You searched for video lawsuit ~ Business China : news for investors in China

VIDEO: Embattled LeEco Sued in HK as Bills Pile Up

By newsdoug on December 5, 2016

Bottom line: A new Hong Kong lawsuit against LeEco by a small creditor over unpaid bills could mark the start of a new wave, which could ultimately snowball into a new crisis as its partners scramble to get back money they’re owed before it’s too late.

I’ve been skillfully avoiding writing about the embattled LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) for the past month, even as the former online video high-flyer landed at the center of a storm that could ultimately result in its downfall. So a small story in the latest headlines, involving a lawsuit against the company over unpaid bills, looks like a good opening to take a quick look at a high-tech tale that consumed the Chinese headlines for much of last month. Read Full Post…

VIDEO: Armed With Vizio, China’s LeEco Eyes US Smartphone, TV Markets

By newsdoug on October 12, 2016

Bottom line: LeEco’s major new push into the US smart TV market could achieve some success due to its recent Vizio purchase, though its concurrent smartphone drive will be a dud due to lawsuits and mediocre product quality.

Watch out, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Chinese online video superstar LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) is taking direct aim at the lucrative US online video and smartphone markets, with plans for major new product launches later this month. I’ll admit I’m doing a bit of educated guessing here, since the company formally known as LeTV hasn’t made any formal announcements yet on its US ambitions.

But all the signs certainly point in that direction, following LeEco’s headline-making $2 billion July purchase of Vizio, a struggling maker of cheap, no-name TVs that is one of the biggest and also most obscure names in the huge US market. Added to that is LeEco’s recent issue of invitations to an event set for October 19 in San Francisco, where it says it will announce its “disruptive vision of a connected ecosystem of content-driven smart devices to the US market.” (English article) Read Full Post…

SMARTPHONES: Xiaomi Chief Lei Eyes R&D Role, US Video Market

By newsdoug on May 19, 2016

Bottom line: CEO Lei Jun’s decision to directly oversee Xiaomi’s product development could help to revive the company by addressing a key problem area, but its new set-top box is unlikely to gain much traction in the US due to stiff competition.

Amid growing signs of stagnating sales for its core smartphones, the stumbling Xiaomi is taking a couple of big new steps to try and reinvigorate its business, led by a shuffle that will see charismatic CEO Lei Jun take direct control of product development. In a separate but also significant move, the company has just announced a highly-anticipated first big step into the lucrative but ultra-competitive US market, with plans to launch a local version of its online video service.

Among these 2 big new moves, the management shuffle is the most significant and also most reflects Xiaomi’s problems. The company rose to prominence on an extremely successful marketing campaign that used online buzz, artificial product shortages and strategically leaked information. But Xiaomi’s actual smartphones couldn’t meet the high expectations created by Lei’s brilliant marketing campaigns, and instead are seen as largely the same as many of the other many models now on the market. Read Full Post…

Hollywood, Rivals Ambush Baidu With Piracy Lawsuit

By newsdoug on November 14, 2013

In what looks like a highly coordinated ambush, a group of China’s top online video sites have teamed up with Hollywood to sue Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) for video piracy. This is the first time I can recall seeing big western names team up with Chinese companies to launch such a major lawsuit, creating not only legal headaches but also a huge wave of negative publicity for Baidu. The action also comes as Baidu makes a series of major moves in the online video space in a bid to challenge industry leader Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU), which is also one of the co-plaintiffs in this new lawsuit. Read Full Post…

Smart TV’s New Enemy: Lawsuits

By newsdoug on October 17, 2013

Youku Tudou sues Xiaomi for copyright infringement

Earlier this week I wrote how smart TV could be poised for a sudden explosion in China due to a combination of factors that made the market especially well suited for development of this product. (previous post) Now we’re seeing one of the major obstacles that smart TVs could face, namely copyright lawsuits by various players against one another as each seeks to gain the upper hand in an increasingly competitive market. We could soon be seeing an avalanche of such litigation, with word that leading online video website Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) has just sued Xioami for copyright infringement, following the latter’s recent rollout of a new smart TV product. Read Full Post…

Baidu-Qihoo Search War Returns With Lawsuit

By newsdoug on June 10, 2013

After disappearing from the headlines for a few months, the ongoing search war between industry leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and challenger Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) has jumped back into the news with reports that the former has sued the latter. This new lawsuit is most likely just the first phase in a new stage of the battle between these 2 companies, and I fully expect Qihoo to file a countersuit within the next few weeks. I could even be a bit sarcastic and express my surprise that Qihoo didn’t file the first suit in this rivalry, since the software security specialist is notoriously litigious and has probably sued just about every major Chinese Internet company at some point. Read Full Post…

