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 … )

News Digest: December 1, 2011

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 1. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ China Cuts Bank Reserves in Policy Shift To Lift Economy (English article)

◙ Alibaba-Led Group Said to Prepare Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) Bid (English article)

◙ Changyou (Nasdaq: CYOU) to Buy Game Info Portal 17173.com from Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) (English article)

◙ Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) YouA Spins Off, Receives Eight-Figure USD Funding (English article)

◙ LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) Announces Plan to Issue RMB3,000,000,000 Notes (PRNewswire)

Mid-Sized Firms Suffer First In Internet Bubble Burst 中国互联网泡沫破裂

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Malaise continues to inflict the overheated Chinese Internet realm, with veteran new media firm Kongzhong (Nasdaq: KONG) falling into the loss column and newly listed children’s website Taomee (Nasdaq: TAOM) reporting a shrinking profit, as both fell victim to stiff competition. I won’t go too much into the reports of these two companies, but Kongzhong reported a $17 million loss, compared with a profit a year earlier, as its Internet games business saw an especially sharp drop. (company announcement) Likewise, Taomee, whose shares have lost about half their value since its June IPO, saw its third-quarter profit shrivel by about a third as it opted to focus on customer loyalty over profits. (company announcement) Meantime, Chinese media are reporting that another small firm, online shoe retailer Letao, has slashed its marketing budget by 80 percent as competition erodes its bottom line as well. (English article) What all this tells me is that China’s long-awaited Internet bubble is finally starting to burst, as these kinds of small- to mid-sized companies are typically the first to feel the pinch when a correction starts to hit an overheated sector like this. By comparison, bigger companies like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) continue to report relatively healthy growth in both sales and profits, though even they are seeing profits come under pressure amid rising costs in the face of fierce competition. Look for more suffering among mid-sized Internet firms like Taomee and Kongzhong in the months ahead, with many likely to get purchased, merge with similar-sized rivals or simply go out of business in the next 12-18 months. In a rare piece of good news from the space, faded new media firm Linktone (Nasdaq: LTON) has announced that it escaped a potential de-listing by managing to get its stock price above the $1 threshold demanded by the Nasdaq. (English article) Indeed, the company’s shares have been above $1 for 15 days now, though such an accomplishment is hardly cause of celebration for a company whose shares have mostly moved lower in its turbulent history as a publicly traded company.

Bottom line: The latest gloom from Kongzhong, Taomee and Letao show mid-sized Internet firms are suffering as China’s Internet bubble starts to burst, with bigger pain ahead in the next 12-18 months.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Parade of China Money-Losers Report to Wall Street 多家中国企业亏损凸显市场竞争激烈

◙ Renren Finds Video Bargain in China Web Bubble 人人网低价收购56网 凸显中国互联网困境

◙ More Internet Froth in Alibaba Valuation, Dangdang Price War 阿里巴巴估值奇高凸显网络泡沫

News Digest: November 18-20, 2011

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 18-20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ Lawmakers probe Chinese telecoms firms in U.S. (English article)

◙ Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes App Store Begins Accepting RMB Payment (English article)

◙ New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) Refutes Allegations Made by OLP Global (PRNewswire)

◙ Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Halts B2C Site Lekutian Investment – Source; Lekutian Denies (Chinese article)

◙ China Mobile (HKEx: 941) to Deploy 10-20K TD-LTE Base Stations in H1 2012 (English article)

 

Search Wars Heat Up With Latest Anti-Baidu Moves 中国网络搜索战升温

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The latest mass movement against online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) looks set to sow new chaos in China’s online community, once again underscoring that Beijing needs to step in and bring some order to the marketplace or risk major disruptions. Chinese media are reporting that 3 major web firms, Tencent (HKEx: 700), Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) and Youku (NYSE: YOKU), have all announced new search engine initiatives to rival Baidu, which dominates the market with nearly 80 percent share. (Chinese article) Tencent’s search engine, Soso, is actually already 5 years old, so that part of the story isn’t really news. (previous post) But what’s alarming is that the report says Youku, China’s leading online video sharing site, is launching its initiative after noticing that the number of Baidu search results directing users to its site has dropped sharply since Baidu launched its own video sharing service, called Qiyi. In fact, this is just the latest example of a frequent Baidu practice, namely tampering with its search results to make its advertisers and its own products appear at or near the top of its search results even when other web pages would rank higher under more objective conditions. This latest conflict pitting Baidu against 3 other major web firms comes just weeks after another similar mass protest saw major online retailers including Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and 360Buy block their web pages from searches by Alibaba’s Etao search engine. (previous post) These kind of turf wars between major online players have the potential to create real chaos on the Chinese Internet by undermining the credibility of search engines that are often the first place web surfers go to find what they want on the vast worldwide web. I’m usually opposed to any attempts by Beijing to step in and regulate the online world, but this really seems like one exception where the government should step in and act as impartial arbitrator to set up some basic ground rules that everyone can agree upon to end these turf wars. Otherwise, China’s online world could be looking at 1-2 years of major disruptions until the building brouhaha gets resolved by market forces.

