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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: The accelerating sell-off for US-listed China shares looks overblown and stocks are likely to rebound once the panic subsidies, but many previously announced buyout bids are still likely to collapse.
Ailing Chinese stocks infect US
The panic gripping China’s stock markets is spreading to US-listed Chinese shares, with even Internet blue chips like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) getting sucked into the vortex of what looks like increasingly irrational selling. One media report is pointing out that tycoons like Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Alibaba founders Pony Ma and Jack Ma have seen their fortunes shrink by hundreds of millions or even more than a billion dollars in the latest trading day of the ongoing sell-off.
Another report cites China-based asset managers saying that a flood of privatization plans for China-listed US firms will still move forward despite the growing panic. Their optimism contrasts with growing skepticism among US investors who fear that many of the plans will collapse in tandem with China’s own crumbling stock markets. Anyone who agrees with those asset managers could make some big money right now, as the plummeting US stock prices mean many of these buyout candidates are now trading as much as 40 percent below their offer prices. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Baidu’s spending blitz at Nuomi looks like a good but expensive strategy to help the company quickly pick up market share in the group buying space, and could pose a serious challenge to industry leaders Dianping and Meituan.
About Internet Giant Baidu
Baidu revs up spending at Nuomi
Internet giant Baidu(Nasdaq: BIDU) is making a major push into the group buying space, announcing a bold campaign that includes 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) in new spending as it aims to replicate its earliest success in online search. This particular campaign is focused on Baidu’s Nuomi group buying site that it purchased a year and a half ago, and has the site’s chief saying he aims to overtake industry leaders Dianping and Meituan in the next 1 year and 3 years, respectively.
This particular campaign surprised me a bit, as Baidu hasn’t really announced any major plans for Nuomi since buying the company from struggling social networking site Renren (NYSE: RENN) for more than $200 million. But this kind of move would be similar to what Baidu did with online travel site Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR), which was already growing quickly when Baidu purchased a controlling stake in 2011. Since then, Qunar has made an IPO and Baidu has poured big money into the company, which is now posing a serious challenge to longtime industry leader Ctrip. (Nasdaq: CTRP) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Shanghai will bid aggressively for Chinese tech firms to list on a new Nasdaq-style board planned for the city, while shares of companies privatizing from New York will continue to sag in sync with China’s stock market sell-off.
Soccer club eyes IPO on new Shanghai board
A new Shanghai-based Chinese board that aims to compete with Wall Street for new high-tech listings is moving closer to reality, with reports that Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) iQiyi online video service and Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) affiliated Ant Financial unit will be among the exchange’s inaugural listing candidates. A separate report also says that another Alibaba-affiliated company, soccer team Evergrande Taobao, will also list on the board, which is being referred to right now as the new strategic industries board.
Meantime in New York, the current week looks set to end with just a single privatization announcement for a US-listed Chinese firm, a sharp slowdown from the 20 earlier offers in the month of June. In this case the abrupt slowdown is at least partly due to the plunge in China’s stock markets this week, and we’re unlikely to see any more offers until the situation stabilizes. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Resolution of Baidu‘s dispute with a one of its top clients, combined with declining profits, reflects a new reality that is seeing its pricing power erode as it faces growing competition from both search and non-search service providers.
Exec confirms Baidu settles Putian dispute
A new report is confirming that leading search engineBaidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has quietly settled a dispute with one of its major advertisers, which shaved nearly 15 percent off the company’s stock at the time. But the dispute is clearly have some lasting damage on Baidu’s share price, reflecting the reality that new challenges from rival search engines and also from non-search services like Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat may be undercutting Baidu’s ability to command huge premiums for its advertising services.