Search Blocking Wars Expand to Video 搜索屏蔽战蔓延至在线视频业

By newsdoug on January 13, 2012

Tudou, Sohu throw up stop sign for Youku searches The search-blocking wars that gripped the e-commerce sector in the second half of last year have spread to the online video space, where Tudou (Nasdaq: TUDO) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) video, the second and third largest operators, have blocked their content from a video search engine operated by top player Youku (NYSE: YOKU). (English article) Of course the biggest loser in this latest blockage battle will be the Chinese consumer, who will find it difficult to find the movies and TV shows he wants to view, which will also hurt the broader industry’s development. Let’s backtrack a moment and look at this latest development in a vibrant but perplexing industry where company behavior more often resembles children fighting in a sandlot than major corporations trying to do business. According to Chinese media reports citing a Tudou representative, Tudou and Sohu video, along with another major video site operator LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104), all decided to block their content from searches by Soku, an online video search engine operated by Yoku. The move comes as Tudou and Youku are embroiled in a series of lawsuits over copyright infringement (previous post), and just as the online video sector has started to sign a series of ground-breaking deals to legally license popular TV shows and movies as they try to wean themselves from the pirated content that was traditionally the main attraction on their sites. Youku announced the latest such deal just yesterday in a new tie-up with Twentieth Century Fox (Nasdaq: NWSA) (company announcement); but this latest spat will surely overshadow that news. In fact, moves like this could ultimately threaten future licensing deals, as this kind of blockage will ultimately make it more difficult for consumers to find the programs they want to watch online, putting a serious damper on the industry’s development. This latest development also comes as Chinese regulators consider restricting the amount of advertising that online video sites can put in their programs, potentially dealing another big blow. (previous post) From a broader perspective, these kind of developments don’t bode well for online video in 2012, and could even delay the money-losing industry’s march to long-term profitability.

Bottom line: A new search blocking war in the online video industry will hamper its development and, along with other negative developments, delay a transition to long-term profitability.

INTERNET: Sohu Runs Out of Steam, Borrows from Game Unit

By newsdoug on October 26, 2016

Bottom line: Sohu may be forced to separately sell off its portal, video, search and gaming units over the next 1-2 years, or risk seeing them gradually fall in value as the company’s losses mount.

After running for years as a solid second-tier player, Internet veteran Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) is finally showing signs of running out of steam, based on its latest quarterly results and word of a major new loan to the company from its cash-rich but fading Changyou (Nasdaq: CYOU) gaming unit. This kind of turn isn’t all that surprising, since status as a second-tier player should only be temporary and such companies should either aspire to top-tier positions or sell themselves to rivals to ensure their longer term survival.

But Sohu has defied such pressures, largely due to the fiercely independent nature of its founder Charles Zhang, who is both quite shrewd but also famously averse to giving control of his empire to others. These latest results show that Zhang may soon have no choice but to sell some or all of his company, or risk seeing it slowly relegated to oblivion due to pressure from better-run rivals. Read Full Post…

SMARTPHONES: Xiaomi’s BRICS Dream Crumbles in Brazil

By newsdoug on May 31, 2016

Bottom line: Xiaomi’s Brazilian retrenchment will ultimately become a withdrawal from the country, and reflects a lack of preparation and understanding when it entered the market a year ago.

The bad news keeps coming for sputtering smartphone maker Xiaomi, which is retrenching its Brazilian operation less than a year after entering the market. I have to admit that reports on this latest setback reflect a recent media fascination with any sort of failure for Xiaomi, which was once a media darling with its hip-and-trendy smartphones and slick marketing campaigns. But that said, this particular setback does look a bit more serious than some of the other recent bad news, as it appears to mark a big disappointment in a market where Xiaomi had big hopes. Read Full Post…

SMARTPHONES: Xiaomi Shrivels in China, Huawei Gets Assertive

By newsdoug on May 25, 2016

Bottom line: Xiaomi’s rapid slide in China is unlikely to ease soon and it’s likely to fall out of the top 5 brands before year end, while Huawei’s lawsuit against Samsung reflects a new confidence with its recent rapid rise.

New headlines are shining a spotlight on 2 of China’s best-known domestic smartphone brands, even though the fast-rising Huawei and rapidly sinking Xiaomi are moving in opposite directions. New data shows just how badly Xiaomi has slipped over the last year at home, where the former market leader is now in danger of dropping out of the top 5 following a huge decline in first quarter sales. Meantime, the same data show a continued surge for Huawei, which is showing its growing confidence by a filing a new patent lawsuit against global smartphone leader Samsung (Seoul: 005930). Read Full Post…

BUYOUTS: Sinovac, Ku6 Join Privatization Queue

By newsdoug on February 2, 2016

Bottom line: Sinovac may be forced to raise its buyout offer following a chorus of complaints from investors, while Ku6’s new buyout offer is unlikely to meet with any resistance due to its small size and big premium.

Sinovac gets buyout offer

The final days of the Year of the Ram are seeing 2 more US-listed Chinese companies head for the exit door, with new privatization announcements from vaccine maker Sinovac (Nasdaq: SVA) and Internet video company Ku6 (Nasdaq: KUTV). Sinovac’s announcement instantly drew criticism from one US fund manager for being too low, and it’s quite possible we could see some law firms that specialize in securities litigation voice similar criticism.

Meantime, no one is criticizing the Ku6 offer, mostly because this is a company that ceased to be relevant long ago. I’ve followed Ku6 since it first went public as Hurray Holdings in 2005. Back then it raised $70 million in its IPO, and it was acquired 4 years later by online gaming giant Shanda. But all that seems like a distant memory now, and the new privatization bid values the company at just $51.5 million. Read Full Post…