Bottom line: Unusual scheduling announcements mean the latest quarterly earnings from Youku Tudou and Dangdang could disappoint, though a recent sell-off in their shares looks overblown.
Quarterly earnings announcements often ignite big moves in stocks, sparking big gains or losses if companies exceed or miss market expectations. It’s far less common to see company announcements of when they will release their latest quarterly reports create similar reactions. But that’s exactly what’s happened with the latest such earnings date announcements from struggling online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and faded e-commerce player Dangdang (NYSE: DANG).
Shares of both companies have tanked to lows not seen in more than a year, following their release of unusual announcements about when they will report their next quarterly earnings. Company announcements of such dates are quite standard industry practice, allowing investors to prepare and attend conference calls to discuss the numbers. Such date announcements typically come 1-3 weeks before the actual results are announced, giving investors adequate time to prepare. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Amazon’s opening of a shop on Alibaba’s popular Tmall looks like a shrewd move to boost its struggling China business, but is unlikely to raise its market share significantly.
Amazon opening store on Alibaba’s Tmall
Word that Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) will open a China store on Alibaba’s (NYSE BABA) popular Tmall marketplace has the online world buzzing that the US e-commerce giant is admitting defeat and failure of its China strategy. Some are even saying the move could mark an eventual closure of Amazon’s own China site, which has failed to attract a major audience despite huge investments by the company. But anyone reaching those conclusion should think again, as this particular move looks quite shrewd and could actually help Amazon to boost its struggling China business. Read Full Post…
The Super Bowl may be the most watched TV program in the US, but it’s still relatively unknown in China due to the lack of popularity of American football. But the sport gained at least a few Chinese fans with its latest airing, as top executives from the likes of PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and online video firm LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) tuned in to watch this year’s match-up that saw the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks.
Meantime, an executive from the struggling Sina Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) was busy criticizing rival Tencent (HKEx: 700) for the latter’s freeze-out of several major Internet firms from its hugely popular WeChat instant messaging platform. Finally, we’ll end this week’s round-up of tech executive chatter with buzz that hints a former online literature pioneer may be preparing to emerge from a forced retirement, as he returns after a tough business battle of the sort that’s quite common in China. Read Full Post…
Internet executives were busy quashing a number of rumors on their microblogs this week, with smartphone sensation Xiaomi trying to stamp out reports of bitter relations with SNS giant Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), and e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) quashing talk of a major new investment in South Korea. But some of the more interesting chatter focused on the concept of company valuations, and just how widely such valuations can vary for China’s dynamic tech firms.
At the same time, a coming flurry of year-end parties began to kick off in the run-up to the Chinese New Year holiday that’s just a month away. The microblogging realm saw e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) singing its own praises at the company’s annual party, taking a shot at fast-fading rival Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) in the process. At around the same time, a stumbling Sina Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) also held an annual awards ceremony for notable microbloggers, in its own attempt to remain relevant in the social networking realm. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China is positioned to become a global leader in development of open platforms as an Internet business model, but regulators should take a more active role in overseeing these marketplaces.
Ctrip joins open platform rush
China is quickly becoming a global leader in a type of online business that uses an open platform model at its core, with travel stalwart Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) becoming the latest entrant into the space after years of operating a more traditional closed platform service. While traditional closed platforms see website operators sell products directly to consumers, open platforms let operators simply manage online marketplaces where consumers can shop for products from a wide range of third-party merchants. Read Full Post…
Chatter in the microblogging realm this past week was squarely focused on the Double Eleven shopping binge that saw e-commerce sites and smartphone makers log impressive sales on the date also known as Singles Day. But not everyone was boasting about huge sales, as executives from early e-commerce leader Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and smartphone aspirant Smartisan were both uncharacteristically quiet on their microblogs, hinting at mediocre results on the shopping holiday.
The situation was just the opposite at e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which single-handedly commercialized a day that now generates more sales than even Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the US. That rapid success in such a short time was putting a strain on Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments arm, which reportedly was restricted to processing payments from Alibaba’s own e-commerce sites. That meant other companies’ sites often couldn’t accept Alipay for payments on their sites during the day.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Cuts $2 Bln From Phone Subsidy Budget (English article)
Chinese Group Proposes To Buy US Chipmaker OmniVision (English article)
Investors have taken some of the shine off of recently listed online cosmetics seller Jumei International (NYSE: JMEI), following reports that some third-party merchants on its site were engaged in the sale of fake goods. In an interesting twist, the news had little or no effect on another recently listed e-commerce firm, JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), which was also mentioned in the same reports. To some extent the mixed reaction shows that investors are still less familiar with Jumei, which is a younger firm and was far less known to Wall Street before the company’s recent listing. Still, this kind of selling of knock-off goods is always a risk for any e-commerce firm that allows third-party vendors to sell products on its sites. Read Full Post…
Customer loyalty poll highlights Xioami’s long march ahead
Cyberchatter over the past week was shining a spotlight on the huge task ahead for domestic Chinese smartphone makers, as they engage in cut-throat competition in their massive home market. A new survey posted by a top regional telecoms executive showed just how little loyalty Chinese customers feel towards most of the domestic brands, underscoring the fact that low prices are still their major attraction.
Meantime, fading e-commerce veteran Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) was also facing its own uphill battle, as its core online book business was reportedly on the cusp of being overtaken by much newer rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), China’s second largest player. True to his usual form, Dangdang’s talkative but short-sighted co-founder Li Guoqing was more focused on a new employee incentive plan than the looming negative milestone for a division that was once his company’s core business. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 14-16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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ZTE (HKEx: 763) Targets 100 Mln Annual Cellphone Sales In 3 Years (Chinese article)
Boeing (NYSE: BA) Wins Biggest Ever Order From A Chinese Airline (English article)
MIIT To Issue Third Batch Of VNO Licenses In 1-2 Months (English article)
Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) On Logistics Drive In Yangtze River Economic Belt (PRNewswire)
Line Plans Major China Push This Year, To Set Up Locally-Based Team (Chinese article)
