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Tag Archives: Facebook
Facebook in China latest Business & Financial news from Doug Young, the Expert on Chinese High Tech Market, (former Journalist and Chief editor at Reuters)
A couple of separate reports are shining a spotlight on some of the shenanigans happening at former social networking (SNS) superstar Weibo (Nasdaq: WB), and also on its dimming prospects as it gets overtaken by more nimble, innovative rivals. The first and more entertaining of those reports details how Weibo routinely inflates the number of followers for some of the most popular people on its service through use of phantom “zombie” accounts. The second details a worrisome trend that says the number of mobile users for Weibo dropped sharply in August, hinting at problems ahead in this high-growth area. Read Full Post…
I usually don’t write about any company more than once a week, and certainly not twice on the same day. But today I’m making an exception for the upcoming IPO of Alibaba, which will finally come to an end with its trading debut on Friday. The latest news bits in the run-up to what’s likely to be the world’s biggest IPO of all time have media reporting that Alibaba may raise the upper end of the price range for its shares, allowing it to raise even more money. At the same time, Alibaba’s talkative and charismatic founder Jack Ma has made a surprise appearance in Hong Kong as part of the company’s road show, where he was warmly greeted by investors. Read Full Post…
A year of hype surrounding what’s likely to become the biggest IPO in history will officially end later this week, when homegrown Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba formally lists on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO will give most global investors access to Alibaba’s shares and a chance to profit from one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing e-commerce markets. Read Full Post…
This week’s tech round-up from the microblogging realm is a flurry of interesting but unrelated news bits, as the world gets back to work following the end of the summer holidays. Leading the list is the latest effort by Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) to find a backdoor into China, which comes in the form of a new Weibo account that isn’t verified but has at least one tech executive spreading the word and encouraging people to follow the page.
Meantime, online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) generated some microblogging buzz when it unveiled an unusual pair of high-tech chopsticks in Beijing. Last but not least there’s Xue Manzi, a tech investor also known as Charles Xue, who was busy hyping a tech start-up on his microblog. Xue is a man I came to dislike over the years for his largely empty talk, even as he built up a base of more than 10 million followers on Weibo (Nasdaq: WB). But then he got sent to prison for becoming too influential and political, making me more sympathetic, before his release in April and quick return to vacuous blogging. Read Full Post…
The final countdown has just begun for e-commerce giant Alibaba’s highly anticipated New York IPO, allowing us to see just how much the company might be worth, how much money it might raise and whether it might be the biggest US or even global IPO of all time. The final answer to all of those questions will remain a mystery until Alibaba actually prices the deal, but at least we can speculate now what the chances are of it meeting some of the lofty goals that market watchers have set for the company. I’ll start by giving my view that the deal should price relatively strongly, and make some conclusions from that later in this post. Read Full Post…
I’m no fan of censorship, but I still have to compliment Beijing on its recent unusual decision to inform South Korea of the reasons behind its recent decision to block the popular mobile instant messaging service called Line in China. This kind of explanation would sound normal in any other country; but it represents a big step for Chinese censors, who are highly secretive when they choose to block Internet sites, ban foreign films and TV shows and take other similar actions.
Many people, myself included, won’t be truly satisfied with China until it completely removes its practice of censoring material that simply expresses different views from the central government or is critical of high government officials. But at least this unusual act of openly explaining one of its censorship actions marks a move in the direction of more transparency, which could be a small sign of improvement in helping companies navigate the difficult Chinese media market. Read Full Post…
The following is the 7th and final part in a multi-part series about the rise of WeChat, the popular mobile instant messaging service owned by Tencent.
By Lanie Nie
WeChat builds an ecosystem
While China might be behind the US in many key areas of Internet development, it is quite advanced in the use of smartphones as the primary device for accessing the Internet. Tech guru Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends Report showed that China has more than 500 million mobile Internet users, accounting for 80 percent of its online population, the highest level worldwide. With the nation’s smartphone prices in freefall and high-speed 4G access expanding, it’s likely that a majority of Chinese people will be on the mobile Internet in the next 5 to 6 years. Read Full Post…
Two of the world’s biggest social networking service (SNS) operators are in the headlines as the new week begins, starting with word that Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is moving ahead with its plans to open in China. Meantime, separate reports are saying Japanese-based mobile instant messaging service Line has been disrupted in China, perhaps for carrying sensitive content.
These news bits may look different on the surface, but they’re really quite similar in broader terms. China is extremely wary of offshore-based SNS like Facebook, Line and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), because they are not subject to the country’s strict self-censorship laws. Thus companies that want to develop a China business must open offices and host their Chinese services on local servers to placate Beijing, which is what Facebook and Line are doing now. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 5-7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ) Sinks 32 Pct As Audit Panel Heads Resigns (English article)
US ‘Concerned’ About Being Barred From GSK-linked (London: GSK) China Trial (English article)
Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) Leases 800 Square Meter Office In Beijing Central Business District (Chinese article)
China Approves Lenovo (HKEx: 992), IBM (NYSE: IBM) $2.3 Bln Server Deal (English article)
QVOD Abandons Old Address, Registers Under New Name (Chinese article)
I’ll be a bit whimsical on this final day of the week with a prediction that a sale could be looming for social networking (SNS) site Kaixin, following reports of strong growth for the company’s online gaming business. Anyone reading this is probably puzzled, unsure about the relationship between a growing gaming business and a company getting acquired. I’ll explain all that shortly, but will end the suspense now by saying the potential buyer would be Internet titan Tencent (HKEx: 700), which shares a number of links and other key qualities with the much smaller Kaixin. Read Full Post…
After years of lurking around the periphery of China and visits by its top executives to the country, social networking (SNS) giant Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) is preparing to dip its toe into the massive market with plans to open a sales office in Beijing. That move raises the bigger question of whether the world’s biggest SNS company is planning to open a China-based service anytime soon, which has always been part of its long-term strategy. The answer is that Facebook will almost certainly use the new Beijing office to work towards a formal China site, though such an effort could take at least a year to yield results. Read Full Post…