Bottom line: A new uprising by 3 major web firms against Baidu marks the latest unrest in China’s online search market, which needs Beijing to step in and act as impartial arbitrator.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Alibaba’s Etao Faces New Merchant Revolt

◙ Tencent Search: Baidu Beware? 腾讯搜搜成功关键依赖创新

News Digest: November 5-7, 2011

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 5-7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) Sells China Bottling Assets to Tingyi (HKEx: 322) (English article)

◙ Alibaba, Tencent (HKEx: 700), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) in Land Grab (Chinese article)

◙ China Mobile (HKEx: 941) TD-SCDMA Procurement Bids Rise – Source (English article)

◙ Sinopec (HKEx: 386), PetroChina (HKEx: 857) Up on Fuel-Pricing Change Speculation (English article)

◙ UCWeb Sues Tencent (HKEx: 700) For Unfair Competition (Chinese article)

Report Takes Wind Out of Inflated Qihoo 奇虎遭遇Citron釜底抽薪

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A report from a small research house appears to have finally awakened the world to the reality behind the Chinese Internet comedy known as Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU), which has steadily lured in investors — achieving a ridiculously high valuation — since its IPO in March. The research report by Citron sparked a sell-off in Qihoo shares, which tumbled 10 percent on Tuesday during a turbulent session that saw the broader indexes also fall by more than 2 percent. So, what exactly did Citron say that got everyone so spooked and prompted Qihoo to issue a “clarifying” press release? (Qihoo announcement) I haven’t seen the actual report so can’t comment in too much detail. But based on other media reports and Qihoo’s own announcement, the Citron report essentially called into question many of Qihoo’s claims about the size of its user base and the company’s scale as a major Chinese Internet player. Citron further commented that Qihoo’s stock price should be around $5 per share, or about a quarter of its value of $20 per share at the beginning of the Tuesday New York trading day. (Chinese article) Bloomberg data lists Qihoo’s forward price-to-earnings ratio at a massive 900 times, which seems overstated although I’ve read that its PE is the largest of all China Internet companies. All of this doesn’t surprise me, as I’ve repeatedly questioned Qihoo’s credibility, as the company has been the subject of a number of high profile lawsuits, most of which it has lost, though with little financial consequences. (previous post) I honestly don’t know why investors have been so excited about the stock, and wouldn’t be surprised if this unethical company has engaged in some manipulative activity to get its valuation so high even compared with leaders like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Tencent (HKEx: 700). All that said, this new report looks like it may finally awaken investors to all the questions surrounding this company, and could well mark the beginning of a broader decline to Citron’s $5-per-share target or even lower.

Bottom line: A report by a small research house has finally awakened investors to the many questions surrounding Internet firm Qihoo, whose stock could drop steadily for the rest of the year as a result.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Qihoo Goes to War With Mobile Browsers 奇虎360加强移动互联网布局

◙ Qihoo Loses Yet Another Lawsuit, But No One Cares 奇虎败诉不足为戒

◙ China Legal System Takes Bite Out of Tencent’s Qihoo Lawsuit 中国法律体系让奇虎在与腾讯的官司中免受重大损失

