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Wireless carrier China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) was in the headlines last week with its launch of a financial product similar to savings accounts, becoming the latest in a long string of companies to enter an area dominated for decades by state-run banks. At the same time, separate reports said the central bank was nearing a plan to introduce its first major regulation of these new products, in another widely expected move. Read Full Post…
You know that things are bad when leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) doesn’t issue a press release trumpeting its recent receipt of simultaneous broadcast rights for the highly hyped return of the US television series “24”. That’s my conclusion after having to read about this relatively big win for Youku in the news headlines rather than a company press release. In fact, Youku Tudou may deliberately want to downplay this latest triumph to avoid attracting Beijing censors who have recently started banning some popular US television series from online video sites. Read Full Post…
Chinese tech firms making IPOs in New York are calling on some wealthy friends to help them succeed as mainstream investors rapidly lose interest in the group. That’s my conclusion following the modestly successful pricing and debut for security software maker Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM), which comes as a small positive sign for the market. Cheetah relied on some big-name friends to help its listing succeed, including controlling shareholder Kingsoft (HKEx: 3888), as well as smartphone sensation Xiaomi and leading Chinese search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Read Full Post…
The buying binge by China’s 3 leading Internet companies continues this week, with news that social networking (SNS) giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) is purchasing 11.3 percent of mobile mapping firm NavInfo (Shenzhen: 002405) for 1.17 billion yuan ($183 million). Anyone who thinks I may be mistakenly recycling an old report with this news isn’t too far from the truth, as this particular deal looks quite similar to a different recent investment by e-commerce leader Alibaba in online mapping firm AutoNavi (Nasdaq: AMAP). Read Full Post…
The financial world is brimming with news from both the biggest and smallest ends of the spectrum today, with banking giant ICBC (HKEx: 1398) making a new move into Turkey as finance newcomer Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) finds headaches in the micro-lending business. ICBC’s acquisition of a majority stake of Turkey’s Tekstil Bankasi is part of its ongoing global expansion, and looks like a relatively good choice of markets for its latest overseas purchase. Meantime, Baidu’s clean-up of its peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform reflects the kinds of headaches that China’s Internet firms are likely to face as they pile into the lucrative but also fraud-prone financial sector. 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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Just a day after getting some extremely worrisome news that could see many of its most popular offerings censored, leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) has announced a more positive development in the form of a $1.22 billion investment led by e-commerce leader Alibaba. The move is part of Alibaba’s recent buying binge, which has already included a handful of investments of this size, as it tries to get into every area of the Internet imaginable. The tie-up does have some positive elements that could help Youku Tudou, and comes as a slight surprise since media were reporting just a month ago that the company was preparing to sell a similar stake to Alibaba rival Tencent (HKEx: 700). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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The week ahead could be a rough one for Chinese online video stocks, with word that the government agency in charge of screening content has ordered the removal of 4 popular US television series from services including Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) and Tencent Video (HKEx: 700). Word has circulated for the last few weeks that this kind of a move might be coming, but this looks like the official launch of a new rule that will make these fast-growing video sites subject to the same strict censorship rules that apply to all foreign movies, TV shows, music and other published material entering China. That could mean headaches for the video site operators, which in all fairness do increasingly look like TV station operators. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 25. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Two of China’s top tech executives were on the road last week, with ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) and TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) officials making overseas visits that could hint at their future directions. Meantime, congratulations were pouring in from around the tech world for Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) on its IPO for (Nasdaq: WB), which struggled to find an audience among big investors but then managed to make a respectable trading debut. Such kudos aren’t unexpected for the popular microblogging platform, often called the Twitter of China. But one particular message from controversial tech titan and Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) CEO Zhou Hongyi looked just slightly ominous to me, even though the message itself was purely congratulatory. Read Full Post…
