on its 4G strategy, including strong promotion of data services that have rapidly become its single largest revenue source.
China Mobile notches strong Q2 profit growth
After a bumpy period over the last 2 years as it rolled out its new 4G network, leading wireless carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) is finally reaping strong results from its efforts with some of the best profit growth I’ve seen in a long time. The company has just reported its interim results, which show that its profit jumped an impressive 9.2 percent in the second quarter, as it took advantage of its early entry to 4G to consolidate its place as the nation’s leading telco. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A Chinese group’s latest purchase of British soccer club shows China’s appetite for overseas sports teams is moving to smaller entrepreneurs and lower profile assets, in a trend that could expand to North America over the next year.
Perhaps it’s Olympic fever that’s behind China’s latest global sports purchase, with word that yet another local entrepreneur has taken over a western sports club. This time it’s UK soccer club West Bromwich Albion that’s being purchased by a Chinese group led by a local entrepreneur named Lai Guoquan that’s making headlines, in what one report is calling the first purchase of an English Premier League soccer club by a Chinese buyer. (English article; Chinese article)
Of course I’m being a bit facetious by tying this latest sports sale to the Rio Olympics, which opened over the weekend in Brazil. That’s because this latest Chinese soccer purchase has been in discussions for a while, and the team has been on sale for nearly a decade. The reports say this particular deal was actually reached back in June, and that it still requires approval from the Premier League. Read Full Post…
