Bottom line: Ele.me’s new fees will raise the ire of restaurant partners on its platform but is unlikely to produce a mass revolt, and reflects growing pressure on the company to find new revenue sources and become profitable.
Restaurants grumble over new fees from Ele.me
Signs of stress are showing up at leading online take-out dining service Ele.me, which is facing howls of protest from its restaurants partners over a major new fee. This kind of mass complaining is relatively common in China’s cyber realm, especially in industries where online companies are losing money and desperately looking for new revenue sources. The take-out dining industry certainly fits that description, as stiff competition from names like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Meituan-Dianping forces companies like Ele.me deeply into the red. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s anti-trust regulator’s assertion that the Didi-Uber China mega-merger will require its approval could mark the beginning of a new, tougher stance towards the nation’s rapidly consolidating Internet sector.
Anti-trust regulator steps into Didi-Uber marriage
After years of sitting by and doing almost nothing to stop the formation of near monopolies in a number of emerging high-tech sectors, China’s anti-trust regulator may finally be taking notice of rapid consolidation happening in the country’s cyber realm. I’ve frequently complained that China’s commerce ministry has taken a relatively tough position on cross-border M&A for anti-competitive reviews, but pays little or no attention to similar domestic deals that could have similar effects for local consumers. But perhaps that may finally be changing, with word that the Ministry of Commerce is saying its blessing will be necessary for the newly announced mega-marriage between private car services giants Didi Chuxing and the China unit of global leader Uber. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on August 3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Regulator Says Didi, Uber Deal Will Need Mofcom Approval (English article)
Sanyuan Foods Gives Up Preferential Rights to Buy Beijing McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) JV (Chinese article)
Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) Enters into Agreement for Going Private Transaction (PRNewswire)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Tencent (HKEx: 700) May Cut Wanda E-Commerce Ties (Chinese article)
Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM) Buys Global News Aggregation App ‘News Republic‘ (English article)
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bottom line: The appearance of JD.com as China’s first Internet company in the Fortune 500 and exclusion of the nation’s 3 biggest players underscores major shortcomings of the list due to its reliance on revenue as the basis for its rankings.
JD.com lands in Fortune 500
Everyone is buzzing these last few days about the latest edition of the Fortune 500, including the rising presence of China on the list of the world’s largest companies by revenue. But as a China tech watcher, the fact that most caught my attention was the absence of China’s top 3 Internet companies from the list, namely Tencent(HKEx: 700), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Adding to the puzzle was the appearance of Alibaba’s much smaller e-commerce rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), which became the first Chinese Internet company to make the Fortune 500 list. Read Full Post…
The headlines last week were littered with signs of growing unrest and chaos among the dozens of US-listed Chinese companies trying to privatize from New York and return to China in search of higher valuations. One of the biggest items saw signs of a new bidding war break out for private clinic operator iKang (Nasdaq: KANG), while another saw data center operator 21Vianet (Nasdaq: VNET) mount what increasingly looks like a stealth privatization campaign. A third saw social media website operator YY (Nasdaq: YY) become the first to abandon its privatization bid altogether, casting doubt on many of the other similar pending offers that have gone for months without any progress. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on June 18-20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Hit With New China Setback in Beijing Patent Ruling (English article)
China’s Postal Savings Bank May File For Up to $8 Bln HK IPO Next Week (English article)
Bottom line: European alarmism could soon start to grow over a sudden Chinese buying spree of local soccer clubs, including the latest purchase of Inter Milan by Suning and a looming purchase of AC Milan by a Chinese buyer.
Suning bounces into Milan
The new week is kicking off with a couple of China soccer deals in Europe, led by the purchase of a majority of Italy’s Inter Milan by consumer giant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024), and buzz that another deal is near that would see crosstown rival AC Milan sold to a Chinese buyer. This kind of news is becoming quite common these days, following other recent deals that have seen Chinese companies buy or purchase stakes in soccer clubs and other sporting assets in Spain, Britain, Switzerland and even New York. All of which raises the question of if and when Europeans might start to feel uneasy about this sudden buying binge of so many assets from their favorite past-time. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on May 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Going-Private Targets Extend Selloff on Deal Scrutiny (English article)
Regulator Tells Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) to Change Ad Auctioning System (English article)
JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Announces First Quarter 2016 Results (GlobeNewswire)
Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) Beverages Won’t Be a Thing in China After Rare Trademark Win (English article)
Meituan Cuts Off E-Commerce to Focus on O2O Businesses (Chinese article)
More than a month after Shanghai launched its campaign to tame our unruly traffic, I want to use this space to call for a similar campaign that is badly needed to clean up our city’s increasingly chaotic sidewalks. Anyone who lives here will know I’m talking about the legions of delivery bikes and scooters that have exploded onto Shanghai’s sidewalks over the last few years, creating a nightmare for those of us who actually use sidewalks for walking.
This particular tale began 5 or 6 years ago with the rapid rise of e-commerce, which spawned a flood of courier services delivering everything from major items like computers and furniture to tiny parcels like USB thumb drives. But the problem has become much worse over the last year with a newer explosion of take-out dining services, which have unleashed thousands more bikes and scooters onto our sidewalks. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: LeEco’s plan to develop a major Silicon Valley office on land purchased from Yahoo reflects the rapid rise and global ambitions of the former, and the accelerating decline of the latter.
LeEco eyes new Silicon Valley home
A new report involving a Silicon Valley land deal is shining a spotlight on Chinese Internet giant LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) and US counterpart Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), illustrating the rapid rise of the former and accelerating descent of the latter. The deal itself is rather mundane, involving a 48.6 acre plot of undeveloped land that Yahoo bought a decade ago for $100 million near its Silicon Valley headquarters. LeEco is reportedly eyeing the land for development of a new campus, some 2 years after it set up its original dual US headquarters in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
LeEco, formerly known as LeTV, is one of China’s fastest rising online entertainment companies that is increasingly moving into a wide array of new product areas. Two of those are e-commerce and smart cars, and I suspect the Silicon Valley expansion would house both of those initiatives. LeEco is also moving into film production, though that element of its US efforts is probably based out of its Los Angeles office. Read Full Post…
