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…
Flooded streets filled the Shanghai headlines for much of this week, but local officials were also working hard to make sure another, more upbeat story also shared the spotlight with early Plum Rains that caused massive headaches for commuters. Film buffs will know I’m talking about the annual Shanghai International Film Festival, which tries to showcase the city’s rising position in China’s rapidly evolving entertainment industry.
I’ve previously written about Shanghai’s entertainment sector, which was a trend-setter during its heyday in the early 20th century but later became neglected as local focus shifted to the city’s financial industry. But 2 events at the latest film festival caught my attention, and seemed to show our city is finally taking more serious steps to try and develop a creative entertainment culture that can be a true leader rather than just a follower. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Rupert Murdoch’s shift in China strategy towards less controversial retail and entertainment projects looks smart, but is likely to meet with lukewarm success due to lack of awareness of 20th Century Fox among Chinese consumers.
Rupert Murdoch eyes China theme park
Rupert Murdoch just can’t seem to ignore the China story for too long, with new reports saying his Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX) is finalizing plans for a theme park in a country that has been quite elusive for the aging media mogul. The theme park approach certainly looks safer than Murdoch’s previous attempts to enter China with more traditional media like TV and movies, and mirrors what some of the world’s other top media companies have done. Of course that means Murdoch and Fox are coming a bit late to this particular show, and the fact that 20th Century Fox theme parks aren’t exactly a well-known brand means his media empire could face a steep uphill ride finding a Chinese audience. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Xbox One Gets $100 Price Drop in China to Boost Sales (English article)
Disney (NYSE: DIS) Opens Its First And Largest Store In The World In Shanghai (Businesswire)
Yingli (NYSE: YGE) Responds To Media Coverage Of Its Ability As a Going Concern (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: China should completely up its film market to foreign participation, following recent liberalizing steps that have resulted in a boom in cross-border tie-ups.
Hollywood falls in love with China
The mayor of Los Angeles called on Chinese leaders to ease their restrictions on imported movies during a visit to Beijing last week, seeking better access for a product that is one of the most lucrative US exports to China.
The fact is that China has already taken big steps over the last 2 years to open its movie theaters to overseas products, as both foreign and domestic producers chase a fast-growing market that is now the world’s second largest behind only the United States. At the same time, a growing number of foreign filmmakers are getting improved access to the market through co-investments with Chinese partners, including joint ventures and joint production agreements. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 15-17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Major Hedge Funds Piled Into Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) In Third Quarter (Chinese article)
eHi Car Services (NYSE: EHIC) IPO Delayed By False Information Claims (Chinese article)
Bailian Group Takes 10 Pct Of Shanghai Disneyland (NYSE: DIS) Operator (Chinese article)
China Mobile’s (HKEx: 941) TD-LTE Subs Reach 50 Mln (English article)
Home Inns (Nasdaq: HMIN Removes All Listings From Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) (Chinese article)
A recent brouhaha in the US over the naming of an outsider as New York’s new celebrity “ambassador” got me thinking about who could fill the role of a similar city spokesman for Shanghai. After all, such a spokesman is a great promotional tool for big cities like New York or Shanghai to outsiders, representing many positive and distinctive aspects of local culture like language, mannerisms, and general attitude.
But what happened next was quite unexpected, as queries to several friends made me realize that Shanghai doesn’t have too many people who could fill such a role, despite its status as China’s biggest city. My friends explained that most aspiring actors and musicians now gravitate to Beijing, and a Shanghai pedigree is no longer worth very much despite the city’s past as the Hollywood of the east. Read Full Post…
New reports are saying that Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) CEO Jack Ma, flush with cash just weeks after his company’s blockbuster New York IPO, is headed to Hollywood to talk deals with the industry’s top players. The reports focus mostly on the potential for new content-purchasing deals, as Alibaba looks for a spot in China’s booming market for movies and online video. But what caught my attention was a brief mention in the reports that Ma may be looking for something bigger on his trip, namely a stake in a major or mid-sized Hollywood studio. Read Full Post…
My award this year for the world’s most patient company goes to Universal Studios, which has just received the official green light to build one of its trademark theme parks in Beijing after more than a decade of perseverance. I’ll admit I’m writing about this particular story partly for sentimental reasons, since Universal Parks & Resorts first announced its plans to build theme parks in Shanghai and Beijing shortly after I first arrived in Asia in 2002. Now some 12 years later, China’s powerful state planner has reportedly finally given the green light for such a park to be built in Beijing, in an investment totaling more than 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion). Read Full Post…
With Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) blockbuster IPO nearly in the history books, I wanted to take this opportunity to explore what’s ahead for the company as it gets set to break numerous records with its New York listing. One good indicator of what lies ahead would be the performance for shares of other Chinese tech firms that have listed over the last 12 months. But such comparisons have limited value, since Alibaba is clearly in a far different class from all these other companies, following a pricing of its shares that makes it more valuable than such global corporate giants as Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Disney (NYSE: DIS). 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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Chinese Pork Giant WH Group Pulls IPO Due To Weak Demand: Sources (English article)
ICBC (HKEx: 1398) Says To Buy 75 Pct Of Turkey’s Tekstilbank For $316 Mln (HKEx announcement)
Shanghai Disney (NYSE: DIS) Resort Accelerates Resort Expansion (Businesswire)
China’s Big 4 Banks’ Q1 Profits Surprise As Reforms Gather Pace (English article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Conducts Major Clean-up Of P2P Lending Platform (Chinese article)
