Bottom line: JD’s decision to shutter its Paipai C2C marketplace looks like a smart move, as China looks set to crack down on online trafficking in fake goods that is often rampant and hard to police on such sites.
E-commerce JD.com(Nasdaq: JD) has just announced it is formally shuttering it Paipai C2C site, citing difficulties policing the thousands of small merchants and individuals who sell products on the site. Timing of the move is slightly strange, since JD announced the downbeat decision just a day before the November 11 Singles Day, which has become the world’s biggest day for online shoppers.
On the surface at least, the move looks like a major victory for archrival Alibaba(NYSE: BABA), whose Taobao online marketplace competes directly with Paipai and controls the vast majority of China’s C2C e-commerce market. But the move also represents a major tactical decision for JD, since C2C markets are notoriously difficult to police for fakes, substandard products and fraud due to the huge number of merchants they host. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s Singles Day sales this year are likely to meet its targets, growing by at least 20-30 percent, but the company should put less emphasis on such figures in the future and focus more on creating a high quality shopping event.
It’s only a third of the way into the day as I write this, but e-commerce leader Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) is making sure I have more than enough data to last me the entire day as we kick off this year’s edition of its popular November 11 Singles Day online shopping extravaganza. The company began putting out figures as soon as the clock struck midnight, and has been issuing a steady stream of data ever since showing just how successful the spending fest has become.
I’ll review some of the early figures shortly, and admit they’re quite impressive in numbers-obsessed China. But that said, I’ve also heard from friends about the huge behind-the-scenes pressure that Alibaba is putting on its partners to meet their sales targets for the holiday, which in turn will help it post the impressive gains it’s seeking for its own sales. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Generates $5 Bln GMV in First 90 Minutes of Singles Day Festival (Businesswire)
Bottom line: CICC and Jiuxian are benefiting from a growing number of domestic listing options for private Chinese companies, but both will still need to show they can be profitable industry leaders for investors to take them seriously.
A couple of new IPOs are highlighting the growing allure of China’s increasingly diverse stock markets for domestic companies that used to flock to New York. Leading the headlines is a very respectable performance in the long-awaited Hong Kong trading debut for CICC (HKEx: 3908), China’s oldest investment bank. The strong debut came even after CICC had to scale back the offering due to weak demand, and market watchers are attributing the performance to separate news that China will resume domestic IPOs by year-end after a pause of several months.
In the other headline, online wine seller Jiuxian has become the latest Chinese Internet firm to list on the country’s 2-year-old over the counter (OTC) market. The loss-making Jiuxian had initially aimed to list in New York, but abandoned that plan for a simpler offering at home. It joined other money-losing startups making similar listings over the last week, including online classified ad site Baixing and Alibaba-backed (NYSE: BABA) soccer club Evergrande Taobao. (previous post) Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China’s Oldest Investment Bank CICC (HKEx: 3908) Jumps in HK Trading Debut (English article)
Online Wine Seller Jiuxian Lists on China OTC, Eyes Main Board Next Year (Chinese article)
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) ‘On the Move’ to Buy Stake in SCMP (HKEx: 583) – Market Talk (English article)
Shenzhen Probes Meituan, Ele.me for Using Unauthorized Restaurants (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Alibaba’s Youku Tudou purchase, its investment in a US online grocery store and its spat with JD mark a return to the headlines for the company following a quiet period, as it regains confidence following a piracy scandal early this year.
E-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) may have briefly gone into headline hibernation over the summer when its stock was in free-fall, but it’s quickly returning to a more familiar hyperactive mode as its Singles Day shopping extravaganza approaches this week. The company is in at least 2 M&A headlines as we head into the new week, announcing its signing of a formal deal to buy leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and reportedly nearing a deal to make a relatively big investment in a US online grocery site called Boxed.
Meantime, a recent spat between Alibaba and archrival JD.com(Nasdaq: JD) continues to make headlines just 2 days before Singles Day, which falls on November 11 and has rapidly grown to become the world’s busiest online shopping day. That spat burst into headlines last week and revolves around anti-competitive accusations made by JD, which has now also sued Alibaba for allegedly making inflated claims about its delivery service. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Two new China OTC listings for companies that may have previously chosen New York, and slow progress for Giant Interactive’s backdoor listing, reflect fading offshore interest in these companies, as more options emerge for them in China.
