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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: TVB’s choice of a Shanghai-based traditional broadcaster as its mainland partner looks like a bad selection to ensure its future, as such traditional media rapidly get overtaken by more nimble Internet-based players.
TVB places bets on Shanghai Gang
Hong Kong has been buzzing this past week over the latest mainland encroachment on its media sector, which is seeing leading broadcaster TVB (HKEx: 511) sell a stake in itself to a Chinese investor. But few have gone past the headlines to see what’s really behind this deal, and whether it can help to ensure the longer term survival of a company that has long dominated Hong Kong’s broadcasting scene. In a nutshell, TVB is placing its bets on a group of Chinese media high-flyers that I like to call the “Shanghai Gang”, because they are rooted in China’s largest media market and have strong ties to the city’s monopoly broadcaster, Shanghai Media Group (SMG). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 30. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bottom line: Sina stands a 50-50 chance of getting a takeover bid within the next year, as suitors eye it for its low valuation, well-respected name and controlling stake of Weibo.
Sina anticipating suitor?
Leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) has become one of China’s perennial Internet underperformers, leading to occasional talk that it might become a takeover target for a larger, better-run peer. Now Sina has just announced its renewal of a “poison pill” plan designed to prevent such a hostile takeover. This particular move looks like a formality rather than indicator of a looming takeover bid, since Sina launched the original plan 10 years ago and perhaps it is now is now set to expire. But the fact that Sina is not only renewing the plan, but doing so in a very public way, indicates it may feel it could become a takeover target in the current hot climate for Chinese Internet M&A. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tencent, Baidu and other Chinese Internet giants should rein in their appetite for new debt in anticipation of an economic slowdown that could sharply dampen their growth.
Tencent doubles bond program to $10 bln
Social networking (SNS) giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) shattered Chinese Internet records late last week when it said it would double the size of its already-large bond program to a massive $10 billion, becoming one of the biggest such programs ever for a private Chinese company. The move is part of a broader trend that has seen Chinese Internet firms raise billions of dollars over the last 2 years through a combination of bond offerings and IPOs, tapping strong investor appetite for their high-growth story.
Such sums would have been unthinkable just 2 or 3 years ago, even though China’s economy was growing much faster then and so were the profits and revenues at companies like Tencent. Floating so much debt is normally not a problem in such boom times, and is often used by strong companies like Tencent to fund their growth. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 25-27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Wins Siri Software Patent Appeal In China (English article)
Tencent (HKEx: 700) Doubles Medium-Term Note Program To $10 Bln (HKEx announcement)
Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) To Acquire Chinese Protein-Drink Line For $400 Mln (English article)
Xiaomi Announces New 4i Model For India, Not Available In China (Chinese article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Sues Sogou for Hijacking Traffic Via IME (English article)
Bottom line: Tuniu is likely to quickly resolve a revolt by some of its third-party travel agents, and a sell-off of its shares looks overdone, while Rakuten’s third foray into China could finally succeed thanks to its choice of a more suitable partner.
Rakuten invests in Fanli
We’ll close out this week with a couple of stories buzzing through the Internet realm, led by a travel agent rebellion against online travel site Tuniu (Nasdaq: TOUR). Meantime, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (Tokyo: 4755) is taking its third try at the China market through a new investment in an e-commerce company called Fanli.com, following failed previous forays with leading online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).
These 2 stories are mostly linked by the fact that both involve Internet companies. But in a twist that looks purely coincidental, Rakuten was also one of the earlier investors in Tuniu before the latter made its New York IPO early last year. It’s not clear if Rakuten still holds that stake in Tuniu, but if it does its shares just lost nearly 5 percent after a Thursday sell-off on reports of the merchant revolt. But Tuniu’s shares are about 75 percent above their IPO price, meaning its early investors are still doing quite well. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Baidu’s new go-slow global expansion strategy focused on emerging markets like Brazil and Egypt looks smart, but will provide limited contributions due to the small size of those markets.
Chinese online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is making some major strategic adjustments in its global expansion, turning to developing markets and away from more lucrative but also extremely competitive western ones. That’s my main conclusion, following reports that Baidu has finally pulled the plug on its struggling Japan search service 8 years after choosing the market for its first foray abroad. At the same time, the company is making initial moves into Egypt with its first Arabic-language website, following earlier moves into Brazil and more recently into Thailand. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China’s “Big 3” Internet tycoons are likely to see their fortunes continue to grow at rates far faster than the broader economy over the next year, and they could even overtake some wealthier real estate magnates.
Jack Ma named China’s richest Internet tycoon
Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing may still lead the list of wealthiest men in China and Hong Kong, but his traditional formula for success is rapidly losing ground to China’s fast-rising Internet magnates. The heads of China’s “Big 3” Internet firms were all among the top 10 people on this year’s just-published Forbes list of the wealthiest men in China and Hong Kong, spotlighting the huge role that the Internet is playing in China’s economy. Whereas Li’s fortune took decades to build, the founders of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) made their fortunes much more quickly, mostly over the last decade. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Government officials are being forced to deal carefully with newly minted Internet giants like Alibaba, which sometimes commit transgressions due to their youth but also provide huge contributions to China’s economy.
Alibaba a double-edge sword for govt
A trio of stories about Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) nicely summarize both the risks and benefits that China’s Internet juggernauts present for the government, which must walk a fine line between taming these newly minted giants while being careful not to kill such economic powerhouses. In just the space of a decade, Alibaba, alongside Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), have grown rapidly from venture-funded start-ups to become some of the world’s most valuable companies.
That growth and status has brought not only big prestige to China, but also valuable tax dollars to local governments and high-tech jobs that Beijing wants to replace lower-tech manufacturing labor. But at the same time, such young companies are particularly vulnerable to missteps, which can create chaos in the marketplace and Beijing needs to be careful to control. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: 58.com’s new Ganji tie-up looks like a smart partnership that should create a clear industry leader with a strong strategic partner in Tencent, though the stock could be set for a short-term correction due to overvaulation.
58.com buys 42 pct of Ganji
China’s Internet has just gained a major new player through the combination of online classified sites 58.com (NYSE: WUBA) and Ganji, which together will have a market value approaching the $10 billion level. Few companies outside the “Big 3” of Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) can boast such valuations, and this particular deal seems to mark the emergence of a new sector leader that could even become an acquirer on the global stage.
Of course it’s easy to talk about going global, but actually doing that has been far more problematic for China’s booming field of Internet players. Still, this latest deal appears to show that 58.com may have the savvy that some of its larger rivals lack to make the global push, perhaps using this Gangji deal as a template for more strategic acquisitions in developing markets similar to China. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 18-20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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58.com (NYSE: WUBA) Acquires Strategic Stake In Ganji, Investment by Tencent (PRNewswire)
E-Commerce Trust Services Firm Baozun Files For $200 Mln US IPO (Chinese article)
Bond Interest Default Looms For Solar Products Maker Baoding Tianwei (Chinese article)
After 8 Years Of Failing, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Shuts Japan Search Engine (English article)
China Minsheng Investment Corp To Invest 15 Bln Yuan In 2 GW Solar Farm (Chinese article)