Baidu’s misery in China’s stock Markets
Adding to Baidu’s misery is the recent plummet in China’s stock markets, which has fueled a concurrent drop in overseas-listed Chinese tech stocks like Baidu. That sell-off saw Baidu’s shares dip more than 5 percent in the last 3 trading days of last week. That fall shaved off nearly $4 billion from its market value, as its shares reapproached levels last seen during the stand-off with the Putian Healthcare Industry Chamber of Commerce that broke out in late March. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 1. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Eyes $600 Mln Investment in India Online Payment Firm Paytm (Chinese article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU0 to Invest 20 Bln Yuan in Nuomi.com Over Next 3 Years (English article)
KFC (NYSE: YUM) Forms Alliance With Alipay (Chinese article)
Yingli (NYSE: YGE) Seeks Public Solar Investment With Internet Financing Platform (PRNewswire)
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) to Offer Loans to Sellers in China, 7 Other Countries (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 30. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Wanda Cinema (Shenzhen: 002739) to Raise 2.2 Bln Yuan for 16 Purchases (Chinese article)
Legend Holdings (HKEx: 3396) Edges up in HK Debut After $1.96 Bln IPO (English article)
Didi Kuaidi Operator to Invest in Southeast Asian Taxi App ‘GrabTaxi’ – Source (English article)
KongZhong (Nasdaq: KZ) Receives Proposal to Acquire the Company (PRNewswire)
Putian Hospital Association Restarts Ad Buying on Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU)
Bottom line: Chinese Internet blue chips like Baidu and Ctrip should continue to flourish on Wall Street due to their leading status, while shares of smaller names will sputter and even plunge if a recent wave of buyout offers starts to collapse.
Baidu in $1.25 bln bond offer
The last 2 days have been most notable for what hasn’t happened over that time, namely the announcement of any new buyout offers for US-listed Chinese companies. Barring any new announcements on this final day of the trading week, the second quarter of 2015 is likely to end with a record 20 such privatization bids for Chinese firms looking to de-list from New York in search of better valuations back in China.
At the same time, 2 of China’s premier US-listed Internet companies are on the cusp of issuing a combined total of nearly $2.5 billion in new bonds, reflecting a new reality for Chinese companies on Wall Street. That reality is allowing China’s leading Internet names like search giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and top online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) to still do quite well in New York, even as the far bigger number of lesser-known companies see their shares sputter. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Uber’s latest mega funding from a Chinese investor demonstrates its determination to stay in China, while Yidao’s marginalization could force it to sell itself to an Uber-Baidu alliance at a bargain price.
Hillhouse eyes Uber investment
The race for supremacy in China’s hired car services market is taking several new twists, with reports that US giant Uber is close to landing a major new funding from a Chinese backer as it shows no signs of leaving the market. At the same time, intense competition could be close to claiming its first big victim, with separate reports saying Yidao Yongche has made major layoffs as it struggles to keep up with Uber and homegrown Chinese giant Didi Kuaidi.
The hired car services story in China has been a noisy one, upsetting a stodgy industry that was mostly dominated for years by traditional taxis. But a new generation of companies are taking advantage of global positioning technology to offer location based services (LBS) that allow customers to easily find and book hired private cars that are nearby and also cheaper than taxis. That potent combination has resulted in a “democratization” of hired car services, which were usually considered a semi-luxury but are now increasingly used by people as an affordable substitute for public transportation. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 25. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Uber Lands Big Chinese Backer in Hillhouse (English article)
Suning’s (Shenzhen: 002024) Laox to Invest 3 Bln Yuan to Open 26 Stores in Japan (English article)
Hired Car Services Specialist Yidao Makes Big Layoffs (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Alibaba’s new fund-raising activities are relatively small but provide insight about its future direction, hinting at a major pushes into the gadget and financial services spaces.
Alibaba, Foxconn invest in Pepper
A couple of new fund-raising headlines involving e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) show company founder Jack Ma engaged at one of the things he does best, namely making deals and forging new partnerships. Neither deal is particularly big in terms of dollar investment, but both provide some insight on the kinds of partners and tie-ups that Ma is pursuing for both the New York-listed Alibaba and its separate but affiliated Ant Financial unit. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Oriental Pearl’s new purchase of a stake in a set-top box and TV maker is part of a broader series of recent moves that could help position it to emerge as a viable rival to China’s private online video companies.
SMG buys into TV maker MTC
State-run broadcaster Shanghai Media Group (SMG) is wasting no time telling the world who it sees as its main rivals, with word that the company is buying a major stake in a TV and set-top box maker after completing an overhaul of its own digital TV assets. Anyone who follows the industry will know that the high-flying LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104) appears to be the major target of this new SMG tie-up, which is seeing the company’s newly launched Oriental Pearl (Shanghai: 600637) digital video unit purchase a major stake in a Shenzhen-listed company called MTC (Shenzhen: 002429) for 2.2 billion yuan ($350 million). Read Full Post…
