Bottom line: Alibaba’s stock is likely to come under continued pressure over the next 6 months, as it grapples with overvaluation, piracy issues and a large volume of shares coming back into the market from Yahoo.
Yahoo to spin off Alibaba stake
E-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is in a couple of major headlines today, raising questions about its future ownership and also its open platform business model. On the ownership side, US Internet giant Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) has announced it will spin off its large stake in Alibaba into a separate company, and then distribute shares in that new firm to existing Yahoo shareholders. On the business model side, Alibaba has enlisted one of the thousands of merchants on its popular Taobao C2C marketplace to respond to a government audit that found nearly two-thirds of goods sold on Taobao were fakes. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 28. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Yahoo to Spin Off Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Stake Tax-Free As Public Company (English article)
Taobao Publishes Merchant Letter Questioning Accuracy Of Govt Piracy Audit (Chinese article)
JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Launches Major Imported Foods Initiative (GlobeNewswire)
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Ranked As Top China Smartphone Seller In Q4 – Report (Chinese article)
Huawei Eyes $16 Bln In 2015 Smartphone Sales With High-End, Export Push (Chinese article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Just 58.7 Pct Of Products Genuine In Random Government E-commerce Audit (Chinese article)
WeChat Unveils First Big Advertisers For Moments Function, Includes BMW, Vivo (Chinese article)
Actress Zhao Wei Invests HK$5.1 Bln In Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Film Unit (Chinese article)
Wanda Invests $1 Bln In Sydney Land Development Project (Chinese article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Brings Motorola Back to China as Moto X Phone Released (English article)
Bottom line: A current round of big fund raising for Chinese tech firms will continue through the first half of the year but then start to fade, leading to a steady drop in valuations for such companies.
51Auto raises $30 mln in new funds
The fund-raising frenzy for Chinese tech companies continues as we head into the end of January, with word of another mega funding worth $100 million for childcare website Beibei.com. At the same time, a used car specialist called 51Auto has landed a nifty $30 million in its own new funding round. But my favorite story from the fund-raising realm comes from a company that has created a PC for dogs, and has found a backer to give it 5 million yuan ($800,000) for the endeavor. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba could make a bid to buy Yahoo as part of a broader overhaul of the relationship between these 2 Internet companies, but personal and other issues could ultimately hamper such a deal.
Yahoo to sell remaining Alibaba stake?
Media have been focused these last 2 days on reports of a new mega purchase by Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) in the insurance space, but another report centers on a far more intriguing possible deal involving the e-commerce giant’s long relationship with faded US search giant Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO). That particular relationship has undergone huge changes since the pair first formed their partnership a decade ago, and could easily be the subject of a book. In the latest chapter to that story, a new report is speculating that Alibaba could make a bid for Yahoo in the next year as it seeks to go global following its blockbuster IPO in 2014. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: High-spending advertisers could provide a major new revenue source for Tencent, as it rolls out new ad-based services on its popular WeChat Moments function.
WeChat rolls out new ad services
Internet stalwart Tencent (HKEx: 700) is revving up its drive to monetize its popular WeChat mobile messaging platform, with word that it’s rolled out advertising services for one of the platform’s most popular functions. The move will start inserting ads into WeChat’s popular Moments function, known as pengyuouquan in Chinese, in a gamble that risks alienating many of the hundreds of millions of platform’s users. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 22. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Spring Airlines (Shanghai: 601021) Jumps 44 Pct In Shanghai Trading Debut (Chinese article)
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Seeks Stake In Insurer New China Life (HKEx: 1336) – Paper (English article)
Huawei, Global Union Partner On OTT TV Service (English article)
Dalian Wanda Group Pays 45 Mln Euros For Soccer Club Atletico Madrid (Chinese article)
eHi (Nasdaq: EHIC), Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) Launch Next Phase Of Partnership (PRNewswire)
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: A new list of China’s top apps spotlights fast-growing names like news app Today’s Headlines, photo app Meitu and dictionary app Youdao, which could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds this year.
Meitu earns place on top 10 app list
A newly released list of China’s top 10 apps for 2014 is shining a spotlight on an up-and-coming field of lesser known names that could be companies to watch, as many are much younger than stalwarts like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700). The “BAT” trio of China’s biggest Internet firms took 4 of the top 10 spots on the list, which was compiled by Baidu. But far more interesting were some of the other names, including recently listed social networking app Momo (Nasdaq: MOMO) and news app Today’s Headlines, which made its own headlines with its meteoric rise last year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Disappointing results for fund-raising by Wanda Cinema Line and Kuaidi taxi app show a recent boom in new funding for private Chinese companies may have crested and will wane for the rest of the year.
Kuaidi fund-raising diappoints
The crest of a huge wave of new fund raising for private Chinese firms may have passed, with word that 2 major new deals that should have attracted big investor interest have instead met with weaker-than-expected response. The first of those has seen investors give a lukewarm reception to a domestic IPO for Wanda Cinema Line, the nation’s first major movie theater operator to list. The second has seen taxi app operator Kuadi raise $500 million in a private funding round, which doesn’t sound too bad. But the figure is actually quite a bit lower than Kuaidi’s earlier plan and is also lower than a similar recent fund-raising round for leading rival Didi. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 15. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Dalian Wanda (HKEx: 3699) Says 4 Investors To Put $3.9 Bln Into 20 New Malls (English article)
Wanda Cinema Line Issues Stock At Low Price, Well Below Other Valuations (Chinese article)
Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) Forms Logistics, Financing Unit (Chinese article)
