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Tag Archives: Baidu
Baidu Company News Baidu 百度, Inc. incorporated on January 2000, is classifed as web services company established by Robin Li and Eric Xu.
Overview of the Chinese high Tech Market by former Chief Editor of Reuters (Doug Young).
Baidu offers many services, including a search engine for websites, audio files and images.
Baidu in Figures
– Ranked 4th overall in the Alexa rankings
– In 2015, Baidu had over 1 billion visits / month
– Baidu offers 57 community services (Chinese encyclopedia, questions/Answers , forums … )
Bottom line: Beijing needs to accelerate reform of traditional media in the face of rising challenges from players like Alibaba and Baidu, or risk seeing many of these state-run companies fall into irrelevance.
Alibaba challenges traditional media to speed up reform
A wave of mega-mergers sweeping through China’s Internet over the last 2 years saw its biggest deal to date announced late last week, when e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) offered $4.6 billion for the more than 80 percent of leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) it doesn’t already own. The move marked the latest challenge to China’s traditional media industry, which has been monopolized for years by state-run broadcasters and printed publications.
If this latest mega-deal gets completed, a new Youku Tudou with access to Alibaba’s cash and other vast resources will almost certainly accelerate its challenge to traditional media by aggressively rolling out compelling new on-demand products and premium content. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New global initiatives by Alibaba and JD.com are largely cosmetic and could bring some short-term support to their stocks, but both will need to show results to satisfy investors over the longer term.
Alibaba, JD in outbound migration
China’s 2 leading e-commerce firms are in a sudden migratory mood, with Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) and JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) both announcing the opening of new offices in the US and Europe. At the same time, Alibaba has also declared that the headquarters for its annual November 11 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza will migrate, leaving its original location in the company’s hometown of Hangzhou to set up a new shop in Beijing.
The sudden migratory story looks squarely aimed at investors, who want to see these domestic e-commerce giants laying the groundwork for future growth beyond their home China market. But while opening new offices may look nice on the surface, the US and European markets that both companies are targeting will be extremely tough due to competition from entrenched local players and global giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New $200-$300 million investments by Baidu and Alibaba in smaller Internet companies show such fundings are starting to recede in size after peaking earlier this year.
58 Home gets investment from Alibaba, KKR
Two big fund-raising stories are in the headlines today, each involving a top Internet company as China’s “big 3” trio of Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700) look for ways to put their big cash pots to work. It’s interesting to note that neither Baidu nor Alibaba is the central player in either of these latest deals, one in e-commerce and the other in online-to-offline (O2O) services. Instead, both are playing secondary roles, supporting other companies with good growth potential.
The larger of the 2 investments is seeing Alibaba participate in a new $300 million first funding round for a 1-year-old company that helps web surfers find home-based services like cleaning and baby sitting. The second has Baidu participating in a $200 million funding for an older e-commerce company with close ties to state-run cereals giant COFCO. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China should expand its plans for a new enterprise board in Shanghai to include a place for the Chinese units of big multinationals like Yum and Uber, allowing domestic investors to buy into these big foreign names.
Calls grow for KFC parent to spin off China unit
Global fast food giant Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) became the latest major multinational to contemplate a spin-off for its China business last week, following in the tracks of Uber and IMAX (NYSE: IMAX), two leaders in their respective areas of hired car services and big-screen theater technology. The trend acknowledges that China will soon become the world’s largest consumer market, and its unique qualities and complexities often justify creation of separate companies for these big global names to effectively develop the market.
China should seize on this trend and modify its current plans for a new Nasdaq-style enterprise board based in Shanghai to also include a place for these larger, newly created companies with foreign roots. Reports earlier this year indicated the regulator was aiming to roll out the new strategic industries board as soon as next year, though its plans could be delayed due to the recent turmoil on China’s stock markets. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Tsinghua’s Latest Deal Is Adding Chairman of Micron (Nasdaq: MU) Venture (English article)
JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) Opens First US Office in Silicon Valley (company announcement)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Taikang Life Lead $200 Mln Series C in E-tailer Womai (English article)
58.com (NYSE: WUBA) Unit 58 Home Raises US$300 Mln Series A Funding (PRNewswire)
China RE IPO Raises Nearly $2 Bln, Shares to Debut on Oct 26 (Chinese article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 10-12. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Resources Unit to Sell Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) China Store Stakes for $525 Mln (English article)
Bottom line: A major US trade group’s new call for censure of Alibaba over piracy will bring more negative publicity, though the company’s name is unlikely to reappear on the next edition of Washington’s “notorious markets” list for trade in counterfeit goods.