Baidu Video Tries Blockbuster Licensing

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Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) online video joint venture Qiyi seems to have learned a lesson from its pirating parent, announcing a new exclusive licensing deal for the China online video rights for the popular latest installment in Paramount’s (NYSE: VIAb) “Transformers” movie franchise. (English announcement) Baidu itself has found big success in allowing the exchange of pirated material, mostly music, over its web site in recent years and continues to offer such services despite ongoing government pressure on Chinese web firms to get out of the pirating business. But in a nod to that pressure, in July it formally launched a service for legally obtained music, and announced a series of high-profile licensing deals to offer music on it from several major Hollywood record labels, though added it had no intention of closing its piracy-plagued older music site. (previous post) This new strategy from Qiyi, which already appears to offer legal copies of popular US TV series, looks relatively smart to me, drawing on exclusive rights for individual big-name movies to draw in viewers. Still, it will have to compete with the likes of online video leader Youku (NYSE: YOKU) and the video site operated by Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), which have also signed similar though much bigger deals with major Hollywood studios in the last few months. Its unclear if Qiyi, founded less than 2 years ago, will be able to pay the big bucks that these older, more established companies are paying for exclusive rights to big-name films, which may explain its approach of buying of single blockbuster title rather than signing broader licensing deals which are much more expensive. The company also has the advantage of tapping a huge potential audience of users from Baidu, China’s dominant search engine with nearly 80 percent of the market. That tie-up, combined with this early approach to exclusive licensing for single blockbusters, could create a potent formula for success as Qiyi looks to establish its name in the online video space.

Bottom line: Online video site Qiyi’s signing of an exclusive deal for a single Hollywood blockbuster looks like an interesting approach, which, combined with support from parent Baidu, could boost its chances for success.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Baidu Comes Under Government Fire 政府“修理”百度

◙ Baidu Seeks Diversification in Tudou Talks 百度求购土豆，寻求多元化

◙ After Years, Baidu Does the Right Thing 百度多年来的一个正确之举

New Regulatory, Competitive Waves Hit E-Commerce 监管和竞争冲击电子商务领域

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Turbulence continues to pelt China’s e-commerce sector, with new reports showing how rampant competition is pushing up costs as an industry regulator gets looks into anti-monopoly claims against top online mall operator Taobao Mall. A new foreign media report cites the top executive at luxury e-commerce site Xiu.com saying that rents for the massive warehouses required by most online merchants have soared in the last year, as players like 360Buy and Wal-Mart-invested (NYSE: WMT) Yihaodian all vie for facilities near major cities where they can store and then ship their goods. (English article) Global e-commerce leader Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has joined the fray, announcing last week that its China operation was opening a 120,000 square meter facility in the city of Kunshan, not far from Shanghai, quadrupling its warehouse space in the affluent Yangtze River Delta region. (previous post) The soaring warehouse rents are just the latest headache for the overheated e-commerce sector, where most major players are already hemorrhaging money as the industry heads for a much needed consolidation that is likely to come by the middle of next year. Meantime, domestic media report the Commerce Ministry is entering the e-commerce fray by launching an anti-monopoly investigation into Taobao Mall, Alibaba’s B2C operation, in response to merchant complaints that the online mall operator used its dominant position to unilaterally force a massive fee hike on its merchants, leading many small- and mid-sized sellers to rebel. (English article) I personally think this latest Commerce Ministry investigation is a bit misguided, as there’s plenty of competition in the e-commerce space though less so in the online mall sector. If the ministry really wants to chase someone for anti-monopoly violations, it should focus on online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which controls nearly 80 percent of the market.

Bottom line: Soaring warehouse rents are the latest sign of overheating in China’s e-commerce space, which is also facing the threat of increasingly heavy-handed regulation by Beijing.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Amazon Name Shift Signals China Ramp-Up 亚马逊改名背后折射中国野心

