E-commerce leader Alibaba has long insisted on a shareholding structure that would put all decision making powers in its top managers, and now we’re getting a taste of what that could mean with word that the company will buy a stake in one of China’s best known soccer teams. On the surface at least, this deal doesn’t look very attractive. Most or all of China’s soccer clubs are losing money, and the league has a record for poor marketing and also a series of corruption scandals that have hurt its reputation. Any ordinary Alibaba shareholder would probably instantly veto such a purchase if he had that kind of voting power. Read Full Post…
The alliance between Tencent (HKEx: 700) and JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) formed earlier this year is quickly revving up to challenge Alibaba’s dominance of China’s C2C e-commerce segment, with word of 2 big new moves in the space. This new alliance immediately challenged Alibaba shortly after its formation, pooling the 2 companies’ resources to create a player with a quarter of the market in the lucrative B2C space that sees major retailers sell their products to consumers online. But Alibaba still has near-complete dominance over the equally lucrative but more fragmented C2C space, sometimes called online auctions, which sees individuals and small merchants sell their products to consumers online.
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…
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…
Government clamps down on Sina’s literature, photo sites
It’s been a roller coaster ride this past week for leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA), which has just fallen victim to a government clampdown targeting illicit content like pornography on the Internet. The clampdown sparked a sell-off in Sina’s shares, reversing gains from an earlier rally fueled by strong performance of its newly listed Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) microblogging unit, often called the Twitter of China. But Sina should be accustomed to this kind of roller coaster ride, and its shares could easily bounce back in the next week or two as investors realize this latest crackdown is largely meaningless and won’t have any impact on the company’s business.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s worries about the rapid rise of mobile instant messaging service WeChat appear to be well founded, with word that Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) wildly popular platform will create an exclusive shopping channel for Alibaba’s chief rival JD.com. This kind of deal must certainly be Ma’s biggest nightmare, as it will instantly link JD, China’s second largest e-commerce company, with the hundreds of millions of young Chinese who regularly use WeChat to communicate. What’s more, WeChat has shown itself quite capable of converting its users into shoppers who could easily become JD customers. Read Full Post…
An interesting report has just emerged on the nature of traffic on Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibomicroblogging service, casting a spotlight on how people use the platform just a week before it gets set to make a major New York IPO. The timing of this latest report looks a bit suspicious, aimed perhaps at further cooling sentiment towards an IPO that was already losing momentum. But from my perspective, this latest finding that a very small number of Weibo users are responsible for most of the site’s original postings isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To the contrary, this kind of revelation could even help Weibo by differentiating it from rival service WeChat, which is growing much faster. Read Full Post…
The booming market for Chinese IPOs in New York got some worrisome signals last week after investors shunned 2 new listing candidates, raising the very real possibility that the current wave of enthusiasm is quickly ebbing. That could mean a new period of stagnation or even a downturn is looming for the sector, which suffered for 2 years before rebounding sharply in the second half of 2013. Read Full Post…
The new week is just beginning, but it could well go down as a pivotal moment in Chinese Internet history with Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) new announcement of an e-commerce alliance with JD.com that could threaten the dominance of sector leader Alibaba. The tie-up, which was first rumored last month, will see Tencent pay $215 million for 15 percent of JD.com, which will also receive some of Tencent’s e-commerce assets including a minority stake of its flagship Yixun.com B2C service. (company announcement) The companies will merge their e-commerce businesses, creating a new player with nearly a quarter of China’s B2C e-commerce market. Read Full Post…
Leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) is rushing ahead with plans to separately list its Weibo microblogging unit, with word that it’s taken the first major step towards a New York IPO by formally hiring investment banks for the deal. I’ve previously said Sina was likely to accelerate its listing plan, amid growing signs that Weibo’s growth was slowing and users were abandoning the service in favor of Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) more mobile-friendly WeChat. The latest quarterly earnings report just out from Sina adds further reason for pessimism about the upcoming IPO, showing Weibo remains highly dependent on advertising for most of its revenue. Read Full Post…
Barely a week into the Lunar New Year, word of 2 new investments by Alibaba shows that China’s leading e-commerce firm has no intent of slowing its recent buying binge as it marches towards its highly anticipated IPO. The far bigger of the 2 deals would see Alibaba purchase 72 percent of digital mapping company AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP) for $1.6 billion, giving it full ownership after Alibaba bought 28 percent of the company last year. Meantime, media are also reporting that Alibaba and venture capital firm IDG have invested a more modest sum of about $25 million in Inman, an online clothing brand that sells over Alibaba’s popular online shopping malls. Read Full Post…