Group says Taobao still plagued by fakes
A major US trade group that launched an assault on Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) earlier this year is ratcheting up the volume of its attack, calling for direct censure of the Chinese e-commerce giant for not doing enough to fight piracy. The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) was quite scathing in its earlier criticism of Alibaba back in July, blasting the company for its flawed approach and lack of transparency in tackling piracy on its Taobao C2C marketplace.
At the time of that critique the AAFA said it was sending a letter detailing its concerns to the US Trade Representative’s office, which compiles an annual list of “notorious markets” where piracy is rampant. Now the AAFA, which represents more than 1,000 American clothing and shoe makers, is being even more direct by specifically calling for Alibaba to be included on the next edition of the “notorious” list that is likely to be published in the next 2-3 months. (AAFA announcement; English article) Read Full Post…
Update: An official at an investment firm involved in the deal confirmed to YCBB that the merger talks are happening.
Bottom line: The merger of Dinaping an Meituan will make uneasy in-laws of Tencent and Alibaba, and will likely be followed within a year by a buyout by one of the partners or IPO for the new company.
Meituan, Dianping in uneasy union
The headlines are buzzing today with word of an imminent merger between leading group buying sites Dianping and Meituan on this first day back to work after the week-long National Day holiday. The deal is certainly a landmark one, as it will create a clear leader in the emerging category of online-to-offline (O2O) companies that bring together the convenience of Internet buying with offline products and services like restaurant dining, going to the movies and hailing a taxi.
Some media are pointing out the merger will pose a major new challenge to the aggressive O2O aspirations of Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into building out its own rival services. But for me, this particular marriage represents the latest chapter of an increasingly close but also uncomfortable alliance between the country’s other 2 Internet giants, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which are major stakeholders in Dianping and Meituan, respectively. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s new drive to sell legal music, books and video in China stands a reasonably good chance of success, banking on consumers’ growing willingness to pay for such products if they are convenient and affordably priced.
iTunes comes to China
Following the record-breaking debut for its iPhone 6s models, tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is taking a big new risk by attempting something no one has done yet successfully: making profits from selling legal music and movies in China. The move was part of a newly announced major expansion of Apple’s online store in its second largest global market. But while Chinese consumers have shown a big willingness to pay huge premiums for iPhones, it’s far from clear they’ll do the same for movies and music that they can usually download for free.
Apple sold a record 13 million iPhone 6s models worldwide in their first weekend on sale, easily beating the previous record of 10 million for the iPhone 6 models. China was an important factor in achieving the new record, since the iPhone 6 wasn’t available here during the first weekend of its global launch due to technical reasons. Apple hasn’t given any individual country figures yet, but it’s probably safe to assume it sold at least 3 million of the new iPhones in China during their opening weekend. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Microsoft’s new tie-up with Baidu could presage a major scale-back for its China-based Bing search engine, paving the way for Baidu technology to power the struggling service.
Microsoft, Baidu in new China search tie-up
An interesting new dance is taking shape between global software titan Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and leading Chinese search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), paving the way for a potential exit of Microsoft’s Bing search engine from China after years of disappointing results. After announcing a new tie-up that will see Baidu promote Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 operating system in China, the pair are saying said that Baidu will now become the default search engine on the web browser associated with the newest Windows.
Microsoft will clearly benefit from the first move, which should help it to sell more legal copies of its core Windows OS in China. Baidu is the clear beneficiary from the second move, making this look somewhat like an even trade-off. But while the first move is relatively neutral to Baidu, the second will see Microsoft effectively sacrifice Bing in China. That’s because very few people use the search engine, and now that number will drop even more if Bing loses its default status on the new Windows browser. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 30. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Facebook’s (Nasdaq: FB) Sandberg: China Business ‘Thriving’ Amid Ban (English article)
Shoemaker Skechers (NYSE: SKX) Plans 4,000 China Stores in Next 3 Years (Chinese article)
Microsoft To Replace Bing With Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) on Windows 10 in China (English article)
3 Telcos to Launch New Policy Allowing Data Carry-Over on Oct 1 (Chinese article)
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Unveils Nexus Phones by Huawei, LG to Battle IPhone (English article)