A trio of IPO stories are in the headlines as we head into the new week, led by new listings for online classified ad site Baixing and a soccer club co-owned by Alibaba(NYSE: BABA). But unlike earlier days when these 2 IPO stories might have both surfaced in New York, both are happening on China’s recently launched modest over-the-counter (OTC) board, reflecting shifting capital raising patterns.
The third of these new IPO stories involves Giant Interactive, which was formerly listed in New York but privatized 2 years ago and is trying to return to China through a backdoor listing in Shenzhen. That story has the Shenzhen stock exchange requesting more information from Giant as it seeks to list via a company called New Century Cruises (Shenzhen: 002258). While such a request isn’t too worrisome, it does signal that the return to Chinese stock markets could be a bumpy ride for the many US-listed companies now leaving New York. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Tencent (HKEx: 700) in Talks to Borrow up to $1.5 Bln in Syndicated Loan (English article)
JD (Nasdaq: JD) Sues Alibaba for Misleading Users on Speedy Delivery (English article)
Bottom line: China’s commerce regulator is putting growing pressure on Alibaba to play by its rules governing piracy and fair competition, but is likely to keep dialogue private to avoid public spats like one early this year.
E-commerce juggernaut Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is coming uncomfortably under the microscope just days before its important Singles Day shopping extravaganza, with 2 new developments reflecting growing scrutiny from the nation’s top commerce regulator. The first has the powerful State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) formally accepting a complaint from rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), which accuses Alibaba of strong-arm tactics aimed at stifling competition during Singles Day promotions set for November 11.
The second headline looks a bit more benign, and simply says that SAIC Minister Zhang Mao visited Alibaba’s headquarters in the city of Hangzhou in coastal Zhejiang province this week. Headlines from that meeting look designed to show a facade of harmony, with Zhang praising Alibaba for its innovation in e-commerce. But I do suspect that Zhang is strongly pushing Alibaba behind the scenes to clean up its sites of traffic in pirated and substandard products, and also to avoid abusing its market dominance that led to the JD.com complaint. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tencent’s latest plan to invest $1 billion in Meituan-Dianping looks like an awkward bid for control of the newly merged company, which could attract a rival bid from Alibaba.
Social networking giant Tencent(HKEx: 700) has never been very good at public relations, unlike slicker Internet rivals Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), whose founders are much better at wooing the media and investors. That refrain is ringing true once again with the latest mega-investment headlines, which appear to show Tencent making an awkward bid for the newly formed group buying giant created by the merger between former rivals Dianping and Meituan.
In fact, Tencent isn’t really bidding for the new company outright, but appears to be voicing its future intent by offering the merged company $1 billion in new funding. Such a funding would boost Tencent’s current equity in the merged company, in which it already holds a stake following its purchase of 20 percent of Dianping last year for $400 million. Such a bid would seem like a direct challenge to Alibaba, which also holds a relatively large stake in the newly merged company through its participation in a $300 million funding round for Meituan last year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The latest spat between Alibaba and JD over behind-the-scenes strong-arm tactics will quickly subside following JD’s filing of a formal complaint, as both come under government pressure to clean up their sites of counterfeit goods.
In what’s quickly becoming an annual ritual of fall, a war of words has broken out between e-commerce leaders Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) and JD.com(Nasdaq: JD) in the run-up to China’s November 11 Singles Day, the world’s biggest online spending extravaganza. This year JD has accused its larger rival of pressuring third-party online merchants to limit their Singles Day promotions to Alibaba’s own websites, effectively freezing out other sites like JD’s where those same merchants may also operate other online stores.
At the same time, Alibaba, JD and their many smaller e-commerce peers are coming under fire from a new Beijing report saying that more than 40 percent of goods sold online in China are either fake or of poor quality. This new report looks similar to another one that came out early this year uncovering rampant piracy among Chinese e-commerce firms. This time no specific companies are named in the latest media reports. The report earlier this year named many specific companies, and cited Alibaba’s popular Taobao mall as one of the most egregious marketplaces for trade in counterfeit goods. Read Full Post…