◙ Albaba Faces New Assaults From Merchants, 360Buy 阿里巴巴受到中小商户和京东商城的双重夹攻

◙ China Regulors Threaten E-Commerce, Group Buying 官方监管威胁到电子商务与团购业务

Alibaba’s Etao Faces New Merchant Revolt

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E-commerce leader Alibaba Group looks set to soon get its long-awaited wish for separation from major stakeholder Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), but it won’t have much time to celebrate as new fires seem to be popping up everywhere for nearly all of its major businesses. The latest crisis for the increasingly embattled company has cropped up at its Etao search site, which Alibaba is trying to build up as a specialist in e-commerce searches that can eventually rival online search titan Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Chinese media are reporting that Etao has confirmed that it is no longer indexing search information from sites for a number of major online retailers, including general merchandiser Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and electronics giant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) (Chinese article). The confirmation comes just a week after another leading e-commerce site, 360Buy, hinted it may block its pages from Etao searches (previous post), and indeed 360Buy was among the new list of confirmed companies whose pages will no longer be indexed by Etao. With all these major online retailers blocking their material from Etao searches, and the list likely to grow, Alibaba must certainly be worried about the future viability of Etao as a true e-commerce search engine. This latest crisis follows an uprising earlier this month by independent merchants on Alibaba’s B2C platform, Taobao Mall, after the site sharply hiked its fees. That same group of merchants, which has been wreaking havoc on the Taobao Mall site, later moved its rabble-rousing campaign to Alibaba’s electronic payments site, Alipay, as well. (previous post) While all of these crises rage, Alibaba got a rare piece of good news as domestic media reported that Yahoo is looking to sell its 40 percent stake in Alibaba, as the US web giant tries to dispell broader talk that the entire company itself is for sale. Alibaba has long clamored for Yahoo to sell the stake amid friction between the two companies, so clearly it should be happy about this news. But with all the crises now happening in its own businesses, Alibaba won’t have much time to celebrate and indeed might wish it had an ally to help it in this time of trouble.

Bottom line: Alibaba may soon get its official independence from major stakeholder Yahoo, but it won’t have time to celebrate as it faces an escalating crisis at its Etao search site.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Albaba Faces New Assaults From Merchants, 360Buy 阿里巴巴受到中小商户和京东商城的双重夹攻

◙ Taobao Mall’s IPO March Collides With Merchant Uprising 淘宝商城IPO或因商户“起义”被推迟

◙ Alibaba Sharpens Focus in Yahoo Buy-Out, Taobao Mall 阿里巴巴回购雅虎所持股权有望

Baidu, ZTE Earnings: More of the Same 百度和中兴财报：看上去没变化

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Chinese firms are flooding the market with third-quarter results, with industry bellwethers Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) both reporting figures that show continuation of recent trends. First Baidu, which reported a healthy rise of around 80 percent in both revenue and profit, as it banked on strong demand for ads on its search site, China’s dominant player with more than two-thirds of the market. (company announcement) Baidu further predicted that revenue will continue to grow at similar rates in the fourth quarter, as healthy demand continues. I previously predicted a sharp slowdown in ad spending could be looming as a much-needed correction looms for China’s overinflated Internet bubble, but clearly Baidu is seeing no signs of that yet. I still think such a correction is coming, and will hit Baidu’s top and bottom lines when it does; but despite signs of trouble from the group buying sector and some e-commerce firms, we won’t see the first real signs of a downturn until the first or most likely the second quarter of next year. As to ZTE, the company also reported third-quarter revenue grew at a healthy 37 percent, accelerating from the first half of the year as it focused on building up its cellphone business, which was up more than 50 percent in the first 9 months of 2011. (Chinese article) But while revenue rose, its third quarter profit fell by nearly 40 percent, also accelerating from the first half of the year, as it continued its risky strategy of grabbing global market share for its handset business by selling its low-end smartphones at prices near or perhaps even below its costs. This strategy could work in the end if ZTE can raise its prices after it gains market share. But it could also backfire if consumers come to associate the company with cheap products and aren’t willing to pay a premium for its cellphones. The company’s heavy reliance on Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android smartphone operating system also puts it at risk of potential lawsuits from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which has already files similar suits against some other major cellphone makers.

Bottom line: The latest Baidu and ZTE results show continuation of recent trends, though the former remains at risk due to a possible Internet bubble, and the latter from a risky expansion strategy.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Baidu Mobile OS, Homepage Revamp Look Like Dicey Bets 百度新举措旨在冒险一搏

◙ Low-Cost Apple iPhone to Bite ZTE, Lenovo 苹果推低端iPhone 冲击中兴和联想

◙ ZTE Gambles With Smartphone Share Grab 中兴通讯押注智能手机业务

News Digest: October 21, 2011

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The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.

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◙ China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Net Misses Estimates as Competition Cuts Margin (English article)

◙ Suntech (NYSE: STP) Responds to Solar Trade Petition (PRNewswire)

◙ Saab Owner Spurns Chinese Takeover (English article)

◙ Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Receives RMB 100 Mln in Government Cloud Subsidies – Report (English article)

◙ 360Buy Slows Down US IPO Process, Still Seeking Foreign Underwriter (Chinese article)